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The Power Of Starting Strong: Make Your Own Mesophilic Culture – EP 1017

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Episode 1017: The Power Of Starting Strong: Make Your Own Mesophilic Culture

Today, we talk about how to make your own mesophilic culture at home so you can reduce save money and develop your own cheese flavors over time. Really having a strong start in cheese is as important as doing so in life, isn’t it? And nurturing your starts in life is as important as hitting things hard ever day. We will also cover our usual Monday segments.

Member Webinar: Building Small Scale Events On Your Homestead, Sunday, March 23 at 3pm Central: https://www.livingfreeintennessee.com/courses/creating-small-scale-events-on-your-homestead (Members you know what to do!)

Do me a favor? Drop a review at iTunes and share this podcast out to your friends.

LFTN on Facebook and Telegram

Tales From The Prepper Pantry

  • No progress on floor
  • Spring Cleaning – Processing meat: Bacon, scotch eggs, grinding lamb, scotch eggs
  • Tomato seedlings planted and germinated
  • Looking to purge the grains from storage
  • The tunnel

Weekly Shopping Report from Joe

Dollar Tree was the usual first stop.  I noted again that the Health aisle was stuffed.  In particular.

We didn’t go in, but the price of a 2x4x8 stud at Home Depot still shows $3.85 online.

Aldi was next.  We found everything we wanted, but there were only a few bars of my preferred chocolate (70% cacao) left.  Staple prices were: bread (20 oz. white): $1.39; eggs: $5.97 (limit 2); whole milk: $2.92 (+); heavy cream: $5.29; OJ: $4.09 (+, and very little); butter: $3.75; bacon: $3.99; potatoes: $4.39; sugar: $2.99; flour: $2.35; and 80% ground beef: $4.59.

Food City for a 22 lb. Bag of Meow Mix (that our cats ask for by name).  Pet foods were well-stocked.

Untainted regular gasoline at Weigels is still $3.59/gallon.

Frugality Tip From Jordon

St. Patrick’s Day is upon us, it’s a fairly big day up in Maine since there is a large Irish population here, so cabbages are on sale for the boiled dinner feast! Tonight we snagged 3 juicy cabbages at the grocery store for 39¢ a lb.  Made 3 half gallons of sauerkraut for $5!

Hope you have a lucky 🍀 Monday!

Jordan 

Operation Independence

  • GSD Weekend March 29 & 30 in the Holler – Staining, building a composting outhouse deck, hauling off construction debris, building a new humanure barrel, setting up the classroom, hanging the presentation tv, etc.

Main Topic of Today’s Show.

What is a Mesophilic Culture and Why Should You Care?

  • Mesophilic culture is a bacterial starter used for cheesemaking, cultured dairy, and fermentation. 70-85 for fermentation.
  • Used as the base for feta, cultured cream cheese, chevre, farmer’s cheese, mozzarella, etc.
  • Why: Saves money, adapted to your environment, adds resilience, it’s fun

How to Make It Making a Mesophilic Starter

  1. Find Culture
  2. Prepare the milk
  3. Inoculate & Ferment:
  4. Store & Maintain:

What If I Cant Get Culture or Cultured Buttermilk?

  • Quality Raw Milk
  • Leave at room temperature
  • Smell/taste
  • Treat like a cultured buttermilk starter

Thought Of The Walk On Cheese Culture

  • This process is a perfect analogy for life.
  • You get out what you put in—a weak start leads to weak results.
  • Just like a good mesophilic culture ensures better cheese, a good mindset, strong habits, and the right influences ensure better outcomes in life.
  • Sometimes we forget to nurture ourselves and those things that are most important to is, resulting in weak starts – and what do you do with a weak start?

Make it a great week!

GUYS! Don’t forget about the cookbook, Cook With What You Have by Nicole Sauce and Mama Sauce. 

Community

Resources

 

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LFTN Annual GSD Weekend March 29 & 30

It is time for our annual GSD weekend in advance of the LFTN Spring Workshop! March 29 & 30.

Never been to one? Well we gather in the Holler and attack a list of set up and cleanup things to get the homestead ready to host 50 people later in April.

Come for a few hours or stay overnight. I will be serving lunch and dinner on Saturday and Breakfast and lunch on Sunday.

