Deanna from Little Mountain Ranch 
Little Mountain Ranch has sold, and with a family of nine and somewhere between 6 and 12 months of food stored on these shelves, the practical choice was to eat through as much of it as possible before moving day.
Over 300 jars later, I have learned more about how I actually want to run my pantry than any canning season ever taught me. Here is what I found.
In this guide, we will break down the step-by-step method for infusing carrier oils. We will also calculate reliable wax-to-oil ratios to craft a shelf-stable comfrey salve right on your kitchen counter.
This ranch has been home for nearly a decade. One hundred and sixty acres of meadow, mountain, and sky in British Columbia, homesteaded in the early 1920s by the sons of neighbouring farmers who had been working this land since 1906. When we bought it, we knew it was old. We didn’t fully understand yet how much of that history was still here, waiting to be discovered.
This haul looked a little different from our usual. We have an accepted offer on our ranch and are intentionally eating down our freezers and pantries so we’re not moving four large freezers and two full basement pantries across the province. So instead of stocking up for 3 to 6 months the way we normally do, we were shopping more like a regular family – just with a Costco membership and, apparently, a lot of opinions about granola.
If there is one thing that has changed my brassica game more than anything else, it is getting the bug netting on before I even see the first cabbage moth of the season. Not after. Before.
Some weeks the garden gets your full attention. Other weeks, life is loud and your motivation is somewhere else entirely. This June has been one of those weeks for me.
Table of Contents Rhubarb season does not wait for you. It comes, it peaks, and if you are not paying attention, you have missed it for another year. I had a full pantry, a move coming up this summer, and every practical reason in the world to skip canning this week. Instead, I went out … Read more
Ten years ago, we arrived at Little Mountain Ranch with big plans and wide-open land.
Now we are packing it all up.
When we made the decision to sell the ranch and move to a smaller property of around 8 acres, the question that followed immediately was: what do we actually keep?
Transitioning plants from a cozy indoor grow room to the harsh outdoor elements requires careful planning. Indoors, seedlings are protected from wind, heavy rains, and intense UV rays. If you move them outside too quickly, the shock can easily kill them.
In this guide, we will cover the practical strategies I use to structure my main crop garden. We will discuss exactly where to place specific plants, how to manage pests and slopes, and why you might want to stop growing certain vegetables altogether.
