Embrace off-grid green living with a new edition of the bestselling classic guide to a more sustainable way of life from the father of self-sufficiency.For over 40 years, John Seymour has inspired thousands to make more responsible, enriching, and eco-friendly choices with his advice on living sustainably. The Self-Sufficienct Life and How to Live It offers step-by-step instructions on everything from chopping trees to harnessing solar power; from growing fruit and vegetables, and preserving and pickling your harvest, to baking bread, brewing beer, and making cheese. Seymour shows you how to live off the land, running your own smallholding or homestead, keeping chickens, and raising (and butchering) livestock. In a world of mass production, intensive farming, and food miles, Seymour's words offer an alternative: a celebration of the joy of investing time, labor, and love into the things we need. While we can't all be able to move to the countryside, we can appreciate the need to eat food that has been grown ethically or create things we can cherish, using skills that have been handed down through generations. With refreshed, retro-style illustrations and a brand-new foreword by Alice Waters, this new edition of Seymour's classic title is a balm for anyone who has ever sought solace away from the madness of modern life.

This comprehensive guide to homesteading provides all the information you need to grow and preserve a sustainable harvest of grains and vegetables; raise animals for meat, eggs, and dairy; and keep honey bees for your sweeter days. With easy-to-follow instructions on canning, drying, and pickling, you’ll enjoy your backyard bounty all winter long. Also available in this series: The Backyard Homestead Seasonal Planner, The Backyard Homestead Book of Building Projects, The Backyard Homestead Guide to Raising Farm Animals, and The Backyard Homestead Book of Kitchen Know-How.

OVER 1 MILLION COPIES SOLDThe 50th anniversary edition of the original sustainable living manual of basic country skills, preparedness, and wisdom for living off the land.This essential homesteaders’ encyclopedia will keep your family healthy, safe, and self-sufficient, no matter what's going on in the world.From homesteaders to urban farmers, and everyone in between, there is a desire for a simpler way of life: a healthier and self-sufficient natural lifestyle that allows you to survive and thrive—even in uncertain times. Carla Emery's classic guide will teach you how to live off the grid, be prepared, and do it yourself.This comprehensive, 1000-page Encyclopedia of Country Living will show you how to:• Can, dry, and preserve food• Plan your garden with a beginner's guide to gardening• Grow your own food• Make 20-minute cheese• Make your own natural skincare products• Bake bread• Cook on a wood stove• Learn beekeeping• Raise chickens, goats, and pigs• Create natural skincare products• Make organic bug spray• Treat your family with homemade natural remedies• Make fruit leather• Forage for wild food• Spin wool into yarn• Mill your own flour• Tap a maple treeAnd more!The Encyclopedia of Country Living has been guiding readers for more than 50 years, teaching you all the skills necessary for living independently off the land. Whether you live in the city, the country, or anywhere in between, this is the essential guide to living well and living simply.

Over 200,000 copies sold—fully updated! Dye your own wool, raise chickens, make your own cheddar cheese, build a log cabin, and much much more.Anyone who wants to learn basic living skills—the kind employed by our forefathers—and adapt them for a better life in the twenty-first century need look no further than this eminently useful, full-color guide.Countless readers have turned to Back to Basics for inspiration and instruction, escaping to an era before power saws and fast-food restaurants and rediscovering the pleasures and challenges of a healthier, greener, and more self-sufficient lifestyle.Now newly updated, the hundreds of projects, step-by-step sequences, photographs, charts, and illustrations in Back to Basics will help you dye your own wool with plant pigments, graft trees, raise chickens, craft a hutch table with hand tools, and make treats such as blueberry peach jam and cheddar cheese. The truly ambitious will find instructions on how to build a log cabin or an adobe brick homestead.More than just practical advice, this is also a book for dreamers—even if you live in a city apartment, you will find your imagination sparked, and there’s no reason why you can’t, for example, make a loom and weave a rag rug. Complete with tips for old-fashioned fun (square dancing calls, homemade toys, and kayaking tips), this may be the most thorough book on voluntary simplicity available.