This year, on the list are:

  • Build a new deck for the composting outhouse
  • Build a new composting barrel for the humanur system
  • Rip out the old pallette humanur frames
  • Stain the other half of Tajmaholler
  • Haul off the construction debris
  • Set up the basement classroom
  • Hang the presentation TV
  • Set up the outdoor shower if it isnt too dang cold
  • Whatever else we think is fun!

Camp fire at night is very likely if weather permits and we have flat places and trees, composting outhouses and an outdoor shower.

Lunches are cold cuts, salad wraps or sandwiches and chips. Breakfast is bacon and eggs and potatoes and coffee. Saturday Dinner is meatloaf (no wheat in it).

RSVP Here.

2025 March GSD Weekend RSVP

Name
Help me help you get enough to eat! 😀
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Warm and Orange for a Cold Spring Day

Here’s another recipe that tastes much better than its basic ingredients suggest and that loads nutrients into a bowl of fun food.

You’ll notice a wide choice of dairy products suggested. The one you use may depend on what’s available or the experience of which soup you like best. And, of course, non-dairy creamy liquids are available to those who avoid what the cows produce.

It’s written for stovetop cooking, but if you simply want to load a crock pot and go away, allow 4 – 6 hours (depends on your pot). Read more

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Homestead Happenings for March 14, 2025 – EP 1016

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Today, I am joined by the Tactical Redneck as we discuss illness in the Holler, early spring sprinting, and more.

Featured Event: SelfRelianceFestival.com

Sponsor 1: AgoristTaxAdvice.com/lftn

Sponsor 2: InvestableWealth.com

Stinging Nettle Harvest Week

Morels should begin to pop soon

Early spring green salad: baby plantain, dead nettle leaves, baby dock, wild garlic (I like to add to a salad)

Illness in the Holler

Second garden bed is up and planted

Food forest lower swale is 25% mulched, then I will toss lots of seeds out

4 Wheeler

Subaru Saga

Ram Weaning

Stormy and preventing a prolapse

Breed rabbits this week

Livestock

Duck egg update

Yard herbs are coming back – the ones that made it through the winter

All the compost tea is being sprayed

Time to make garlic/pepper/LABS spray for the orchard

Holler Neighbor Dinner on Sunday

Finances: Upped my seedling game so have only spent $60 on gardens

 

Make it a great week!

 

GUYS! Don’t forget about the cookbook, Cook With What You Have by Nicole Sauce and Mama Sauce. It makes a great Christmas Gift!

 

Community

Advisory Board

Resources

 

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Tuesday Coffee With John Willis, Nicole Sauce and Jack Spirko – EP 1015

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Join me for a group discussion with John Willis of Special Operations Equipment and Jack Spirko of The Survival Podcast.

Featured Event: The Self Reliance Festival, SelfRelianceFestival.com

Sponsors:

Show Resources

Special Operations Equipment

TheSurvivalPodcast.com

Living Free in Tennessee

NicoleSauce.com

HollerRoast.com 

Main content of the show

Make it a great week!

GUYS! Don’t forget about the cookbook, Cook With What You Have by Nicole Sauce and Mama Sauce. 

Community

Resources

 

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Five Things Homesteaders Get Wrong – EP 1014

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Today, we explore five things homesteaders get wrong—and how to avoid them. Every homestead decision is a preference, but some choices lead to costly, time-consuming headaches.

Resources
Crunchy Mama Beef Processing Class (March 21-24 in Texas) – Crunchy Mama Farms
Sponsors:

LFTN Spring Workshop

National Center For Home Food Preservation

Weekly Segments:
Tales from the Prepper Pantry – Freezers, Scotch eggs, and pantry upgrades
Frugality Tip – How to save $3,000+ on international travel
Shopping Report from Joe – Prices on food, lumber, and gas
Operation Independence – Expanding aquaponics and biochar progress

Main Topic: 5 Things Homesteaders Just Get Wrong
1. Keeping weak animals with genetic problems such as throwing prolapses in sheep, scissor beak, etc
2. Using That Untested Recipe For Canning From Your Grandma, Rebel Canners, Or A Random AI Generated Blog Post
3. You Got Chickens (Or Other Livestock) And Did Not Have Infrastructure (Housing, Water, Fencing, Etc.)
4. Why Did You Grow Food You Hate?
5. You Cultivated Plants Not Soil

Make it a great week!

GUYS! Don’t forget about the cookbook, Cook With What You Have by Nicole Sauce and Mama Sauce. 

