WELCOME TO the farmers lamp!
Cook From Scratch: Baking and Homestyle Cooking With Real Grains
Recipes that work the first time, written for whole grains and ancient wheat. Plus the kitchen skills your grandmother assumed everybody already had.
Or start with the basics below.
Old Time Wisdom For Modern Living
The best recipes in this kitchen were handed down. Those precious recipe cards with the handwriting still on some of them. Tried and tested, modified and refined. Memories in each bite!
Cooking From Scratch as a Way of Life
The chocolate pie recipe on this site came out of a handwritten card in Ma Horton’s kitchen. It is the single most-read thing The Farmer’s Lamp has ever published, and it has been made in more kitchens than she ever could have imagined. That is what a recipe is. A thing somebody figured out, wrote down, and handed over.
This is the part of the site where we collect those. From-scratch baking with einkorn, spelt, and whole grains that behave nothing like the bag of all-purpose in your pantry. Homestyle Southern cooking that feeds people without a trip to the store, but with what is on hand. And the small kitchen skills, cast iron, brown sugar, baking powder, peeling a farm egg, that nobody teaches anymore because everyone assumed you already knew.
Einkorn Recipes
Ancient wheat, tested until it worked. Bread, pie crust, tortillas, cakes, cookies, and the conversion rules that keep einkorn from defeating you.
From-Scratch Baking Recipes
Breads, pies, cakes, and cookies made with whole and heritage grains. Spelt, whole wheat, and sourdough included.
Homestyle Cooking Recipes
Southern suppers, Instant Pot shortcuts, and holiday tables. Real food for real weeknights, most of it out of the garden or the coop.
Kitchen Tips and How-Tos
Cast iron, homemade staples, and the techniques that make everything else easier. Make your own baking powder. Peel a farm egg without losing half of it.
Where do The Farmer’s Lamp (TFL) recipes and tips come from?
Most of them came from somebody. The old-fashioned chocolate pie is Ma Horton’s. The icebox pickles are Mrs. Minnie’s. The household tips came out of a great-grandmother’s kitchen, and they are printed here roughly the way she gave them.
Rhonda, founder
The einkorn and spelt recipes are different. There was no recipe card for that. Rhonda Crank, who founded The Farmer’s Lamp in 2013 and has cooked from scratch for more than forty-five years, tested standard recipes against spelt and einkorn flour until they behaved, then wrote down what actually changed. Hydration, mixing time, rise. That testing is why the einkorn recipes here work on the first try, and it is the reason this part of the site outgrew everything else.
Rhonda has served as Chief Editor of Homesteading Today Magazine and has contributed to Countryside Magazine, Grit Magazine, and the Homestead Livestock Summit. She is now retired from writing.
Friends of The Farmer’s Lamp
While Rhonda is now retired from writing. The Farmer’s Lamp is carried forward by Dee and by the cooks, bakers, and elders interviewed for the work published here.
They are Friends of The Farmer’s Lamp, who choose to share their experience in hopes that it helps others on their journey. You’ll find a number of Dee’s favorite family recipes tucked in, those tested treasures from aunts, uncles, and those who made a little go a long way with added flavors of real food.
HAVE QUESTIONS?
Leave a comment on a blog or send us a note. We answer every time, but please give us some grace during busy season!
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Old Time Wisdom For Modern Living
The best recipes in this kitchen were not invented here. They were handed over, and the handwriting is still on some of them.
“Add a teaspoon of cornstarch to the sugar before beating it into the egg whites for a meringue that will never fail or be weepy.”
– Ma Horton, Rhonda’s great-grandmother, from the family cookbook
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Instant Pot Tri-Tip Roast Recipe That Works For Any Roast
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Fast and Easy Homemade Buttermilk For Any Recipe
When you need buttermilk for a favorite recipe, homemade buttermilk is a convenient, easy option that reduces waste. Many folks find that…
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Wholesome Spelt Flour Pancakes Made Simple
Warm, simple, and wholesome, spelt flour pancakes bring comfort to your table any time of day with every bite.
Start Here
Where should a new cook start?
We learn together at TFL. Let’s get you started in a new skill, new recipe, or with the basics so you can build your homesteading skills, no matter where you live today. Sustainable living is a process, the learning keeps going and that is what makes it so fun! Let’s take step together today. Read on.
