Grow it. Raise it. Preserve it. Cook it from scratch.
Have you ever looked at something in the grocery store and thought, “I wonder if I could make that myself?”
Or maybe you’ve wanted to grow a garden, learn to preserve food, make your own herbal preparations, or simply become a little more confident in the kitchen.
Well, that’s exactly why I created Food Prood Academy!
I’m sharing the skills I’ve learned through more than 24 years of homesteading in Michigan. Not just the things I’ve read about, but the things we actually do in our home, kitchen, gardens, and on our homestead.
You don’t need acres of land. You don’t need fancy equipment. And you certainly don’t need to know everything before you begin.
You just need to start somewhere.
Welcome to Food Prood Academy, where we’re bringing old-fashioned skills into modern everyday life!
SPECIAL YEAR-END PRICING — ENDS DECEMBER 31, 2026!
$240 for a FULL YEAR of Food Prood Academy!
Starting January 1, 2027, the monthly membership price increases from $20 to $30 per month — that’s $360 for 12 months!
Sign up for the annual membership now and SAVE $120 compared to paying $30 per month for a year!
That’s 12 full months of access to our growing library of gardening, cooking, preserving, herbalism, homesteading, and sourdough lessons, plus new lessons added throughout your membership.
No automatic renewal. Just a whole year to learn, grow, and put those old-fashioned skills to work!
Don’t wait! This special $240 annual offer ends December 31!
One year. Six areas of learning. An entire library of lessons, with more added throughout the year.
With your annual Food Prood Academy membership, you’ll receive:
Access to the entire existing Academy lesson library.
New lessons and resources added throughout your membership year.
Practical demonstrations, videos, and teaching resources.
Learning opportunities covering gardening, cooking, preserving, herbalism, homesteading, sourdough, and more.
A full 12 months to learn at your own pace.
Personal support from me! Ask questions anytime and receive answers based on my own hands-on experience.
The opportunity for one personal phone call with me each month.
After purchase, I’ll personally email your Patreon gift link and activation instructions within 48 hours. Your 12 months of access begin when you activate your gift membership.
What Can You Learn Inside Food Prood Academy?
There’s a whole lot more to homesteading than growing a few tomatoes or baking a loaf of bread!
The Academy brings together practical lessons from different areas of everyday life. Learn what interests you now, and come back to something new whenever you’re ready.
One of my favorite things about the Academy is that you don’t have to wait for a particular month to begin learning.
When you join the full Academy membership, you can explore the lessons already available and work through them at your own pace.
Want to learn about seed saving in the middle of winter? Go right ahead!
Feel like tackling pantry cooking while your garden is overflowing? You can do that too.
And as I publish new lessons, you’ll have even more opportunities to learn.
Learn what you need, when you need it.
A Look Inside the Academy
Wondering what you’ll actually learn inside Food Prood Academy?
Well, there’s quite a bit! These lessons come from years of doing things right here on our Northern Michigan homestead. Growing our food, raising animals, preserving the harvest, cooking from scratch, and learning to make the most of what we have.
You don’t have to learn everything at once. Pick something that interests you, start there, and build on what you’ve learned!
Here’s a look at some of the lessons waiting for you.
🌱 Gardening & Seed Saving
From planting your first seeds to saving them for next year’s garden, learn how to grow more of your own food with confidence.
Seed Starting — Step-by-Step Series
Best Seed Choices
Succession Planting
All Things Lettuce
Garlic — My Favorite Crop
Garlic for a Lifetime
Growing Mushrooms in the Garden
Why Seed Saving Matters
Seed Saving — Wet Method
Seed Saving — Dry Method
🍳 Cooking From Scratch
Learn to make real food using everyday ingredients, traditional methods, and the foods you already have on hand.
Whole Chicken Cooking Lesson
Garden-to-Table Summer Meals
How to Render Lard
Fire Cooking Lesson
How to Make Homemade Vanilla Extract
Cooking Lesson — Fermenting
Bonus Cooking Lesson
🫙 Food Preservation & Pantry Skills
Growing food is wonderful, but knowing how to store it and use it throughout the year is just as important!
Building a Practical Pantry
Homestead Systems: Staying Ahead During Harvest
Cooking Lesson — Fermenting
How to Harvest & Dry Your Own Herbs
🌼 Herbalism & Everyday Herbs
Learn to recognize useful plants, harvest them, and turn them into practical homemade preparations.
Plantain — “The Weed” Lesson
Creating Herbal Salves
Creating a Tincture with Calendula & Lemon Balm
Elderberry Syrup
Fire Cider
Digging Roots for Medicine
Raw Honey Herbal Lesson
Herbs to Stop Bleeding in Small Wounds
How to Harvest & Dry Your Own Herbs
🐓 Homesteading Skills
You don’t need a huge farm to begin learning old-fashioned skills! Start where you are and grow from there.
Raising Poultry (Meat Birds) in Your Backyard
What You Need for Baby Chicks
Maintaining Your Chickens
Moving Them Outside
Watering System for Meat Chickens
Processing Chickens
Composting 101
Homestead Systems: Staying Ahead During Harvest
🍞 Everyday Sourdough & Bread Skills
Sourdough doesn’t have to be complicated! Learn practical techniques for making homemade bread part of everyday life.
Sourdough Starter — Getting Started
Sourdough Terms & Supplies
Creating and Maintaining Your Starter
Starter Maintenance & Troubleshooting
Understanding Sourdough Discard
How to Tell When You’re Ready to Bake
Easy Sourdough Sandwich Loaf
Learning Wheat Berries — Parts One & Two
Bread Shaping Techniques
You’re Not Learning Alone — I’m Right Here With You!
One of the things I love most about Food Prood Academy is getting to know the people who are learning right alongside me!
Because here’s the thing. You can watch all the videos in the world, but sometimes you just need to ask someone a question.
Maybe your sourdough isn’t behaving the way you expected. Maybe you’re wondering what’s going wrong in your garden. Or maybe you’re trying something new and just need a little guidance.
That’s where I come in!
As a full learning member of Food Prood Academy, you’re welcome to ask me questions anytime. And when you do, I’m the one personally answering you.
Not an automated response. Not someone hired to answer questions. Just me, sharing what I’ve learned through more than 24 years of actually doing these things on our homestead.
And there’s more!
Let’s Have a Chat!
Your full Academy membership also includes the opportunity for one personal phone call with me each month.
We can talk about what you’re working on, questions you have, something you’re struggling with, or what you’d like to learn next.
Whether you’re growing your very first tomato plant or you’ve been homesteading for years, I’m here to help you keep learning and growing.
Because Food Prood Academy isn’t just a library of lessons. It’s a place where you can learn, ask questions, get encouragement, and have someone to turn to along the way.
One skill at a time, and you don’t have to figure it all out by yourself!
What Others Are Saying About Learning With Laura
Whether it’s through an in-person class, a homestead tour, or one of my books, one of my favorite things is helping others discover that they really CAN learn these old-fashioned skills. Here’s what a few folks have shared about their experiences with Food Prood.
And We’re Not Done Learning!
Your Academy membership isn’t just about what’s already here.
New lessons and resources are added throughout the year, and your full learning membership gives you access to both the existing library and new lessons released during your membership.
There’s always something to learn, whether you’re just getting started or you’ve been homesteading for years.
One skill at a time. One lesson at a time. That’s how we build Freedom in Food!
Some of the topics we’re planning include:
Planning your homestead and garden year.
Beekeeping basics.
Growing and working with useful herbs, including a deeper look at catnip.
Electric fencing and practical homestead management.
More from-scratch cooking, preserving, and everyday homesteading skills.
Herbs such as cat nip & Lemon balm
Kitchen confidence
Planning your homestead year
We’ll also be working on additional workshops and learning resources.
The 2027 lesson calendar is being finalized. Planned topics and publication dates may change as the year unfolds.
Your annual membership includes new Academy lessons published during your active 12-month membership.
Why I Started Teaching These Skills
I didn’t start out knowing how to do all this.
Good grief, I started with one garden box!
One thing led to another. Gardening led to preserving. Preserving led to cooking more from scratch. Raising animals, learning about herbs, making our own pantry staples—every new skill opened the door to something else.
And here we are, more than 24 years later.
Our family now produces much of the food we eat, but that didn’t happen overnight.
It happened one skill at a time.
That’s what I want to share with you through Food Prood Academy.
Not perfection. Not another overwhelming list of things you think you should be doing.
Just practical knowledge, a little encouragement, and the confidence to try something new.
Food is your fuel—fuel it the best.
And remember, the love of a garden starts with a single seed.
How Your Annual Membership Works
1. Purchase Your Membership
Choose the annual Academy membership and complete your one-time $240 payment through PayPal.
2. Watch Your Email
Within 48 hours of payment, I’ll personally send you an email with your Patreon gift link and instructions for activating your membership.
3. Activate Your Access
Follow the instructions to activate your gift membership through Patreon.
Your 12 months of Academy access begin when the gift membership is activated.
4. Start Learning!
Explore the existing lesson library, choose something that interests you, and get started!
You’ll also have access to new lessons published during your membership year.
No automatic annual renewal. No need to wait until January to begin.
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