With in-depth information on electric fencing, watering, and husbandry for ruminants, poultry, and pigs, plus butchering, dairying, and more “If we work hard, we sleep well.” Twenty years ago, when authors Shawn and Beth Dougherty purchased the land they would come to name the Sow’s Ear, the state of Ohio designated it “not suitable for agriculture.” Today, their family raises and grows 90% of their own food. Such self-sufficiency is largely the result of basing their farming practices around intensive pasture management. Pioneered by such luminaries as Allan Savory, Greg Judy, and Joel Salatin, the tenets of holistic grazing―employed mostly by larger-scale commercial operations―have been adapted by the Doughertys to fit their family’s needs. In The Independent Farmstead, The Sow’s Ear model for regenerating the land and growing food―“the best you ever tasted”―is elucidated for others to use and build upon. In witty and welcoming style, The Independent Farmstead covers everything from choosing a species of ruminant and incorporating it into a grass-based system to innovative electric fencing and watering systems, to what to do with all of the milk, meat, and, yes, manure that the self-sustaining farm produces. Within these pages, the Doughertys discuss how to: \nFind and improve poor, waste, or abused land and develop its natural water resources; Select and purchase the appropriate ruminant for regenerating your farmstead; Apply fencing strategies and pasture management basics; Implement basic, uncomplicated food processing, including large and small animal butchering and cheese making; and Integrate grass, gardens, and livestock to minimize or eliminate the need for off-farm inputs. \nAs the Doughertys write, more and more people today are feeling “the desire for clean, affordable food, unmodified, unprocessed, and unmedicated and the security of local food sourcing for ourselves and our children.” The Independent Farmstead is a must-have resource for those who count themselves as part of this movement: both new and prospective farmers and homesteaders, and those who are interested in switching to grass-based systems. Best of all it’s the kind of rare how-to book that the authors themselves view not as a compendium of one-size-fits-all instructions but as “the beginning of a conversation,” one that is utterly informative, sincere, and inspiring.

Enjoy a weekend breakfast featuring eggs, bacon, and honey from your own chickens, pigs, and bees, or a holiday meal with your own heritage-breed turkey as the main attraction. Gail Damerow covers everything you need to successfully raise your own farm animals, from selecting the right breeds to producing delicious fresh milk, cheese, honey, eggs, and meat. Even with just a small plot of land, you can become more self-sufficient, save money, and enjoy healthy, delicious animal products. Also available in this series: The Backyard Homestead, The Backyard Homestead Book of Building Projects, The Backyard Homestead Seasonal Planner, and The Backyard Homestead Book of Kitchen Know-How.

The Self-Sufficient Backyard is helping Americans transforming from an honest homeowner into an independent, self-sufficient person that has an extra income and doesn't owe anybody a thing. You will not be troubled with what happens to the world around you, because everything you need is where is should be: on your property!

Bless Your Family with Healthy, Organic Food Certified master food preserver and cooking enthusiast Georgia Varozza wants to show you how safe and easy canning your favorite foods can be. She will teach you the basics, including how to fit the process into your busy life, the equipment you’ll need, and step-by-step instructions for both water-bath and pressure canning. Enjoy wholesome recipes for canning fruit, vegetables, meat, soups, sauces, and so much more. Save money by preserving your own food and gain valuable peace of mind by knowing exactly what’s going into the meals you’re serving. Join the growing number of households who are embracing the pioneer lifestyle. It’s time for you and your family to feel good about food again. This cookbook can help.

From the experts, the new bible in home preserving. Ball Home Canning Products are the gold standard in home preserving supplies, the trademark jars on display in stores every summer from coast to coast. Now the experts at Ball have written a book destined to become the "bible" of home preserving. As nutrition and food quality has become more important, home canning and preserving has increased in popularity for the benefits it offers: \nCooks gain control of the ingredients, including organic fruits and vegetables Preserving foods at their freshest point locks in nutrition The final product is free of chemical additives and preservatives Store-bought brands cannot match the wonderful flavor of homemade Only a few hours are needed to put up a batch of jam or relish Home preserves make a great personal gift any time of year These 400 innovative and enticing recipes include everything from salsas and savory sauces to pickling, chutneys, relishes and of course, jams, jellies, and fruit spreads, such as: \nMango-Raspberry Jam, Damson Plum Jam Crab Apple Jelly, Green Pepper Jelly Spiced Red Cabbage, Pickled Asparagus Roasted Red Pepper Spread, Tomatillo Salsa Brandied Apple Rings, Apricot-Date Chutney The book includes comprehensive directions on safe canning and preserving methods plus lists of required equipment and utensils. Specific instructions for first-timers and handy tips for the experienced make the Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving a valuable addition to any kitchen library.

