Pioneering Today

Learn how to use and grow these 8 medicinal herbs and their uses for an easy herbal tea garden. Harvesting tips, medicinal uses and preparations, cautions to be aware of and best growing tips. Know which do best in containers, location, and growing habits. Melissa shares her favorite herbs for hormonal balance, cooking, anxiety and calming help, digestion, and of course, immune boosting power. Hear part of the herb charts and info from Melissa's book Hand Made . See pictures, video tour of Melissa's herb garden and more at https://melissaknorris.com/182 

Use these 5 tips to maximize your garden yield (aka more vegetables) & beat overwhelm. How to ensure you have a continual harvest of fresh vegetables rather than a huge glut all at once for your non-preserving crops, how to make sure you don't miss crucial planting times, and how to increase the harvest of your existing plants so you don't have to plant as many. Plus, use my garden weeding tip to help you stay on top of it without wanting to pull your hair out. Grab all the links & resources, including my FREE monthly seasonal planting guide at https://melissaknorris.com/181

In this podcast, Melissa shares 10 tomato growing tips from planting, what your leaves are telling you your tomato plants are low on, how to avoid blight and blossom end rot, crop rotation, if indeterminate or determinate tomato varieties are best for you, trellising, and more. Learn these secrets to disease free tomatoes and a large harvest! Grab the FREE Tomato Growing Guide bonus and other resources at https://melissaknorris.com/180

Learn how to start beekeeping with in depth guide on choosing the right place for your hives, types of hives, where to buy bees, how to choose the best bees based on your climate, what supplies you must have to get started (and some frugal options), what to look for when performing hive checks, how much  honey to expect, and how much setting up a backyard hive costs. Get the full blog post and resources for this episode at https://melissaknorris.com/179

In this episode Melissa and guest Shaye Elliot from the Elliot Homestead share their tips for natural weed control at planting time so you can spend less time weeding and more time enjoying your garden, especially with the addition of heirloom flowers. You'll learn how to create a cottage style heirloom garden that provides you with beauty through every season with less work, best flowers, how to plan it, resources and more! This special episode will have you weeding less (and with a weeding plan to take away overwhelm) and putting in heirloom flowers to life long enjoyment. Go to the blog post here for resources and Melissa's Instagram to win a copy of both her book and Shaye's!

In this episode Melissa shares about traditional fire cider™ including it's medicinal benefits, recipe, and the controversy involving trademarks of old time herbal remedies and recipes. Melissa brings on Rosemary Gladstar, one of the founders of the fire cider recipe made popular with home herbalists to share its rich history, how to know if it's right for you, uses, keeping herbal medicine open to everyone, and getting started with growing and making natural medicine in your kitchen. For the recipe, resources, and more go to https://melissaknorris.com/177

Learn how to homestead in small spaces for self-sustainability with both a garden and your own meat practicing urban homesteading. How to evaluate your space for maximum crops, what to raise instead of chickens if they're against the law where you live, how you can homestead and produce a good portion of your own food on less than 1/10th of an acre. Harold shares how he recovered from cancer, started urban homesteading, and does all of this on 1/10th of an acre while still working a full time day job. Read the full post here https://melissaknorris.com/176

Learn some easy tips to germinate your seeds, aka, get the seeds to sprout and grow faster. Because the faster your seeds sprout the sooner you get to harvest. Plus, how to gauge the weather for the fastest growth of your seeds. For all the links and resources Melissa shares in this episode go to https://melissaknorris.com/175 Plus, for this week only the Pioneering Today Academy doors are open!

Learn how much time it really takes to raise a year's worth of food, can you really raise a large vegetable garden and fruit with just 2 hours of work per week? Melissa breaks down the amount of hands on time they spend on their fruit plants and vegetable garden for a family of four that provides them with over 50% of their produce for a year. Grab the resources and links (cuz there's some good ones) here at the blog post https://melissaknorris.com/174

Get real life tips on how to get homemade traditional foods on the table every day when you're busy, plus, some confessions on what it really looks like in a homesteader's kitchen and how cooking like Ma Ingalls meets real life. Join Melissa and Jill from the Prairie Homestead as they share their best tips for traditional cooking while being busy as well as the importance of mindset. Tips for grass fed roast turning out melt-in-your mouth tender, easy planning, and more! Grab the full blog post and resources links here https://melissaknorris.com/173

These easy spring gardening tips with help increase your harvest yield and the amount of fruit and vegetables you bring in this summer. Do these now during early spring to set yourself up for an exceptional growing season. Learn how to apply these tips to your property and garden. Get show notes and resources at https://melissaknorris.com/172  Melissa shares what's worked in their homestead and how to avoid some of the common mistakes they made early on. 

Learn why every garden should have heirloom vegetables growing in it and some of our favorite 10 unique heirloom vegetables to grow in your garden and homestead this year. Why heirloom seeds are the true homesteading garden seed and what makes them so special in every garden and table, hint: it has to do with flavor! Grab each variety in the blog post w/ photos here https://melissaknorris.com/171 and find out how to get some of Melissa's family strain of heirloom Tarheel green bean seed as a FREE bonus coming up very soon!

How to prepare for a snow storm or any extreme weather emergency on your homestead without running to the stores or heading out into the weather. Melissa shares the exact steps she goes through when a storm is on the way, including livestock prep. Get the blog post and full show notes for this episode at https://melissaknorris.com/170

Starting an orchard with the correct fruit trees and berry plants for your climate is crucial to getting a harvest. Choose the correct variety and pollination type for your area with these tips. Melissa walks you through the best fruit types for small areas, larger areas, pollination (cross pollination vs. self-pollination), growing berries, chill hours, adding in new varieties, increasing your harvest. Snag the full written show notes at https://melissaknorris.com/169

Learn how to use herbs and natural remedies, how to build your own natural medicine cabinet using plants that you can either grow at home or get fairly easily, and when to use home remedies and when to turn to modern medicine. All this and more as Melissa chats with Marjory Wildcraft on learning the traditional and age old use of herbs in your natural medicine cabinet. Get the full blog post at https://melissaknorris.com/168 as well as the link to the FREE 4 part herbal video series to take you even deeper.