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Best Tips for Baking With Einkorn Flour
Baking with Einkorn flour opens the door to a delightful world of taste and nutrition. As an ancient grain, Einkorn offers a…
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Easy, Flaky Homemade Pie Crust with Vinegar
It seems almost everyone has a pie crust recipe that’s “The easiest, best crust ever.” I don’t know about you, but making…
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Einkorn Bread Recipe For Bread Machine or Oven
Einkorn flour brings a lovely old-world charm to the kitchen, doesn’t it? If you’re experimenting with Einkorn for the first time or…
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Old Fashioned Chocolate Pie Recipe From My Great-Grandmother
Once you’ve prepared this delectable old-fashioned chocolate pie recipe from scratch, there’s simply no turning back to store-bought or instant pie fillings.…
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Sweet Potato Breakfast Recipe: Savory, Easy, Filling
A craving and a basket of fresh-dug sweet potatoes turned into this savory one-skillet casserole. It feeds a crowd, starts the day…
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What Is Einkorn Flour and What Are Its Benefits?
With the growing epidemic of gastrointestinal disorders in the U.S., many are seeking life-changing solutions in their diets. Enter Einkorn flour—an ancient…
Does cooking from scratch actually save money?
Mostly yes, with one honest exception. Bread, staples, and suppers built from what you grew or raised cost a fraction of what they do at the store, and homemade versions of pantry items like baking powder and brown sugar are almost free. Einkorn is the exception. It costs considerably more than all-purpose flour, and whether it earns that is a decision about digestion and flavor, not about the grocery bill.
Make Your Own Baking Powder, three ingredients and pennies
Make Brown Sugar at Home, two ingredients
What Is Einkorn Flour, for deciding whether the price is worth it to you
What makes baking with einkorn different?
Einkorn is an ancient wheat with weaker gluten and thirstier flour than modern all-purpose. Doughs feel stickier, rise faster, and collapse if overworked. Use less liquid than a standard recipe calls for, knead briefly, and watch the dough rather than the clock. Most einkorn failures are overmixing, not bad flour.
What should you bake first with einkorn?
Start with something forgiving. Tortillas and pie crust both work well early because neither depends on a big rise, so the weaker gluten never becomes a problem. Bread comes next, once you have felt how the dough handles. Cakes and cookies are easiest of all and are where most people get their confidence back after a failed loaf. Bake in that order and einkorn stops being intimidating in about a week.
Einkorn Tortillas, fast, forgiving, and hard to ruin
Einkorn Pie Crust, where the weak gluten is an advantage
Einkorn Bread, bread machine or oven
Einkorn Sourdough Starter, once you are ready for the long game
What goes wrong when people first bake with einkorn?
Almost always the same five things, and all of them come from treating it like all-purpose flour.
01.
Using the full amount of liquid the original recipe calls for.
05.
Assuming a sourdough starter behaves the same on einkorn.
06.
Have Different question? Send us a note!
We all learn together here at The Farmer’s Lamp. See Contact Us.
What does the cooking year look like?
The kitchen follows the garden and the coop, whether you plan it that way or not. Summer is putting things up while they are cheap and plentiful, which is why the pickle recipes get made in July. Fall turns toward pies and squash and the first real baking weather. Winter is bread, holiday tables, and the recipes that only come out once a year. Spring is eggs, lots of them, and figuring out what to do with all of them.
Easy Homemade Pumpkin Pie, and what to do with the rest of the pumpkin
Stress-Free Holidays, for cooking through December without losing your mind
Common questions about baking with einkorn and whole grains
By weight, close to it. By volume, no. Einkorn absorbs less liquid, so a straight cup-for-cup swap usually gives you a batter that is too wet. Start by holding back roughly fifteen percent of the liquid, then add it in only if the dough needs it.
Einkorn contains gluten and is not safe for celiac disease. Some people with non-celiac gluten sensitivity report tolerating it better, which may relate to its different gluten structure. That is individual experience, not medical guidance. Anyone with a diagnosed condition should talk to their doctor before trying it.
Usually too much liquid, too much kneading, or both. Einkorn gluten is weaker and breaks down rather than strengthening with long mixing. Knead briefly, let the dough stay slightly tacky, and watch it rather than the timer. A second attempt with less water fixes most dense loaves.
Both are ancient wheats, but einkorn is the older and simpler of the two, with the weakest gluten. Spelt behaves more like modern wheat and is more forgiving for a beginner. If einkorn has frustrated you, spelt is a reasonable next thing to try before giving up on ancient grains.
Most people order it online, since few grocery stores carry it. Whole berries keep far longer than milled flour and can be ground as needed if you have a mill. Buy a small bag first. It is expensive enough that you want to know you like it before committing.
Where does the kitchen connect to the rest of the homestead?
- Nearly everything here starts with an egg. See RAISE for where they come from and how to handle them.
- The produce in these recipes came out of a garden first. See GROW.
- Canning, freezing, and putting up the harvest live in MODERN HOMESTEADING.
Bake it the way it was handed down
Recipes tested until they worked, written for the flour you actually have. Start with the free conversion chart, or take the whole collection.
Prefer to browse first? Start with from-scratch recipes.
