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First Year: Plant (or buy) in spring, grow all year. Take them inside for the winter: Taste the leaves & mark your strongest in sweetness plants. If any are very week in sweetness mark them also.

Second year:  Put the plants back outside in the spring as soon as possible (but protect from frost). After a week or two, taste the leaves again. Take cuttings of the ’strongest’ (in sweetness and growth) and plant them in new pots to grow. Treat these cuttings as year 1 plants. Harvest the strong sweetness plants (completely): Dry and use like tea leave (or do other crazy stuff to get the white powder form). Let the less than sweet plants go to seed, and save the seeds for the following year.

Stevia will grow for several years when protected from frost. The second year is almost always the best year for sweetness level & taste.  The “sweetness” of the leaves does not seem to be passed from parent to child by seed. The seeds of a very sweet plant may produce bland leaves or vice versa. Plants grown by cuttings do seem (for the most part) to hold true on the level of sweetness.

Do save seed and plant some from seed each year… otherwise your gene pool will be very poor over many years from just cuttings.

Also during the year, leaves can be pulled at any time, and used like mint leaves to sweet teas and drinks during brewing.

The leaf of the Stevia Plant is called “honey leaf” by the natives of Paraguay, where it has been used for centuries as a sweetener, and Japanese food companies have been using Stevia for over 25 years.   However the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) banned the import of Stevia to the United States because it had not undergone expensive testing.  A change in the law in 1994 allowed Stevia to be imported into the United States but it could only be sold only as a supplement, not as a sweetener.

The Stevia plant is tropical, and will not survive a light freeze, and will struggle in dry areas.

Hiding canned (or any longer term storage food) is both important and requires pre-planning. A recent hint from SurvivalBlog.com is as follows:

First, buy a “hide-a-bed” couch (queen size is the best). Remove and discard the entire bed frame internals and mattress (or find another use for them). This will require some tools, and before purchasing this couch, it would be good to inspect it to make sure it can be removed without damaging the structure of the couch. Then build a framework of 2×2s to replace the bed frame that was just removed. Cover the wood framework with a cut piece of 3/4″ plywood to support the seat cushions.

Store food (or other supplies) in the wooden framework and then cover with the plywood (but leave detached for easy access). Cover with cushions and make sure the wood is not detectible. A throw, blanket, or sofa cover may be used to add to the camouflage.

Cast Iron cookware is often considered the ultimate in survivalist cooking supplies. In times past the American settlers and cattle drivers used cast iron as their basic cooking pots when cooking on the open range or in the house (before electric stoves). Cast Iron cookware distributes and holds heat well (which requires less fuel to cook) and do not scratch or chip, or melt under extremely high temperatures. When properly maintained the cast iron pots will virtually last forever.

A writer to Survival Blog posted an interesting idea. The claim is that cheese can be rewaxed! According to the article a regular grocery store block of cheese can be dipped it in a really strong salt-water (brine) mix, set out for a couple of days until a rind developes, and then dipped it in melted wax several times. Let the wax harden between wax coats. Using this method, the cheese can be stored in a generally cool area for several years! The cheese will naturally get sharper as it ages.

We are currently unsure of the safety of this process, and would love to get comments from anyone that has tried it or uses this method safely.

Sealed apple cider vinegar should not need to be refrigerated, but needs to be stored in a dark and relatively cool place. Officially the shelf life of apple cider vinegar is five years from the bottling date, however many people report that if kept cool and in a dark location it will remain safe and usable for an indefinite period of time.

It is reported that apple cider vinegar (not juice) may be used as a wart remover. Take a small piece of cotton swab and fully soak it in apple cider vinegar. Put over the wart until the liquid stops coming out of the swab. Keep the swab on, and carefully wipe dry the rest of the area. Apply a band aid to keep the cotton swab in place and leave on for 24 hours. Remove the old swab, and immediately replace with a new one also soaked in apple cider vinegar. Repeat these steps 3 times (for a total of 4 swabs over 4 days). After about one to three days after the last swab is removed the wart should begin to dry up and come off.

Chickens can be ready for slaughter at about 4 months, and will start laying at about 6 months. Laying hens will produce for about 3 years (decreasing each year).

Older hens and roosters that are more than a couple of years old are often called ‘stewing chickens’, because the meat will be tougher if fried; the slower cooking method tenderizes the meat.

To slaughter the chicken hold the bird by the legs, and let the head hang down. After a couple of seconds the chicken will calm down, and during this time put the body up next to a board and cut the head off with a hatchet or an axe (in a fast and decisive action to make a clean cut). The body will flop around for a couple of minutes (dripping blood and will probably make a mess). Let the blood drain for about 10 minutes.

