Top Posts of 2023 | Practical Self Reliance
What were your favorites?
Happy New Year!
(Or New Year’s Eve, rather…as the new year hasn’t started quite yet as I write this.)
This past year, Practical Self Reliance reached more than 7 million people worldwide, and honestly, it’s humbling to know that the quirky projects we get up to in our small corner of Vermont are seen around the globe.
*Waves to my friends down under, enjoying summer heat and sunshine*
Sometimes, it’s a little overwhelming, but there’s a much smaller group here in the newsletter. I love getting to hear from and connect with y’all on a more personal level, and reading your comments always brightens my day.
You guys have the best ideas and inspiration, and there’s a reason I always ask for your feedback at the end of each one of my notes. Thank you so much for being here and riding along on this journey with me.
Below, you’ll find the most popular posts of 2023. The first section was written anytime, oldies but goodies, that stay popular year after year. At the end, I go through the most popular *NEW* posts from 2023 that were instant hits.
Let me know if these were some of your favorites or if others inspired you this year.
Top Posts from All Time
These are posts written in years past, but they are still just as relevant (and popular) year after year. These were some reader favorites this year:
70+ Ways to Use Wood Ash ~ Wood ash is more than just a waste product, and historically, it was viewed as a resource. There are so many things that were made with wood ash before industrialization, from soap to pottery glazes to cement to fertilizer and body products. It’s also a great ice melt and cleaning agent. Who knew?
This one’s been so popular that I’ve put out a few other guides on ways to use common everyday things, waste products, and otherwise. Some uses are fun historical trivia, but most are practical modern uses that will save you time and money. Things like Apple Cider Vinegar, Baking Soda, Borax, Spent Coffee Grounds, Honey, Eggshells, and that half-used open jar of jam that’s been hanging out in your fridge forever. Next year, I hope to add sawdust and lawn trimmings to the list, but if there’s anything else that you have in abundance and wish you could repurpose, leave me a note in the comments.
50+ Meal in-a-Jar Canning Recipes ~ We can an absurd amount of food each year, and the most useful recipes are those that can be used as simple heat-and-eat meals in a jar on busy weeknights. Just about all of these use inexpensive cuts of meat that become tender and succulent during the pressure canning process (and vegetarian recipes work, too).
Classics like Beef Stew, pot roast in a jar, sloppy joes, and chicken pot pie filling are always welcome on my pantry shelf, but we add in some exotic ones like Thai duck curry to keep things interesting.
Old Fashioned Blackberry Jam ~ My jam recipes are always popular, but this one’s especially loved. Blackberries come in by the bucketload every summer, and this one’s my husband’s absolute favorite.
Other popular jams on the site include Old Fashioned Grape Jam (with the Peels), Tomato Jam (like grown-up ketchup) and Pear Jam (which always auto-corrects to Pearl Jam, but I promise you, they’re both awesome, and pear jam is a real thing distinct from the musical icon).
Salt-Cured Egg Yolks ~ Most people are familiar with cured meats like pancetta or prosciutto, but you can also do the same thing with flavor-rich egg yolks. They cure in a mixture of salt (and a bit of sugar) and then can be grated over pasta like parmesan or even served over vanilla ice cream for a hit of umami. They’re easy, and surprisingly delicious.
If you’re looking for similar meat cures, try duck breast prosciutto, lonzino (cured pork loin), guanciale (pork jowl bacon), or Beef Bacon.
How to Make Pickled Eggs ~ While salt-cured egg yolks are a delicious novelty, you only need a few for flavor. They’re not really all that great if you have A LOT of eggs to preserve. Pickled eggs, though, those you can make by the half-gallon jar full, and we do each spring. They keep in the fridge for months, and they’re a delicious nutritious snack when I pop in for a bite after working in the garden all morning.
I also have a guide to more than 30 ways to preserve eggs, including preserving eggs in limewater (which keeps them fresh in the shell for over a year) and freeze-drying eggs, and both those methods are by far the most versatile since they can both be used as fresh eggs when the ladies aren’t laying.
Top New Posts
These posts are new this year, and were instant hits.
50+ Dandelion Flower Recipes ~ We have acres of dandelions, and the littles are always excited about crafting new delicious things with them each year. The blossoms taste like honey, and they work in both sweet and savory contexts.
I love dandelion mead and dandelion pasta, but my kids, of course, are fond of dandelion desserts. This year, dandelion root cake (like carrot cake) and dandelion flower cream pie were big hits with the littles.
How to Make Flower Wine Or Mead (with Any Edible Flower) ~ We love more than dandelions over here, and clearly so do y’all.
You can feed the bees, and enjoy the flavor yourself too, right from your own yard.
16+ Weeds with Purple Flowers ~ There are so many tiny purple flowers that dot lawns each summer, and most are both edible and medicinal. This guide walks you through each one and shows you how to use them.
I have similar guides coming out this year for other flower colors, but there’s something magic about all those tiny purple flowers. The bees love them, and just about all of these species are incredibly common across the country.
What were your favorite articles this year? (From Practical Self Reliance, or anywhere else on the internet)
What inspired you, sparked your curiosity, or taught you something new this year?
Leave me a note in the comments below.
(Comments only, please. Emails tend to get lost in my inbox, and as much as I’d love to get back to each and every one, my screen time is very limited…and things fall through the cracks, and emails get buried in my inbox. If you comment here, they’re all in one place, and it’s much easier to get back to every single one.)
Until Next Time,
Ashley at Practical Self Reliance
I find that most homestead idea that I want to learn is on you site. It answers my questions. Keep up the good work
I 'found' you when looking for what to do with all the wood ash accumulated over last winter, and then stumbled into all your other posts. I printed out your mead (and micro-batch) posts and refer to them a lot. I missed the egg posts, and since my 4 girls are laying 3-4 eggs per day (still!) I will work on preserving their output.
I appreciate all your posts, and your photos are always gorgeous. One of my favorite substacks, and one that inspires me in my own writing--and in my self-sufficiency endeavors. Happy New Year, and peace...