From craft culture to survivalists, preppers, homesteaders, urban farmers, and everyone in between there is a desire for a simpler way of life—a healthier, greener, more self-sustaining and holistic approach to modern life. The knowledge you need to survive and thrive off the grid is at your fingertips in The Encyclopedia of Country Living, the best-selling resource for the homesteading movement. With its origins in the back-to-the-land effort of the late 1960s, Carla Emery’s landmark book has grown into a comprehensive guide to building your sustainable country escape haven, while lowering your carbon footprint in the process. The 40th anniversary edition offers up-to-date and detailed information on the fundamentals of topics like homegrown food; raising chickens, goats, and pigs; beekeeping; food preservation; mail-order supply sourcing; foraging; and much, much more (even how to deliver a baby)—everything you need to lead a self-sufficient lifestyle in the 21st century. Basic, thorough, and reliable, this book deserves a place in urban and rural homes alike.Table of Contents1 Oddments2 Introduction to Plants3 Grasses, Grains & Canes4 Garden Vegetables5 Herbs & Flavorings6 Tree, Vine, Bush & Bramble7 Food Preservation8 Introduction to Animals9 Poultry10 Goats, Cows & Home Dairying11 Bee, Rabbit, Sheep & Pig12 Appendix

Improve and decorate your garden and home with easy projects and beautiful crafts. Make a Bird and Bee bath, a Flower Press, a Foraged Garland, Herb Napkins Rings, and much much more! With step-by-step instructions illustrated in full color.Create your dream garden with simple bird baths, herb drying racks, and unique planters. And bring the outdoors indoors with natural fabric dyes, pressed flower paper, and herbal bouquets. DIY Garden Projects and Crafts book relies on home grown and foraged materials that will inspire creativity and capture the bounty of the seasons. The sixty practical and decorative projects for use in the garden and home include:\nGardener's Tool Apron\nMetal garden charms\nVeggie Market Tote\nMacrame produce bag\nGourd bird feeder\nKirigami leather hanging planter\nTomato cage plant stand\nShibori Dyed Fabric\nHerbal lotion bars\nGardener hand scrub\nAll-purpose thyme cleaner\nAnd more!\n\nDo-It-Yourself Garden Projects and Crafts features detailed, step-by-step instructions as well as simple crafting and gardening tips that will make your projects successful.

A comprehensive how-to manual of Polyface Farm's signature designs--with tips, tricks, and a half century of lessons learned through trial and error Have you wondered how to build the Polyface broiler shelter, or the dolly to move it, or an Eggmobile, Gobbledygo or Shademobile? For folks getting started, folks adding enterprises, or folks wanting a cheaper bootstrap way to build portable livestock infrastructure, Polyface Designs has all the diagrams and do-it-yourself building specifications. Joel Salatin wrote the text and Polyface former apprentice and engineer extraordinaire Chris Slattery did the drawings. Ultimately practical, the book includes how to build a corral, a home-made head gate and even how to select the right axle for your project. Square footage requirements for the deep bedding hay shed and area advice for pig pastures make this the definitive repository for a lifetime of Polyface experimentation. A massive volume, its 568 pages are in full color and beautiful enough to be a coffee table book even though you'll use it in your shop. Don't let the cover price scare you; one building tip can more than save the price of the book.

