Practical Skills for Real Life
Every recipe, project, and tutorial here is created and tested in my real, working home.
I teach practical self-sufficiency, from canning and cooking to small-space gardening and everyday homesteading, without the pressure to be perfect or own acres of land.
If you’re building skills to feed your family and rely a little less on the store, you’re in the right place. Looking for the tools, books, and staples I trust? My Go-to Tools & Supplies →
Homesteading Made Simple. No Acreage Required.
I’m Elle, a suburban homesteader teaching practical canning, from-scratch cooking, small-space gardening, and everyday self-sufficiency.
You don’t need acres, animals, or perfection to build real skills. Everything I share is designed to work in normal homes, busy lives, and the spaces people actually live in.
From Harvest to Hearth
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Latest from the Kitchen & Homestead
Fresh recipes and tutorials focused on real-life self-sufficiency.
15+ Years of Real-Life Homesteading Experience
5M+ readers • 17K+ families learning to cook, can, and live more independently right where they are
What We’re Preserving, Cooking & Growing Right Now
What we’re actually growing, cooking, and putting by in our own home.
Coming Soon: The Rustic Elk Mercantile
A small-batch mercantile offering practical, well-made goods for real-life homesteading.
Everything here is designed for use, not display... tools that earn their place in the drawer, textiles that get better with wear, and a few quietly confrontational pieces that say what most of us are already thinking.
Limited batches released as they’re ready.