How we work

What this site is

The Homestead Shelf reviews products that get sold hard and reviewed badly. The homesteading and preparedness market is full of sales pages with countdown timers and review sites that simply restate them. We think there is room for something plainer: what is in the box, what the sales page underplays, and who should not buy it.

Who writes this

My name is Sohail Akhtar, and I run The Homestead Shelf. It is a one-person site — there is no editorial team behind the word “we”, and I would rather say that plainly than let the plural imply otherwise.

I am not a horticulturist, a herbalist or a medical professional, and nothing on this site should be read as though I were. What I do is read the primary sources properly: the actual sales page rather than other people's summaries of it, the university and extension material behind a growing claim, and the public record behind a credential. Then I write down what I found, including the parts that make a product look worse.

The growing guides here reflect established horticultural practice for each species, not trials I ran in my own garden. Where a page depends on something I have not done myself, it says so on the page rather than in a disclaimer at the bottom.

If something here is wrong, I would genuinely rather know. Corrections go to hello@thehomesteadshelf.com and I will fix the page and say what changed.

How we research

• We read the actual sales page and vendor documentation rather than summarising other reviews.
• We verify credentials against primary sources. When a product is sold on someone's expertise, we check that expertise — and where other sites have it wrong, we say so and show the correction.
• We separate what we tested from what we researched. If we have not used a product ourselves, the review says so in plain language on the page. We do not imply trials we did not run.
• We mark uncertainty as uncertainty. If a fact cannot be verified, we leave it out or label it unknown rather than guessing.

How we make money

Some links on this site are affiliate links. If you buy through one, we may earn a commission at no additional cost to you. That is how the site is funded, and we disclose it at the top of every page that contains one.

What a commission does not do is change the assessment. Our reviews include the things that reduce sales — the species that are hard to grow, the year-long wait, the cheaper alternative — because a review that omits them is not worth reading. You can check that against the one we have published: the Medicinal Garden Kit review names three species we think its sales page understates. Read the full disclosure.

On herbs and health

Several products we cover involve plants with long traditional or folk histories. We write about that history because it is genuinely interesting and it explains why these species are grown together.

Traditional use is not clinical evidence. Nothing on this site is medical advice, and nothing here is intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any condition. Plants can interact with medications. Talk to a qualified healthcare provider before using any herbal preparation.

Corrections

If you find something inaccurate, tell us and we will fix it and note the change. Accuracy is the only real asset a site like this has. Get in touch.