Homesteading is a lifestyle of self-reliance and sustainability, characterised by home gardening and animal husbandry, food preservation, and even the small-scale production of textiles, clothing, and craftwork. This indispensable reference book is divided into three sections: food (from sourdough bread baking to pickling vegetables to fermenting kefir), herbalism (from growing an herbal garden to making skin and hair care products to foraging), and animal husbandry (from beekeeping to buying, raising, and owning chickens, cows, and pigs). Lavishly illustrated with 250 full-colour photographs and full of detailed tips, techniques, and recipes, this reference book is comfortable on the coffee table, in your kitchen, or even propped open for use in your backyard garden.

Best-selling author Melissa Caughey knows that backyard chickens are like any favorite pet — fun to spend time with and fascinating to observe. Her hours among the flock have resulted in this quirky, irresistible guide packed with firsthand insights into how chickens communicate and interact, use their senses to understand the world around them, and establish pecking order and roles within the flock. Combining her up-close observations with scientific findings and interviews with other chicken enthusiasts, Caughey answers unexpected questions such as Do chickens have names for each other? How do their eyes work? and How do chickens learn? Foreword INDIES Silver Award Winner

"I love your ideas, but I only have a few acres. How do I do this at my scale?"   Success with domestic livestock does not require large land bases. Joel Salatin and his family's Polyface Farm in Virginia lead the world in animal-friendly and ecologically authentic, commercial, pasture-based livestock production. In Polyface Micro he adapts the ideas and protocols to small holdings (including apartments)! Homesteaders can increase production, enjoy healthy animals, and create aesthetically and aromatically pleasant livestock systems. Whether you're a new or seasoned homesteader, you'll find tips and inspiration as Joel coaches you toward success and abundance.

A fresh, new guide to the backyard lifestyleThe homesteading movement is continuing to grow, as more people are stepping up to have a hand in where their food comes from. Whether you want to dabble or immerse yourself completely in the do-it-yourself, back-to-basics lifestyle, Welcome to the Farm is a comprehensive, fully illustrated guide to growing the very best food right in your own backyard. Shaye Elliott takes readers on a journey that teaches them how to harvest baskets full of organic produce, milk a dairy cow (and make butter), plant a homestead orchard, can jams and jellies, and even raise chickens and bees. From her experience running The Elliott Homestead, Shaye provides all the how-to wisdom you need to know about:\n\nThe benefits of a home garden\nThe basics of seed starting\nBuilding your own greenhouse\nWhat belongs in the winter garden\nCanning, freezing, and dehydrating techniques and recipes\nThe pros and cons of caged vs. free-range chickens\nKeeping a dairy cow and what to do with all the milk\nRaising animals for meat\nMaking your own cider and wine\nAnd so much more!\n\nWelcome to the Farm is aimed to serve homesteaders and urban-farmers alike, guiding them through the beginning stages of small-area farming and utilizing whatever amount of space they have available for optimal and delicious food production.

When is the right time to shear a sheep? Is there a market for manure? What time of day is best to collect eggs? What is the correct way to milk a goat? What does a duck eat? Can a cow and a sheep share the same pasture? Which types of rabbits are easiest to raise?\n The perfect book for anyone who has ever dreamed of having that little place in the country, Barnyard in Your Backyard offers tried-and-true, expert advice on raising healthy, happy, productive farm animals: chickens, geese, ducks, rabbits, goats, sheep, and dairy cows.\n Each chapter focuses on a different animal, discussing the pros and cons of raising the animal, housing and land requirements, feeding guidelines, health concerns, and a schedule for routine care. Species that are easy to raise, hardy, and companionable are profiled. First-time farmers will discover simple, clear instructions for caring for animals throughout the year, as well as guidelines for processing barnyard products such as milk, wool, and eggs. Combining practical advice from real experts, easy-to-use checklists and charts, a seasonal care calendar, and detailed black-and-white illustrations, Barnyard in Your Backyard offers a comprehensive review of the ins and outs - the tribulations and triumphs - of living with and caring for a small barnyard.

Modernizing the outdoor, survival industry with it's innovative products, Pro force equipment is the choice of all levels of outdoorsman.

