This Week in Mother Earth News… Traditional Skills!
This week in Mother Earth News, we’re getting back in touch with nature and making things by hand. Take up a handicraft or cooking technique this winter, or make a wish list for spring and summer projects.
Traditional Skills Video Courses
Free! 12/16/25-12/22/25 On the Farm Projects. Like many farmers, Amyrose Foll of Virginia Free Farm has various projects going at any one time. Join her as she profiles strategies such as diversifying livestock, generating revenue, and working with nature to ensure that food is abundant all around the farm.
New for Members 12/24 What it Takes to Homestead. Editor-in-Chief Ana Skemp invites you to tour her farm! Live a day in the life of a farmer, and learn about the hidden labor and skills required to run an organic farmstead in modern times.
Recommended Videos
Grinding Fresh Flour from Grains. Learn the secrets to fresh, delicious homemade bread every time you make it. In this workshop, April Jones shows you the tips to success on how to grind your own wheat fresh every time. Follow up with open fire baking.
Make & Maintain a Sourdough Starter, and Make More Bread from Scratch!
Recommended Articles
- How to Make A Leather Apron from a Home-Tanned Deer Hide.
- 1976 Guide to Quilt-Making.
- Make a Coracle Fishing Boat.
November 2025 Gift-It-Yourself
DIY Gift-Making Videos
Free! 11/17/25-11/25/25 Natural Beauty at Home. Make natural beauty products with common household ingredients that are probably already in your pantry with free access to our Natural Beauty at Home video course. Author Janice Cox takes you through bath bombs, shampoos, lotions, and more.
New for Members 11/24 Gift-It-Yourself. Herbalist Farai Harreld shares her favorite go-to homemade gifts, from adaptogenic sweets to skin softening bath treatments.
Extreme Weather Week (October 2025)
This week in Mother Earth News we’re checking our emergency supply kits, vehicles and generators, and more! Disaster preparedness is about more than a checklist; it’s about ensuring your family and community have the tools, supplies, and plan in place ahead of adverse weather.
Disaster Preparedness Videos
Free! 10/27/25-11/23/25 Survival Skills Course. Fell trees, collect rain water, prep a bug-out vehicle and more with this collection of videos teaching practical skills to help you weather any storm.
New for Members 10/31 Disaster Preparedness Course. Mother Earth News Members can also access our new Disaster Preparedness Video Course. Learn how to meet your family’s medical needs and more during times of disruption from a Hurricane Helene survivor.
Food Preservation Week (September 2025)
This week in Mother Earth News we’re talking canning, freeze drying, fermentation, and more! Get tips for how to preserve your harvest long term, how to best retain your food’s nutritional value, and how to think outside the box to fill your pantry.
With thanks to our sponsor, Harvest Right: Preserve your garden produce, create the perfect emergency food supply, make camping meals and healthy snacks. Unlike other methods of food preservation, freeze drying does not shrink or toughen the food, and retains flavor, color, and nutrition. Harvest Right, the world’s best freeze dryer.
Food Preservation Videos
Free! 9/29/25-10/06/25 Pantry from the Garden (6-Part Video Course). Stock your pantry with fresh foods grown in your home and community. We’re taking recipes and guidance from Bevin Cohen’s book, “The Heritage Pantry,” and trying out our favorite recipes and techniques with locally grown produce. We’re canning, salting, brining, and pickling our way to better and healthier foods that meet the needs and tastes of our families!
New for Members 10/01 Freeze Drying 101 (Video Course). Is freeze drying worth it for your family? One farmer tries freeze drying for a year and comes back to share her experiences and recommendations for getting your money’s worth out of the investment.
Build-It-Yourself (August 2025)
This week in Mother Earth News we’re sharing our favorite DIY plans and projects. Here are some of our favorite projects for elevating your backyard garden or hobby farm.
With thanks to our sponsor, Growing Spaces: award-winning geodesic dome greenhouse kits for controllable, sustainable, year-round gardening. Enjoy your dream garden – all year long – no matter where you live!
DIY Video Courses
Free! [8/17-8/23] Keep Your Tools Handy. Build and maintain your toolbox with our Keep Your Tools Handy video course. Kyle Ferlemann shares his best tips for building your first toolbox, including tips on what tools to thrift and how to restore rusty or second-hand tools. This video course is free for the rest of Build-It-Yourself week.
New for Members! [8/22] Greenhouse Gardening 101. Mother Earth News Members can also access our new Greenhouse Gardening video course. Master season extension and use your greenhouse more effectively with Leah Webb.
Bee Week (July 2025)
This week in Mother Earth News we’re thanking hard-working pollinators. From honey bees to solitary mason bees, these busy bugs bear the burden of keeping many of our favorite plants pollinated and producing. Whether you’re a beekeeper or a wild bee enthusiast, learn how you can keep your local bees happy, healthy, and productive all summer long!