 

Community

Resources

 

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Homestead Happenings for March 7, 2025 – EP 1013

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Today, I am joined by Tactical as we discuss a semi-crazy, off-site week, the coming spring, and more.

Featured Event: SUNDAY – Bioremediation Workday in Marshall, NC: https://www.facebook.com/events/1157636552497302 

Shout out: Canary Cry Radio! https://www.youtube.com/watch?reload=9&v=XK4bqtxb1PA 

Sponsor 1: TheWealthsteadingPodcast.com

Sponsor 2: DiscountMylarBags.com

Roof issues and the wind

The mama ewe left the pasture

Duck feed/Egg issue. Protein content is lower so adding sprouts sunflower seeds, take 2

1st round seedlings placed in raised bed

Finishing last 2 raised beds

AP update

LFTN Email Updates

Fencing repairs 

Pasture easter egg hunt after the storm

Last round of seeding happening this weekend

Indoor AP is up and running

New 4 wheeler rebuild progress report

Prepper Pantry Next Phase

So Much Bacon

Scotch Egg Experiment update

Lettuce from the vet

Assessing what is alive after the most brutal winter ive seen in the holler

Holler Neighbors/Community Update

Finances: Making sure we can source chickens before we announce the processing class

Make it a great week!

GUYS! Don’t forget about the cookbook, Cook With What You Have by Nicole Sauce and Mama Sauce. It makes a great Christmas Gift!

Community

Advisory Board

Resources

 

 

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Bacteria, Yeast, and the Secret Life of Kefir – Ep 1012

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Join me for a discussion all about kefir, its origins, its benefits, how to make it and HOW TO USE IT!Sponsor 1: Permies.com FUNDLE $45: https://permies.com/wiki/223017f495/Fundle-fungi-bundle

Sponsor 2: AgoristTaxAdvice.com

Shout out: Canary Cry Radio! https://www.youtube.com/watch?reload=9&v=XK4bqtxb1PA 

Tales from the Prepper Pantry

  • Bacon Week
  • Slicing Like a Mad Woman
  • Ground Lamb
  • The Carnivore Scotch Egg Test

Operation Independence

  • No more TAHOE

1. Why Kefir Matters

  • More than just a probiotic – Kefir is a living ecosystem of bacteria and yeast, offering benefits beyond typical fermented foods.
  • Gut health & digestion – Restores microbiome balance and may help with IBS.
  • Immune system support – Contains natural antibacterial and antifungal compounds.
  • Bone health & longevity – High in calcium, magnesium, and vitamin K2, supporting bone density.
  • Why it beats store-bought probiotic drinks – No added sugars, no preservatives, and a wider range of beneficial microbes.
  1. The Mysterious Origins of Kefir
  • No one knows!
  • Ancient legends – Believed to have originated in the Caucasus Mountains, with stories linking it to nomadic herders or religious figures.
    • Some claim kefir grains were a gift from the Prophet Muhammad to Orthodox Christians.
    • Others suggest they evolved naturally in animal skins used for storing milk.
  • Why scientists can’t recreate it – Unlike yogurt cultures, kefir grains cannot be artificially synthesized, making them a true biological mystery.
    • Kefir grains are a complex symbiotic community (SCOBY) that must be propagated from existing grains.
    • Attempts to isolate and recreate them in labs have failed, suggesting a unique co-evolution with traditional dairy farming.

4. The Science Behind Kefir Fermentation

  • Bacteria vs. Yeast – A Perfect Partnership
    • Bacteria (Lactic Acid Bacteria – LAB) – Convert lactose into lactic acid, lowering the pH and thickening the milk.
    • Yeasts – Break down sugars into ethanol and carbon dioxide, adding mild effervescence and contributing to flavor complexity.
    • Acetobacter species – Convert ethanol into acetic acid, giving kefir its subtle tang.
  • How fermentation transforms milk
    • Lactose breakdown – Kefir becomes more digestible for lactose-intolerant individuals.
    • Nutrient enhancement – Increases B vitamins, calcium, and K2, making nutrients more bioavailable.
    • Probiotic boost – Contains up to 50+ strains of beneficial bacteria and yeast, making it superior to yogurt in microbial diversity.
  1. How to Make Kefir at Home
  • Basic Steps:
    • Add kefir grains to whole milk (raw or pasteurized, but avoid ultra-pasteurized).
    • Cover loosely and let ferment 12-24 hours at room temperature.
    • Strain the grains, store finished kefir in the fridge, and repeat the process.
  • Troubleshooting Common Issues:
    • Too sour? Shorten fermentation time or use cooler temperatures.
    • Too thin? Use higher-fat milk or ferment longer.
    • Off flavors? Check milk quality and ensure grains are healthy.