Backyard Homesteading will help you turn your yard—no matter how small it may be—into a productive area that provides homegrown food, including fruits, vegetables, honey, eggs, milk, and meat! Inside Backyard Homesteading, learn all about: GETTING STARTED \nBenefits of pure food Family recreation Local regulations for backyard homesteaders Potential yields and savings \nRAISING VEGETABLES AND HERBS \nGarden planning/layout Structures/irrigation Vegetable profiles Planting techniques Composting/healthy soil Seasonal gardening \nGROWING FRUITS, BERRIES, AND NUTS \nPlanting fruit trees and bushes Fruit profiles Organic pest control Grafting and pruning Harvesting methods \nRAISING CHICKENS \nThe joy of chickens Collecting eggs Care and feeding tips Other small animals \nRAISING GOATS \nBenefits of goat milk Structures/fencing Care and feeding tips Other large animals \nBEEKEEPING \nBenefits of beekeeping Care and harvesting Building hives Collecting honey \nHARVEST HOME \nCanning/drying/freezing Making beer, wine, cider Making jerky, sausage Making jams, jellies Pickling/salting/smoking Building root cellars \nIf you want to take control of the food you eat and the products you use, Backyard Homesteading will help you learn how to do it—even if you live in an urban or suburban house on a typical-size lot. Backyard Homesteading shows homeowners how to turn a yard into a productive and wholesome "homestead" that allows you to grow your own fruits and vegetables and raise farm animals, including chickens and goats. In addition to covering the topics of growing fruits and vegetables and raising common farm animals, this handy and informative guide covers the laws and regulations of raising livestock in populated areas, and demonstrates how to use and preserve the bounty your land produces. Richly illustrated with more than 400 color photographs and artist's renderings, this back-to-basics guide will get you started on your path to self-sufficiency!

Savor the bounty! Whether harvested from your own backyard garden or bought at a local farmers’ market, nothing is more satisfying than delicious fresh vegetables. In this seasonal cookbook, Andrea Chesman offers 175 easy-to-make recipes that are designed to bring out the very best in whatever produce is currently peaking. From spring’s first Peas and New Potato Salad to autumn’s sweet Caramelized Winter Squash and Onion Pizza, serving up the harvest has never been so tasty!

Create Fabulous Modern Soaps The Truly Natural, Eco-Friendly Way\nWith this new comprehensive guide, herbalist Jan Berry offers everything the modern-day enthusiast needs to make incredible botanical soaps. Beginners can join in the sudsy fun with detailed tutorials and step-by-step photographs for making traditional cold-process soap and the more modern hot-process method with a slow cooker. Jan presents 50 easy, unique soap recipes with ingredients and scents inspired by the herb garden, veggie garden, farm, forest and more. Sample soap recipes you won’t want to miss are Lavender Milk Bath Bars, Sweet Honey & Shea Layers Soap, Creamy Avocado Soap, Citrus Breeze Brine Bars, Mountain Man Beard & Body Bars and Classic Cedarwood & Coconut Milk Shave Soap. Featured resources are Jan’s handy guides to common soapmaking essential oils and their properties, oil and milk infusions with healing herbs and easy decoration techniques. The book also contains Jan’s highly anticipated natural colorants gallery showcasing more than 50 soaps that span the rainbow. Soap crafters of all levels will enjoy referencing this book for years to come.\n*All recipes are sustainably palm-free!*Expand your herbal product collection with these other books in Jan Berry's bestselling series:- Easy Homemade Melt & Pour Soaps (newly released!)- The Big Book of Homemade Products for Your Skin, Health & Home (coming April 2020, available for pre-order now)

Consumers are no longer satisfied with the industrial types of soap available at the grocery store. They want specialty soaps with just the right scent, emollients, and eye-appeal. They want to pamper themselves and their loved ones with personal soaps made to suit their own tastes and preferences. Now they can get that perfect custom-made soap by making it themselves. \nDrawing on years of experimentation and fine-tuning, author and chemist Dr. Robert McDaniel has developed simple instructions and recipes for making a wide variety of cold process soaps as well as melt and pour and rebatched soaps for the beginner. McDaniel instructs on how to work with fragrances, skin treatments, colors, and shapes, and discusses the aromatherapy benefits associated with many essential oils. \n-25 recipes for cold process soapmaking. -Easy to follow step-by-step instructions. -Time-saving melt and pour and rebatch techniques.

Homesteading From Scratch is for people who want to do things differentlythe type of people who want to eat real food, grow herbs, make cheese, raise baby animals, hunt mushrooms, pick blackberries, unschool their children, can jelly, ferment kraut, farm organically, connect to nature, live intentionally, and more.Guiding readers from desire to full-blown off-the-grid livingand everything in betweenthis book covers farming, animal husbandry, food preparation, homeschooling, fiber arts, and even marketing. It provides inspiration from other homesteaders, with operations from small to large, who have made a go of it, outlining their successes and failures throughout the process. It helps to democratize the homesteading movement, by providing ins” for nearly every level of dedication, from the container gardener to full-time farmers. It provides the knowledge necessary to discover homesteading as a movement and as a lifestyle.Inspired by From Scratch magazine, an online publication devoted to homesteading and intentional living, this book provides readers with continued support and community for information and resources online. This book serves as a reference, as well as a cheerleader, for those who want a bit more control and responsibility over where their food comes from, what they consume, and how they live their lives.

A practical, systems-based approach for a more sustainable farming operation To many people today, using the words “factory” and “farm” in the same sentence is nothing short of sacrilege. In many cases, though, the same sound business practices apply whether you are producing cars or carrots. Author Ben Hartman and other young farmers are increasingly finding that incorporating the best new ideas from business into their farming can drastically cut their wastes and increase their profits, making their farms more environmentally and economically sustainable. By explaining the lean system for identifying and eliminating waste and introducing efficiency in every aspect of the farm operation, The Lean Farm makes the case that small-scale farming can be an attractive career option for young people who are interested in growing food for their community. Working smarter, not harder, also prevents the kind of burnout that start-up farmers often encounter in the face of long, hard, backbreaking labor. Lean principles grew out of the Japanese automotive industry, but they are now being followed on progressive farms around the world. Using examples from his own family’s one-acre community-supported farm in Indiana, Hartman clearly instructs other small farmers in how to incorporate lean practices in each step of their production chain, from starting a farm and harvesting crops to training employees and selling goods. While the intended audience for this book is small-scale farmers who are part of the growing local food movement, Hartman’s prescriptions for high-value, low-cost production apply to farms and businesses of almost any size or scale that hope to harness the power of lean in their production processes.

Winner of the Garden Media Guild (UK) Practical Book of the Year Award for 2017 No dig organic gardening saves time and work. It requires an annual dressing of compost to help accelerate the improvement in soil structure and leads to higher fertility and less weeds. No dig experts Charles Dowding and Stephanie Hafferty, explain how to set up a no dig garden, including how to: • Make compost and enrich soil • Learn skills you need to sow and grow annual and perennial veg • Harvest and prepare food year round • Make natural cosmetics, cleaning products, and garden preparations The no dig approach works as well in small spaces as in large gardens. The authors’ combined experience covers methods of growing, preparing and storing the plants you grow for many uses, and includes recipes and ideas for increasing self-reliance, saving money, living sustainably, and enjoying the pleasure of growing your own food, year round. An acknowledged expert in no dig and author of a half-dozen books on the subject, Charles’ advice is distilled from 35 years of growing vegetables intensively and efficiently. Stephanie, a kitchen gardener, grows in her small, productive home garden and allotment, and creates no dig gardens for restaurants and private estates. She creates delicious seasonal recipes made from the vegetables anyone can grow. She also explains how to use common plants you can grow and forage for to make handmade preparations for the home and garden.

