As the days grow shorter and the air becomes crisp, autumn beckons us to turn inward and create a home that’s warm, cozy, and filled with seasonal comforts. Autumn homemaking is about more than just cleaning and organizing—it’s about embracing the rhythm of the season and transforming your home into a haven for your family. Here are some autumn homemaking tips and tricks to help you create a welcoming and nourishing space this fall.

1. Embrace Fall Decor with Natural Elements

One of the simplest ways to invite autumn into your home is by decorating with natural, seasonal elements. Not only do they bring the beauty of the outdoors in, but they also create a cozy fall home environment.

• Gather fall foliage: Collect colorful leaves, pinecones, and acorns from nature walks and display them in vases or bowls.
• Use pumpkins and gourds: Place small pumpkins, gourds, and squash on your mantel, dining table, or front porch for a rustic autumn touch.
• Incorporate warm textiles: Swap out light summer linens for chunky knit blankets, plaid throws, and soft cushions in warm shades like burnt orange, mustard yellow, and deep reds.

2. Fall Deep Cleaning and Organizing

As part of seasonal homemaking, autumn is the perfect time to tackle a deep clean and reorganize your home before winter sets in.

• Declutter: Go through closets, drawers, and cabinets to donate or store unused summer items. Make space for bulk food storage and cold-weather gear.
• Deep clean: Focus on areas that may have been neglected over the summer, like windows, baseboards, and light fixtures. Don’t forget to clean out the fireplace if you’ll be using it!
• Organize the pantry: With fall cooking in mind, organize your pantry to make it easy to access ingredients for hearty soups, stews, and seasonal baking.

3. Fill Your Home with Fall Scents

One of the hallmarks of autumn homemaking is filling your home with the scents of the season. It’s amazing how smell can instantly create a warm, inviting atmosphere.

• Simmer a stovetop potpourri: Add water, cinnamon sticks, cloves, orange peels, and vanilla to a pot, simmering it gently for hours to fill your home with an autumnal fragrance.
• Essential oils: Use a diffuser with fall-inspired essential oils like cinnamon, clove, cedarwood, and sweet orange for a natural way to scent your home.
• Bake seasonal treats: Nothing says cozy like the smell of freshly baked goods! Try baking spiced pumpkin bread or an apple pie to create delicious aromas that linger in the air.

4. Create a Cozy Fall Atmosphere

As the temperatures drop, focus on creating warmth and comfort throughout your home.

• Candles and lighting: Place beeswax or soy candles in various rooms to give off a soft, flickering glow. Opt for warm, ambient lighting instead of harsh overhead lights to enhance the cozy feel.
• Layered rugs: Layer soft rugs in living spaces and bedrooms to add warmth and texture. This helps insulate your home while adding a touch of autumn style.
• Cozy nooks: Create a reading nook with a comfortable chair, a blanket, and a side table for your favorite fall drink. This can become a perfect retreat for quiet moments.

5. Prepare Hearty, Nourishing Meals

Up next is probably my favorite of all the autumn homemaking tips… embrace the season with your meals! Autumn is the season for comfort food, and a large part of homemaking involves preparing nourishing meals for your family.

• Batch cooking: With fall’s bounty of root vegetables, squash, and hearty greens, it’s the perfect time to make large batches of soups and casseroles. These meals can be frozen or eaten throughout the week, saving you time on busy days.
• Baking: Autumn homemaking wouldn’t be complete without seasonal baking. Try your hand at classic fall treats like spiced pumpkin muffins, apple crisps, or homemade cinnamon rolls.
• Stock the pantry: A well-stocked pantry is essential for fall cooking— broths, beans, grains, spices, and canned goods to create quick, hearty meals when needed.

6. Create Autumn Traditions

Autumn homemaking is also about nurturing traditions that bring your family together. As the nights draw in, create moments of togetherness with simple seasonal rituals. As the cool air sets in we love embracing a daily hot cup of mulled cider or hot chocolate.

• Family movie nights: Pick a night of the week for a movie night with blankets, hot chocolate, and homemade popcorn.
• Baking day: Choose a fall weekend to spend time baking seasonal treats as a family. Let the kids help with cookie cutting or kneading dough.
• Outdoor bonfires: If you have the space, hosting an evening bonfire is a great way to enjoy the cooler weather and roast marshmallows under the stars.

Autumn Homemaking Tips: Autumn homemaking is a joyful blend of preparing your home for the colder months while embracing the warmth of the season. From natural decor and cozy spaces to hearty meals and family traditions, creating a cozy fall home helps you savor the best of autumn. Whether you’re decluttering, decorating, or filling your home with seasonal scents, each step brings you closer to a nourishing and comforting home.