Video Courses
Cater to Pollinators Free Access [7/20/25-7/26/25]
The butterflies, bees, and fireflies need your help! Get tips on pollinator garden planting, community resources, and more in this crash course in DIY pollinator conservation activities.
Featured Videos
Become a Beekeeper. Want to be a beekeeper? Learn the best beekeeping practices for successful bee husbandry in the Midwest. Experts discuss the merits of keeping bees, the equipment needed and location considerations. They provide an overview of the first year in beekeeping, taking you quickly through equipment needs on through extracting your harvest.
Pollinator Garden Basics. Vegetables gardens are not the only productive gardens available for you to grow. Take the first steps to convert some of your space into a pollinator garden.
Featured Articles
How to Support Solitary Bees. Learn how to support solitary bees and create a home for the native bee populations in your area. Find some important solitary bee hive instructions, support pollinators and boost your plant health.
How to Keep Bees Cool in the Summer. Cool bees are more productive than bees that have to work at keeping cool. Learn how to keep bees cool in the summer by providing a water source and ventilation for the beehive.
Plant Perennials That Attract Butterflies. Make your yard a haven for beneficial bugs by planting perennials that attract butterflies and other pollinators. Dive into our list of the best pollinator plants for your region.
Herb Week (June 2025)
This week in Mother Earth News, we’re celebrating herbs! Whether for medicinal or culinary use, herbs benefit us in a myriad of ways. Browse some of our favorite herbal recipes for immune support, stress relief, first aid, and more! Take our quiz to find out, What herb are you? Browse our herbal health video courses, as well as some of our favorite herbal demonstration videos and articles for growing and using herbs.
You can also download Mother’s Natural Health Special Collection, a free guide of some of herbal applications for common ailments, natural cleaning solutions, and more!
Video Courses
Quest for Calm Free access, 6/22-6/28
Relieve your stress and anxiety by harnessing the healing power of plants. Join author Suzanne Tabert, Queen Bee of Cedar Mountain Herb School, as she shares some of her favorite herbal recipes from her book, Quest for Calm.
New videos July 27th! Aromatics from the Garden Member Exclusive
Harness the aromatic power of herbs and flowers to ease stress and bring energy into your life. Queren King-Orozco offers guidance for how to grow your own aromatic herbs in your own garden, and how to harvest them and incorporate them into your routine.
Featured Videos
Growing & Using Lavender. The fresh, clean scent of lavender has been used in cosmetics and skin care products since ancient times. Lavender smells good, improves your circulation, attracts pollinators to your yard, and helps you sleep, to name just a few reasons the popularity of this fragrant pant has never been higher. Learn how to start a new plant from cuttings, air dry flowers for year round use, and create your own DIY body care products that can be used for hair care, skin care, and in the bath. Janice Cox shares tips, recipes, and herbal craft ideas from her new workbook Beautiful Lavender.
Fermenting Cilantro & Other Garden Herbs. Say goodbye to drying herbs and hello to fermenting them. Discover the magic of fermentation for nutrition, flavor, and preservation through your garden’s herbs. Fermentation is easy and safe. In this class, learn why this is the best way to preserve tender herbs for superior flavor, and how to do it.
Herbal Tinctures: From Harvest to Jar. Join herbalist Maria Noël Groves in her garden and classroom as she demonstrates how to harvest fresh herbs to make homemade medicinal herbal tinctures, as featured in her books Grow Your Own Herbal Remedies and Body Into Balance. Tinctures are alcohol extracts, which are easy to make, potent, and have a long shelf life. Plus, they’re superb for extracting the medicinal properties of herbs. She’ll also discuss how to make a dry plant tincture, and how to choose the right alcohol for the job.
What is Motherwort? What is motherwort? Learn how you can take advantage of this medicinal herb’s natural defenses to calm your anxiety.
What are Aromatic Plants? What are the benefits of aromatic plants? Learn how your health and mood can benefit from the inclusion of aromatic plants in your garden.
Featured Articles
Jewelweed Medicinal Uses. If you’re in need of a quick poison-ivy rescue, jewelweed’s medicinal uses will help conquer the itch. Get recipes for poison ivy soap and a jewelweed poultice.
Herbs for Respiratory Health + Recipes. Allergy tincture, cough syrup, wild cherry honey, and lung-tea are your go-to herbal respiratory recipes to ease your woes.
Mother’s Directory of Culinary and Medicinal Herbs. Discover the exceptional flavors and gentle healing capabilities of more than 40 of the plant kingdom’s finest herbs in the Mother Earth News’ free Directory of Culinary and Medicinal Herbs. Featuring collections for our favorite herbs, such as:
