This Orange Marmalade recipe is made with ordinary oranges and lemons, and it’s as unfussy as it is delicious. It follows the “old fashioned” technique of sitting in a pot overnight, and every spoonful will make your morning toast sparkle.

How does a solar water heater work? Explore the various types of solar water heaters. Reduce your reliance on fossil fuel emissions by building a passive solar water heater.

Which kind of fabric is best for the planet? Unfortunately, trying to choose might leave you with decision paralysis. While it’s well-advised to avoid the petroleum-based synthetic fibers such as polyester (which can burn through millions of barrels of oil), knowing what kinds of fabric to buy instead is hardly clear. Are you better off with breathable but resource-hungry cotton, or is fast-growing but heavily processed bamboo a smarter choice for the environment? Let’s look closer at the growing and processing methods of six of today’s most popular natural fibers to find out.

Not everyone has the privilege to live in an earthship. In fact, an earthship is not your everyday home that you will see in your neighborhood, let alone something you will regularly come across while doing house hunting. But they are out there, considered by some as the most eco-friendly homes ever built while providing the owner with a sustainable, carefree and healthy lifestyle. Many people who take on the task of building their own earthship are usually seen as extremely eco-friendly, and hearing complaints from them about their sustainable home is rare. Not that you can blame them, I mean why look for faults and complain about something you designed or built yourself? Imagine the mass production of earthships for the ordinary folks today. Yes, it is the age of the green movement, and many people are trying to live a more eco-friendly lifestyle. However, the furthest many will go to live “eco-friendly” is through recycling and making use of smart technology.

Do itchy eyes, sniffles and a scratchy throat sound familiar? Many of us know the symptoms of allergies: An estimated 40 percent of the population is sensitized to allergens, meaning that the immune system has a strong response when certain substances are inhaled from our environment. Common allergens include pollen, mold, pet dander and dust mites–tiny bugs that feast on shed flakes of skin and are a common cause of year-round allergies and asthma. Allergic reactions range from mild coldlike symptoms to headaches to an aggravation of asthma symptoms. Sufferers do not always recognize allergens as the cause of their symptoms. Even indoors, allergies often worsen as spring approaches. At this time of year, certain pollen counts rise and humidity levels typically increase, encouraging the growth of mold and dust mites. While some of this is out of our control, we can take steps to reduce the level of allergens in our homes, keeping ourselves and our families feeling better and breathing easier. These four cleaning and maintenance tactics can reduce our exposure to allergens and provide a powerful boost to overall health.

Changing your life requires courage and imagination, and Cassandra Naylor has plenty of both. Growing up at Cliffeholme, the Maryland farm her great-grandfather bought just after the Civil War, instilled in Naylor a love and respect for nature, and she became a dedicated environmentalist long before the term was invented. When her husband passed away, Naylor decided the time had come to simplify her life and put her beliefs about ecology and conservation into practice. First on Naylor’s agenda was to give the large stone home she’d lived in all her life to her son and his family, and move into a smaller, more practical dwelling. An old barn on her property perfectly suited her simpler tastes and love of nature. Built by her grandmother in 1902, the structure was still sound, though the old horse stalls were now inhabited by birds and a variety of other wild animals. Encouraged by her children, she decided to turn the barn into her new home. Her plan was nearly thwarted, however, when a housing development sprang up next door, its access road just 6 feet from her property line. Though tempted to abandon the project, Naylor resolved to create an energy-efficient home that would be the antithesis of mass-produced housing. She planted a screen of evergreens to hide the access road and carried on with her plans.

Fresh, nutritious eggs and homegrown roast chicken dinners are reason enough to raise your own poultry. If you use your chickens in the garden, you can also harvest rich manure to create homemade chicken manure as fertilizer and put your flock to work mixing organic wastes into superb compost. Plus, if you let your birds range on your property, get ready for a big bonus: They’ll provide terrific control of ticks and other pests.

Have you had problems with your chickens being annoyed with flies, mites or other problematic insects? You may not have noticed your chickens scratching in the spring when the insects become more active, but odds are that they’ve been doing it. You can grow plants for chickens that can help to keep the insects off of your chickens and away from their coop. Lavender, marigolds, mint and nasturtium are easy to grow and all have insecticide value for your chickens.

Chickens are the perfect starter livestock for your homestead — whether you have a small backyard in an urban area or 20 acres in the country. Chickens provide eggs, meat and fertilizer, plus they’re small and easy to manage. We developed a survey of our readers who have lots of experience with various breeds to find the best chicken breeds. (Many thanks to more than 1,000 readers who participated in the survey.) The summaries below include only results from people who have more than three years experience raising chickens. And we only included breeds or hybrids if at least three people responded to questions about them.

When I had the urge to buy six chickens, I began looking into different coop designs. I also talked to a chicken-owning friend who told me he would make his coop mobile and smaller if he was to start over. Taking those things into consideration, I got to work making my own. For the majority of my project, I was fortunate enough to use reclaimed material. A truck frame had been given to me a few years prior — a trailer with a pickup bed still attached. To start, I began with the bare, stripped-down truck frame, removing the leaf springs and relocating the axle to the center of what would become the coop.