About Stephanie

Stephanie Thurow – Certified Master Food Preserver, Bestselling Author of: WECK Small-Batch Preserving (2018),  Can It & Ferment It – Expanded and Revised Edition (2020), WECK Home Preserving (2020), and Small-Scale Homesteading (2023).

Stephanie is an author, certified master food preserver, food preservation instructor and freelance writer that lives in Minnesota. Her pastimes include: cooking-from-scratch, canning, fermenting, crafting, hand stamping metal jewelry, organic gardening, photography, chicken keeping, fishing, traveling and urban homesteading. She also enjoys laughing, dancing and visiting with family and friends. She has had a die-hard love of kimchi since she was a toddler, which ultimately lead to her interest in fermentation.

Connect with Stephanie: MinnesotafromScratch@gmail.com, Instagram: @minnesotafromscratch, Twitter: @StephLovestoCan YouTube: Stephanie Thurow

About: Small-Scale Homesteading 

With over thirty-five years of combined experience, homesteaders Stephanie Thurow and Michelle Bruhn have taught thousands of people across the globe how to garden, preserve food, tend backyard chickens, cook from scratch, and care for their families with natural homemade alternatives. Now, their homesteading knowledge and instruction can be found in one place with Small-Scale Homesteading.

In this sustainable guide, learn how to grow your own food, tap maple trees to make gallons of homemade syrup, successfully raise a small flock of laying hens, and more. Other topics include:

• The benefits of small-scale homesteading and its local impacts
• Soil health and composting
• Keeping chickens
• Planning a vegetable garden using annuals and perennials
• DIY recipes and projects for the home and garden 
• Seed saving and planting tips
• Handmade candles, soaps, lotions, and cleaning solutions 
• Companion and succession planting
• How to extend your growing season
• Explanation of approved food preservation methods and supplied needed
• Maple sugaring
• And so much more! 

Merging insight from two homesteaders proves to be twice the fun and reminds us that working together is always better.

Editorial Reviews

“From integrated pest management and companion planting, to setting up a chicken coop that will keep a flock safe and happy, to homemade natural lotions and salves, Small-Scale Homesteading provides anyone eager to be a bit more self-sufficient and take control of what’s going into (and onto!) their bodies a road map for success. Broken down into easily digestible sections conveyed in a friendly, conversational manner, this book is a must for aspiring homesteaders.”
—Lisa Steele, author of Fresh Eggs Daily and 101 Chicken Keeping Hacks

“Cultivating a relationship with your food is more important than ever, and doing so in a small space or urban setting never felt so approachable!” —Crystal Schmidt, creator of Whole-Fed Homestead and author of Freeze Fresh

“This knowledgeable guide is chock-full of practical advice for homesteaders, small farmers, or anyone interested in doing more for themselves.”―Rodney Wilson, senior editor at Hobby Farms Magazine

“This book is the inspiration you need for embracing the homestead lifestyle without acreage. The authors’ love of gardening shines through as they share techniques for making the most of limited space, proving that small-scale food production is possible, even when you have space restraints. They also delve into other methods of finding good quality, locally grown food, helping you bring your meals closer to home. Chapters on tapping for maple syrup, keeping chickens, and food preservation round out the book, highlighting many facets of homesteading that can be tackled no matter where you live.”
―Kris Bordessa, author of Attainable Sustainable: The Lost Art of Self-Reliant Living

“Experienced homesteaders Stephanie Thurow and Michelle Bruhn have created a guide packed with authoritative advice and practical projects that anyone can tackle at home, whether their property is rural or urban.”
—Rebecca Martin, technical editor at Mother Earth News

“Small-Scale Homesteading is an absolutely indispensable guide for anyone wanting to maximize their success in the garden and beyond. In a clear, concise style, it offers comprehensive solutions, smart strategies, beautiful photos, and the warm voices of the authors sharing their ambitious homesteading adventures in compact urban settings. Sustainable home growing has never been explained better.”
—Cynthya Porter, editor at Northern Gardener magazine

About: WECK Small-Batch Preserving

Food preservationist Stephanie Thurow has teamed up with the canning experts at WECK to show readers how to preserve throughout the year with WECK jars. The J. WECK Company has made aesthetically beautiful all-glass home canning jars for one hundred years. Never before offered, Stephanie has created a step-by-step guide to preserving with WECK jars and has developed one hundred delicious, small-batch recipes to can, ferment, and infuse with them.

Recipes in this helpful guide include Bloody Mary mix, pineapple and strawberry jam, escabeche, kimchi, various sauerkraut recipes, a variety of kvass recipes, numerous infused spirit concoctions including pineapple and mango vodka, orange, clove, and cinnamon whiskey, and so much more!

Recipes are paired with colorful, stunning photos and written in an easy, approachable format. Perfect for new preservationists and delicious enough for even seasoned pros to appreciate, WECK Small-Batch Preserving is every preservation enthusiast’s go-to resource for year-round preservation.

About: Can It & Ferment It (2017/Revised and Expanded 2020):

Welcome to the world of produce preservation. In Can It & Ferment It, blogger Stephanie Thurow brings the canning and fermenting communities together by offering recipes that work for both canning and fermenting. From a first-timer to the advanced preservationist, Can It & Ferment It shows canners and fermenters alike how they can have the best of both worlds.

Stephanie explains the differences between the canning and fermentation processes, emphasizes the importance of using local and organic produce, describes canning and fermenting terminology and the supplies needed for both methods, and offers more than 75 fun and easy recipes for every season. Readers will learn how to make the same recipes in two different ways; each can be enjoyed water bath canned or as a healthy probiotic-rich ferment. Recipes include:

Fermented strawberry chutney
Kimchi
The perfect garlic dill pickle
Fermented green tomato salsa
Curtido
Quick cinnamon-honey apple butter
And more!

About: WECK Home Preserving (2020)

Food preservationist Stephanie Thurow has once again teamed up with the canning jar experts at WECK to show readers how to preserve the harvest with their beautifully designed, reusable glass jars. In WECK® Home Preserving, Stephanie has created a step-by-step guide to preserving even more with WECK jars and has developed seventy-five delicious, small-batch recipes for water-bath canning, fermenting, and pickling with them. Some recipes don’t even require any processing at all!

Recipes in this helpful guide include:

• Flavored salts
• Coffee liqueur
• Peppercorn ranch dressing
• Crunchy garlic-dill pickles
• Elderberry syrup
• Fall-spiced peach jam
• Pizza sauce
• Pickled eggs
• And so much more!

With this go-to resource, you will become a confident food preservationist, understand how to safely and successfully preserve in the comfort of your own home, and learn the skills of kitchen crafts that can be passed down for generations.

Editorial Reviews:

“Whether you’re interested in trying fermented foods for gut health or want to have a plan when those tomatoes you planted all ripen at the same time, Can It and Ferment It is an oh-so-practical resource. Easy to read and follow—even if you’ve never canned before—its focus on small-batch production invites you test new recipes without the time and storage commitments that large batches require. Beyond its yummy jams and sauces, you’ll be amazed to learn how to pickle practically anything (and if you love garlic, you won’t be disappointed), so your fridge is always stocked with crunchy, flavorful goodies with bragging rights in every bite.” —Janet Mowat, Editorial Director, Harris Farmer’s Almanac

“Can It & Ferment It is a wonderfully put-together book. Quick, easy-to-understand instructions along with beautiful pictures to illustrate the processes make it a welcome addition to any culinary library. Food preservation and storage are big topics these days and this is a great way to learn how. Appropriate for the novice as well as the expert—also a good gift idea!” —NW Ferments

“I can already see that this book is going to become the most used preserving book that we own! Having one resource for a variety of delicious looking canning and fermenting recipes will make preserving that much more accessible to everyone. Reading Stephanie’s book is like having your own personal canning & fermenting expert right there with you.” ―Emily S. Kociolek, owner of Stone Creek Trading

“Stephanie Thurow’s Can It & Ferment It taps into two surprisingly parallel processes of preserving―canning and fermenting. Reading this book as a curious and captivated outsider to the canning and fermenting worlds, Thurow presents a charming selection of recipes for all seasons. Starting with an ambition for local, fresh, and organic produce, these lovely recipes are approachable and interesting, attainable and original―the perfect addition to any meal.” ―Make It Minnesota magazine

“Can It & Ferment It combines canning and fermenting options into one comprehensive book to answer the age-old question “what to do with all that produce?” With great tips on how to get kids involved through age-appropriate tasks perfect for teaching little ones about food (and patience!), this book can fill many great summer afternoons with the kids in the kitchen and fresh produce on the counter.” ―MightyNest

“Written from her kitchen to yours, Can It & Ferment It is Stephanie’s visual and tutorial feast for the senses. These are easy to follow recipes that make the best of fresh local ingredients, making the canning and fermenting trend approachable for the eager home cook!” ―Jill Holter, Lakewinds Food Co-op community and media specialist

“As a WECK canning jar user myself, I’ve long enjoyed the beauty they bring to my pantry shelves. But these jars are more than just attractive; they and Stephanie Thurow’s recipes can secure your food independence.” ―Rebecca Martin, group editor at GRIT and Mother Earth News

“This book is chock full of easy-to-follow recipes that keep homegrown fruits and vegetables on the table well into winter. I can’t wait to try the sauerkraut!” ―Rodney Wilson, senior editor at Hobby Farms

“Each of Stephanie’s recipes presents an opportunity to create our own farm-fresh food security. Thanks to this beautiful book, we can all can and ferment the harvest, season-to-season, reveling in its peak nutrition.” ―Patti Long, founder of FarmMade 

“An informative preserving book on how to utilize the beautiful and practical WECK jars! ―Ann Accetta-Scott, author of The Farm Girl’s Guide to Preserving the Harvest, blogger at AFarmGirlInTheMaking.com

“There’s now a cookbook devoted to preserving with WECK that is certain to become the definitive resource for all of us who use and admire these stylish glass jars.” —Marisa McClellen, author of Food in Jars, Preserving the Pint, and Naturally Sweet Food in Jars

“Those rows of colorful, jewel-like preserves in shapely WECK jars? Stephanie Thurow’s lovely book puts them well within reach of the home cook. Her clear, easy-to-follow recipes for small batches of inventive jams, pickles, and healthful ferments are sure to inspire beginners and more seasoned preservers alike to start rounding up those jars and the most perfectly ripe, seasonal local produce to put in them.” —Liana Krissoff, author of Canning for a New Generation

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