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Cooking from scratch is a rewarding way to prepare wholesome, nourishing meals for your family. Whether you’re baking bread, fermenting vegetables, or making homemade stocks and sauces, having the right tools in your kitchen can make all the difference. In this post, we’ll explore 10 essential tools every cook-from-scratch kitchen needs to make meal prep efficient and enjoyable.

1. Cast Iron Skillet

A cast iron skillet is one of the most versatile tools in a from-scratch kitchen. It’s perfect for searing, roasting, sautéing, and even baking. Cast iron skillets evenly distribute heat and can go from stovetop to oven, making them ideal for a variety of dishes, from crispy vegetables to homemade cornbread. Not to mention they are likely the most affordable cookware you can buy! Besides my sauce pan and my canning caldron these are the only pans I own!

Health Tip: Cooking with cast iron also increases the iron content in your food, which can be a great boost for those with low iron levels.

2. Dutch Oven

A Dutch oven is a heavy-duty, lidded pot made from cast iron or enameled cast iron. This tool is essential for slow-cooking stews, braising meats, baking bread, or even making homemade yogurt. Dutch ovens retain heat exceptionally well, making them perfect for cooking hearty meals with minimal effort. These pots age well and can be found second hand.

Recipe Idea: Use your Dutch oven to make a slow-simmered bone broth, which is packed with collagen and nutrients essential for gut health.

3. Wooden Cutting Boards

Investing in a quality wooden cutting board is crucial for both food prep and the longevity of your knives. Wooden boards are durable and naturally resistant to bacteria. They’re perfect for chopping vegetables, herbs, and meats, and can double as a beautiful serving board for homemade breads or charcuterie. I like to keep mine fresh using a food grade bees-wax oil and polishing them up every now and again.

Sustainability Tip: Choose cutting boards made from sustainably sourced hardwood like maple or walnut for an eco-friendly option.

4. Stainless Steel Measuring Cups and Spoons

Accurate measuring is important in a cook-from-scratch kitchen, especially when baking or making sauces. Stainless steel measuring cups and spoons are durable, easy to clean, and can handle both wet and dry ingredients. Having a reliable set ensures your recipes turn out perfectly every time.

Pro Tip: Keep a magnetic set on your fridge or in a drawer for easy access while cooking.

5. Quality Chef’s Knife

A high-quality chef’s knife is essential for all your chopping, slicing, and dicing tasks. Look for a knife with a comfortable grip and a sharp blade that will stay sharp with proper care. A good knife makes food prep faster, safer, and more enjoyable. If it is a chore to slice a tomato… sharpen your knife!

Maintenance Tip: Invest in a sharpening stone or take your knives to a professional for regular sharpening to keep them in top condition.

6. Mixing Bowls

A set of mixing bowls in various sizes is indispensable for preparing dough, whisking eggs, marinating meats, and tossing salads. Stainless steel or glass bowls are sturdy options that are easy to clean and don’t retain odors. We keep a variety of both in our cupboards and I often find I could use a few more.

Pro Tip: Use glass bowls when working with acidic ingredients like lemon juice or vinegar, as they won’t react with the food.

7. Stand Mixer or Hand Mixer

For those who frequently bake from scratch, a stand mixer or hand mixer is a must-have tool. Stand mixers can handle heavy tasks like kneading bread dough, whipping cream, or mixing batter, while hand mixers are great for smaller tasks like beating eggs or mixing lighter batters.

This tool is certainly an investment and can wait until you are truly in the rhythm of cooking from scratch regularly before you buy. It wasn’t until my fifth year of marriage that my husband surprised me for our anniversary. And while I could never go back now that I have one, I mixed everything by hand for many years just fine.

Pro Tip: Use the dough hook on your stand mixer to knead bread or pizza dough without the elbow grease.

8. Rolling Pin

Whether you’re making homemade pie crust, pizza dough, or biscuits, a rolling pin is an essential tool for any from-scratch baker. Opt for a traditional wooden rolling pin for even, smooth dough every time. If you bake often, a marble rolling pin is another excellent option as it stays cool, helping keep pastry dough from sticking.

Pro Tip: Dust your rolling pin and surface with flour to prevent dough from sticking while rolling.

9. Fermentation Crock or Mason Jars

If you love fermenting foods like sauerkraut, kimchi, or homemade pickles, a fermentation crock or Mason jars are essential. These tools allow you to ferment foods at home, promoting gut health through probiotic-rich, fermented dishes.

Pro Tip: Choose Mason jars with airlock lids for easy fermenting, or use a traditional fermentation crock for larger batches.

10. Immersion Blender

An immersion blender is perfect for pureeing soups, sauces, and smoothies directly in the pot or bowl without transferring to a blender. This versatile tool saves time and reduces cleanup, making it ideal for everything from homemade baby food to creamy fall soups.

Recipe Idea: Use an immersion blender to blend roasted pumpkin and vegetable broth into a smooth, comforting fall soup.

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10 essential tools every cook-from-scratch kitchen needs

Cooking from scratch is a rewarding way to nourish your family with wholesome, homemade meals. By equipping your kitchen with these essential tools, you’ll be able to cook with ease and confidence, whether you’re baking bread, fermenting vegetables, or simmering a pot of bone broth.

What are your must-have tools for a from-scratch kitchen? Share your favorites in the comments below!

With inflation at an all time high, so many families are struggling and asking themselves how to positively affect their grocery budget. I’m here to share 5 ways to save at the grocery store that not only save you money but also aid your overall health.

Use your scraps

It should be no surprise at this point that choosing whole food or 5 ingredient or less products is the number one way to save money at the grocery store. So I am not even going to officially make this one part of the list.

Another way to save money at grocery store is to make your food go further. Use EVERYTHING. I love ancestral practices because of how little they wasted. As a modern people, we have such easy access to such an assortment of food and products. Because of such easy access, we don’t think twice about throwing away scraps. Instead of buying vegetable stock for $3 at the store, save by using your own scraps to make up some stock or broth. Use banana peels soaked in water to fertilize your garden and house plants. Use bones for bone broth. Make jam with the typically discarded berry tops. The list goes on and on!

Choosing Foods by Season

Seasonal eating means you are choosing to buy foods at their peak flavor and the highest nutrition possible. Studies show that the longer we store fresh food the more chemical changes and nutritional losses occur. Seasonal produce tend to be more affordable and can often be found locally which is a big pro if lessening your carbon footprint is something you strive for.

Our family finds that eating seasonally means we look forward with great anticipation to the flavors each season offers! But with young children in the house there are certain things they desire all year around. Such as berries… so my way around this is that we buy locally picked or even flash frozen berries in the summer at the peak of the season and store them in the freezer for the fall and winter months.

Most vegetables are flash frozen immediately after harvest and are sometimes cheaper than buying fresh produce. So buying frozen veggies in bulk is a great way to prioritize whole foods while saving a buck or two.

Making more from scratch

Tonight, I was making a quick soup for dinner so we could be out the door for a function this evening when I had this gut feeling that my children were not going to eat what I had going. I hadn’t made sourdough in 10 days or so and had no type of filler to entice them to eat what I made. I didn’t even have bread for a quick pb&j as back up. But I have flour, salt, yeast, water, and honey. After a quick google search and 5 minutes of prep I had sweet rolls in the oven and ready 20 minutes later. It took little to no hands on time to get creative, to see what I had, and to just go for it. Not only did my kids love them… they both ate the soup.

Long story short, a simple way to save money at the grocery store is to make more things from scratch. Buying dry rice to boil at home is going to be cheaper and healthier than the microwavable pouches.

Simple meals

This tip on how to save money at the grocery store may surprise you. Especially coming from someone who loves developing recipes of her own. But a huge way to save money at the grocery store is to stop obsessing over recipes! Recipes often lead us to buying speciality ingredients or things we otherwise wouldn’t think necessary.

Healthy whole food (especially when in season) can be so simple and so flavorful. Saving you time, money, and stress. Sometimes complicated recipes with heavily processed foods make me think we are desperate to make bad food taste better. Instead focus on three meal parts: protein, produce, starch. Easy cost saving meals can be summarized with a well seasoned cut of meat, potatoes, and green beans. Done. Phew.

In all seriousness, I really think so much of our home life is overcomplicated with this need to keep things spicy and sometimes a new recipe is what you need for a refresh. But if you, like me, are a parent often just trying to do your best and get food on the table this is your sign to keep it simple. There is no shame in that. For simple meal ideas check out this post!

Grow something!

For most all of time until the industrial revolution, nearly household gardened in some capacity. So even if its just a pot on your porch with herbs, growing something yourself is bound to save you some cash at the register. And if you don’t have much room to grow herbs are certainly the highest ROI.

I hope you feel encouraged to take back a little control of your grocery budget! For more be sure to subscribe!

Amazon Storefront

If you’re just starting your homemaking journey I have an amazon storefront with some of my favorite kitchen and garden tools as well as resources I love. Check it out!

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