6. Ways to Use Kefir Beyond Drinking It

  • Culinary Uses:
    • Smoothies & flavored kefir – Blend with fruit, honey, or spices.
    • Salad dressings & dips – Use as a tangy base for ranch or tzatziki.
    • Kefir cheese & butter – Strain whey to make a spreadable cheese.
  • Second Fermentation for More Flavor & Fizz:
    • How to do it – Store strained kefir in an airtight bottle with fruit or honey for another 12-24 hours.
    • Why it works – Yeasts consume remaining sugars, boosting carbonation.
    • Best add-ins: Citrus peel, ginger, berries, vanilla bean.

Make it a great week!

GUYS! Don’t forget about the cookbook, Cook With What You Have by Nicole Sauce and Mama Sauce. 

Community

Resources

 

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Homestead Happenings for February 29, 2025 – EP 1011

Direct Download

Tactical Redneck Hijacked my show while I was out of town – Enjoy his update.

Sponsor 1: AgoristTaxAdvice.com
Sponsor 2: DiscountMylarBags.com

Join me for sad news from the pasture, making progress in spring, a review of a cool event happening in about a week, a NEW recipe, and more!

 

Featured Event: Refuge Ruckus, March 7-9 in Fort Smith, AR: https://www.refugeruckus.com/

 

Sponsor 1: AgoristTaxAdvice.com

Sponsor 2: DiscountMylarBags.com

Permies Fundle – and why it is so cool, but dont buy it until Saturday: Heads up on the Permies Fundle

Listener Feedback

From a listener –  I remembered that you decided to sell your AGHs, and I’m in a similar (but bigger) situation, and hoped you might be able to offer some suggestions or possibly send my way  anyone you know who’s in the market, and feel free to share my email for contact. I’m local (Cookeville) and the pigs are in the Monterey/Muddy Pond area. Hope everything’s going well in the Holler, and hope to hear back from you soon. 

Sad News From The Pasture

Ram separation day – with help from a visitor

Community: Dog care

Weather was fantastic this week: Nicole at a big, thorny frog

New inhabitant at basecamp

Community development idea

Scotch egg recipe

Biochar project update

Topping the garden beds

Stuck trailer day

Shepherd’s pie

Outhouse spring set up

Ducks laying in the yard

Livestock

Early spring garden planting is going well this year so far

Make it a great week!

GUYS! Don’t forget about the cookbook, Cook With What You Have by Nicole Sauce and Mama Sauce. It makes a great Christmas Gift!

Community

Advisory Board

Resources

 

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Small Change, Big Results: Tales From the Flooded Barn

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Join me for a discussion of how the heavy rains created minor flooding in the barn one day before we needed to give the sheep access and what we did to dry it out. We will also cover all our usual Monday Segments.

Featured Event: Blueberry Hill Sunday Meetup in Knoxville: https://www.livingfreeintennessee.com/event/bluebird-hill-open-house-gathering/

Sponsor 1: TheWealthSteadingPodcast.com

Sponsor 2: EMPShield.com

Coupon Code: LFTN

Tales from the Prepper Pantry

  • Processing 2 Ewes with Prolapses, lots of ground meat
  • Homemade Roast Beef Sandwich Meat
  • Prepper Pantry Update

Frugality Tip From Margo

Stopping in the middle of a project when you run out of something and having to go get more can be annoying. What’s more annoying to me is wasting time to go save a dollar or two. While I am probably one of the most frugal people I know with money, I value my time a lot as well. So save some time and run to the closest store and spend an extra $2 and finish the task. 

Happy Savings y’all 

~Margo

Operation Independence

$10 Ultrasound

Seedlings

Main topic of the Show: Small Changes, Big Results – Tales From A Barn Underwater

  • Biggest local flood since 2010
  • Back Story
  • What We found
  • How we divided work
  • What T did
  • End Result

In the end, a small change every day makes the biggest difference in your world.

Just ask Angry Prepper about walking for 15 minutes after each meal.

Make it a great week!

GUYS! Don’t forget about the cookbook, Cook With What You Have by Nicole Sauce and Mama Sauce. 

Community

Resources