Homestead skills
Everyday skills for water, food, a small Florida garden, and cooking outside. Follow tested rules, and check local laws.
General information. Use it at your own risk. Follow the law. Seek a clinician, a licensed tradesperson, or the authorities when you can.
Written for a household in St. Johns County and northeast Florida. This is a planning aid. Orders, zones, and shelter instructions come from the county and the state.
Before
- Filtering water takes out some dirt. Purifying it, by boiling or another method on the CDC page, is what makes unclear water safer to drink. The water guide on this site has the bleach note.
- Home canning is safe only with tested recipes. The National Center for Home Food Preservation, the USDA-supported site, is the instruction book. Low-acid foods need a pressure canner. A boiling-water bath is only for the high-acid foods that tested recipe allows. Botulism is the risk of guessing.
- A dehydrator or a smoker is for food you will still store clean and dry. Follow the appliance or the tested recipe. Do not invent a time.
- Northeast Florida is in plant hardiness zones 9a and 9b. UF/IFAS Gardening Solutions sorts vegetables into cool-season and warm-season crops for North Florida. Use that calendar for raised beds and containers. This page does not reprint a week-by-week chart.
- Backyard chickens need a covered coop, fresh water, and feed stored where pests cannot reach it. Check city and county rules before you start. Summer heat and predators are the Florida problems. This is not veterinary advice.
- Save seed from open-pollinated plants, dry it, label the year, and keep it cool. Hybrid seed often does not grow true.
- Compost is kitchen scraps and yard waste, not meat. Turn it, keep it moist, and let Florida heat do the work.
- Rainwater catchment may be limited or banned where you live. Check the local rule before you install a barrel. Screen the opening so mosquitoes cannot breed. Do not drink collected rain unless you treat it.
- A rocket stove or any wood fire stays outdoors, on a stable base, clear of walls, eaves, and dry grass. Never in a house, garage, or tent. Put it out until it is cold. A camp stove has the same outdoor rule.
During
- If the tap is unsafe, use stored water first. Treat a new batch only the way the CDC page describes.
- If the power is out, do not open a canner or a dehydrator and guess. Eat food you already stored.
- Garden on the cool part of the day in summer. Water the soil, not the leaves, in the morning.
- Cook outside, upwind of the house, and keep children away from the stove.
After
- Throw out canned food if the seal failed or the jar is damaged.
- Empty standing water that is not a screened barrel.
- Restock seed labels and feed. Note what the garden actually produced.
Checklist
- Stored water, and a way to treat more
- Tested canning recipes only, if you can
- IFAS calendar for North Florida, zones 9a and 9b
- Chicken rules checked before any birds
- Seed dried and labeled
- Rain barrel only if local rules allow it
- Outdoor stove, never indoors
Sources
Official pages only. Open them for the full instructions.