# Homestead skills: guides and how-tos · Larder & Well

> Source: https://larderandwell.cc/homestead

## Homestead skills

Growing, raising and putting up your own food, from the first garden bed to the root cellar.

* [Food storage](/food-storage)
* [Water](/water)
* [Off-grid power](/power)
* [Old ways](/old-ways)

### What this section covers

A pantry runs down. A garden, a laying flock and the skill to put up a harvest keep refilling it. This section is for households that want to produce some of their own food, whether that is four raised beds behind a suburban house or a few acres with goats.

We start with what pays back fastest in calories and effort: potatoes, dry beans, squash and the other storage crops that carry a family through winter, and the open-pollinated varieties whose seed you can save and plant again. Laying hens come next, because a small flock turns kitchen scraps into protein every day with little equipment.

Preserving is where homestead skills meet the pantry. Pressure canning low-acid food like beans, meat and most vegetables has to follow tested times, and the [National Center for Home Food Preservation](https://nchfp.uga.edu/) publishes them. Water-bath canning, dehydrating, fermenting, curing and smoking each have their own rules, and we say plainly which shortcuts are dangerous.

The root cellar, the springhouse and the cold room belong here too: storing a harvest without power, the way most American farms did before rural electrification. Each guide says what it takes in money, space and hours a week, so you can decide what fits your place and your back.

### Common questions

What should I grow first for food security? 

Calorie crops that store without power: potatoes, winter squash, dry beans and corn. They feed more people per bed than salad greens.

Do I need a pressure canner? 

For low-acid foods like meat, beans and most vegetables, yes. A boiling-water bath does not reach the heat needed, and the NCHFP publishes tested times for each food.

How many chickens does a family need? 

It depends on how many eggs you eat and the breed. Each guide works it out from laying rates rather than a single rule of thumb.

### The other pillars

[ Food storage How to pack, store and rotate food so a household can eat for months without a grocery run. ](/food-storage) [ Water The gallons a household needs, the containers that keep them clean, and the ways to make doubtful water safe to drink. ](/water) [ Off-grid power Solar, batteries, generators and fuel, sized for what a household actually has to run. ](/power) [ Old ways The household know-how our grandparents used daily, written down before it is lost. ](/old-ways) 

---

[Larder & Well](/) 

Keep the household fed, watered and warm when the stores close.

Food storage, water, off-grid power, homestead skills and the old ways, written for American households that want to stay fed, watered and warm when the grid, the economy or the supply chain fails.

[Send a correction or a question](/contact)

© 2026 Larder & Well. Independent, written from sources you can open.

A page that ever carries a paid link says so above it. Nobody pays for a place in our guides.