Holly Jessop is the founder of Mama’s Cellar, a growing community dedicated to food self-sufficiency, traditional preservation, and helping families feed their households well—without breaking the bank.
As the mother of fourteen children and a longtime homeschool educator, Holly has spent more than two decades mastering the art of stretching ingredients, preserving harvests, cooking from scratch, and creating nourishing meals for a large family on a practical budget. What began as necessity quickly became a passion for reviving the lost skills previous generations considered everyday life.
From canning pantry staples and preserving seasonal harvests to bulk cooking, emergency preparedness, gardening, scratch-made meals, and old-fashioned kitchen wisdom, Holly teaches families how to create abundance through preparation—not panic.
Through Mama’s Cellar, Holly shares practical systems that help modern families become less dependent on grocery store volatility and more confident in their own kitchens. Her approach blends timeless homesteading principles with real-world strategies for busy families who want healthier food, lower grocery bills, and greater peace of mind.
Holly has built a loyal audience through her online community, where thousands follow her for trusted recipes, preservation tips, family systems, and encouragement to embrace a simpler, more intentional lifestyle.
Known for her warmth, humor, and deeply practical advice, Holly empowers families to reclaim forgotten skills that create resilience for future generations.
When she’s not teaching, writing, preserving food, or homeschooling, Holly can usually be found in her kitchen experimenting with new recipes, tending gardens, or managing the beautiful chaos of raising her extraordinary family near the red rock cliffs of Southern Utah.
Because true wealth begins with a full pantry, capable hands, and a family gathered around the table.
My name is Holly, and I am a mama to fourteen wonderful, hungry, growing children. Long before I had a houseful of mouths to feed, I had something even more valuable: a grandmother who taught me how to read the seasons, a mother who showed me what a full cellar looked like, and hands that learned early how to turn summer’s abundance into winter’s comfort.
The knowledge passed down to me didn’t come from cookbooks. It came from standing beside women who understood that growing your own food and knowing how to preserve it isn’t just practical — it’s a kind of freedom. Canning, pickling, fermenting, drying, curing — these aren’t lost arts in our home. They are Tuesday.
Mama’s Cellar is where I share everything I’ve learned, and everything I’m still learning. You’ll find recipes rooted in generations of tradition, guides to growing a kitchen garden even when life is busy, and honest advice on stocking your shelves with wholesome, real food your family can actually live on.
Whether you’re brand new to canning or you grew up with a pressure canner on the stove, there is something here for you.
Because preserving food is about more than jars on a shelf. It’s about nourishing your people, honoring what the earth gave you, and leaving something behind worth passing on.
Pull up a chair. The cellar is always open.
Chef Walker developed his cooking skills over 20+ years of traveling in Thailand, where he learned from the best street vendors and home cooks. Back home, his Thai food has earned him a James Beard Award and a Michelin star for his restaurant.
I used to spend a lot of time in the kitchen. I mean A LOT. Before we had kids, back when I was a grad student, I would spend 1.5-2 hours per day making dinner. If we were having friends over I’d start pre-making things a week in advance. I loved every minute of it.
I knew that I needed to spend less time cooking but I was afraid that the food wouldn’t be as good or that I wouldn’t love cooking as much. I had to stay true to my inner cook and continue to make delicious homemade food. I just had to do it more simply and more quickly.