Either skin the chicken or dip the dead chicken in scalding water for a few seconds (if plucking the chicken is desired).

The feather (not skin) can be added to the compost pile.

Only fertilized eggs will develop into chickens.

Do not wash the eggs. Store them at 50F to 60F for 7 to 10 days to gather several eggs. Put all the eggs in an incubator from 100F to 102F, and raise the humidity in the area. Chicken eggs will take an average 21 days to hatch. Put a mark on one side of the egg right away. For the first 17 days, rotate the eggs 3 times a day (so the yoke does not settle on one side of the egg). Do not rotate the eggs starting on day 18. On day 21 the eggs will start hatching, and (although tempting) it is important that the baby chick does not receive any assistance while hatching. The struggle to get out of the egg is vital to the chicks’ early development. Dispose of any eggs that have not hatched after 25 days.

If the temperature gets below 98 or above 105 for any more than a couple of hours it will completely kill all the baby chicks in the eggs.

Baby chicks can stay in the incubator for 24 hours without food and water. Chicks have all the food and water for survival for the first 48 hours of life, but after that they will require food and water to survive.

Put the baby chicks in a semi-large box with a light bulb turned on all the time. The chicks will natural move back and forth in the box to where the temperature is 95F. The baby chicks will need to stay in the box for 5 to 6 weeks, and the temperature can be dropped 5 degrees per week. As they get older, they will move further from the light, until they get to the edge of the box. At which point the light needs to be moved further away until the chicks move more towards the center of the box. This will keep them from getting too hot. It is not really critical to control the temperature in the box; however what is critical is to give a range of temperatures so the chicks can move to where the temperature is naturally right from them. As long as they are not huddled at the edge of the box or directly under the light, they should develop fine.

Put a small container in the box with water. Take each of the chicks and push their beak down into the water briefly so that they take the first drink (the same way that kittens are weaned).

Chickens lay eggs during the day (typically in the morning). Hens will lay the eggs in the darkest spot the can find, so set nesting boxes in the darkest part of the coop.

Eggs need to be gathered at least once per day, but preferably twice a day. The longer the eggs stay in the coop, the more likely it is that the chickens will develop a habit of pecking at the eggs (and destroying them). Also the sooner an egg is gathered, the cleaner it will be (so it will not need to be cleaned).

If an egg must be cleaned, try to wipe it clean without using water. If water must be used then use as little lukewarm water as possible. If eggs are cleaned with cold water the eggs will absorb the water through the shell (and cause early spoilage). Lukewarm water does not seem to have this problem.

Fresh eggs have a protective coating that is destroyed when coming into contact with water. In theory, eggs do not need to be refrigerated (but kept below 70F) if the protective coating stays undamaged. This can be complicated and is not advised for beginners, but with further research and experimenting this may be something that can tried (but with possible risks). It has been reported that eggs can be stored in this way for up to a week.

Eggs in the fridge can be stored for a couple of months; however some people report that they can be stored up to 6 months this way.

Waterglass is a clear liquid chemical that can be used to store eggs for 6 months or longer.

White Leghorns are a great egg laying hardy chicken. Under good conditions they will lay about 300 to 350 large white eggs a year, but the chicken itself stays very small, which means there is little meat when slaughtered. The rooster typically weighs in at 4 pounds, and the hens at 3 pounds. They are generally considered noisy, flighty, and easily excited. The White Leghorn will also produce more eggs on less feed than most other chicken breeds.

Plymouth Rocks (Black and white) are a dual purpose bird, and are a popular choice for the ‘backyard chicken’ in suburban areas, as well as a common choice to be raised as a pet. The average hen will lay about 200 eggs per year of varying color from light brown to medium brown with a touch of pink. Roosters will typically weight 9.5 pounds and hens about 7.5 pounds. Plymouth Rocks are generally very docile and tame easily; however in poor conditions they can become aggressive. There are seven sub-species of the Plymouth Rocks, each varying somewhat in size and egg production.

The Rhode Island Red is raised mostly for meat, but produce a large number of eggs as well. Roosters will typically weigh 8.5 pounds, and hens about 6.5 pounds. The hens will lay about 250 light brown medium-sized eggs a year. The Rhode Island Red is generally considered docile and quiet; however roosters may be aggressive towards young children or strangers. And both the hen and roosters are generally aggressive towards other breeds of chickens when in confinement.