“A profound, graceful, and literary work of philosophy and economics, well tempered for our times, and yet timeless. . . . It will change the way you look at the food you put into your body. Which is to say, it can change who you are.” — Boston GlobeA beautiful deluxe trade paperback edition celebrating the 10th anniversary of Barbara Kingsolver's New York Times bestseller that describes her family's adventure as they move to a farm in southern Appalachia and realign their lives with the local food chainSince its publication in 2007, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle has captivated readers with its blend of memoir and journalistic investigation. Updated with original pieces from the entire Kingsolver clan, this commemorative edition explores how the family's original project has been carried forward through the years.When Barbara Kingsolver and her family moved from suburban Arizona to rural Appalachia, they took on a new challenge: to spend a year on a locally-produced diet, paying close attention to the provenance of all they consume. Concerned about the environmental, social, and physical costs of American food culture, they hoped to recover what Barbara considers our nation's lost appreciation for farms and the natural processes of food production. Since 2007, their scheme has evolved enormously. In this anniversary edition, featuring an afterword by the entire Kingsolver family, Barbara's husband, Steven, discusses how the project grew into a farm-to-table restaurant and community development project training young farmers in their area to move into sustainable food production. Camille writes about her decision to move back to a rural area after college, and how she and her husband incorporate their food values in their lives as they begin their new family. Lily, Barbara's youngest daughter, writes about how growing up on a farm, in touch with natural processes and food chains, has shaped her life as a future environmental scientist. And Barbara writes about their sheep, and how they grew into her second vocation as a fiber artist, and reports on the enormous response they've received from other home-growers and local-food devotees.With Americans' ever-growing concern over an agricultural establishment that negatively affects our health and environment, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle is a modern classic that will endure for years to come.

Put your wooded land to work! This comprehensive manual shows you how to use your woodlands to produce everything from wine and mushrooms to firewood and livestock feed. You’ll learn how to take stock of your woods; use axes, bow saws, chainsaws, and other key tools; create pasture and silvopasture for livestock; prune and coppice trees to make fuel, fodder, and furniture; build living fencing and shelters for animals; grow fruit trees and berries in a woodland orchard; make syrup from birch, walnut, or boxelder trees; and much more. Whether your property is entirely or only partly wooded, this is the guide you need to make the best use of it.

Preserving food can be one of the most intimidating aspects of homesteading and cooking. Luckily, no one makes it as easy and as much fun as farm-girl-in-the-making Ann Acetta-Scott. For a beginner new to the world of preserving, the ideal tool is a detailed reference guide, and in The Farm Girl’s Guide to Preserving the Harvest, Ann covers all the basics on canning, dehydrating, freezing, fermenting, curing, and smoking, including how to select and use the right tools for each method.This guide takes home preservers through the beginning, moderate, and advanced stages of preserving. Newcomers can start with a simple jam and jelly recipe using a hot water bath canner, while others may be advanced enough to have mastered the pressure canner and are ready to move onto curing and smoking meat and fish. With more than 30 delicious and healthy recipesand Ann's expertise and encouragement, the home preserver will build confidence in the most common methods of preserving.

A guide to 32 of the best and most common edible wild plants in North America, with detailed information on how to identify them, where they are found, how and when they are harvested, which parts are used, how they are prepared, as well as their culinary use, ecology, conservation, and cultural history.

The equine hoof is a complex marvel of natural engineering, built to withstand tremendous forces and able to adapt to an astonishing range of environmental conditions. It also changes daily—for better or for worse—in response to external and internal factors. Few horse owners have the opportunity to acquire a deep understanding of the hoof, which limits their ability to advocate on their horses’ behalf and make informed decisions about hoof care and management. This book is the first resource of its kind to combine the most current and useful information available, gleaned from the research and wisdom of top hoof experts around the world, with a unique “hands-on” approach. The authors provide basic terms and anatomy, clearly illustrate the differences between healthy and unhealthy feet, discuss biomechanics and management concerns, and cover the causes, treatments, and prevention of commonly encountered problems, including laminitis, white line disease, and thrush. Along the way, readers are given activities to help them better analyze and understand the most important aspects of equine hoof health, such as hoof balance, depth of sole, and point of breakover. Easy–to–follow language, over 400 full–color photographs, and do–it–yourself exercises promise to empower horse owners and caretakers of all experience levels with the tools they need to accurately assess hoof health and keep their horses as sound and happy as possible.

Packed with delicious recipes, natural remedies, gardening tips, crafts, and more, this indispensable lifestyle reference from the popular blogger makes earth-friendly living fun.Whether you live in a city, suburb, or the country, this essential guide for the backyard homesteader will help you achieve a homespun life--from starting your own garden and pickling the food you grow to pressing wildflowers, baking sourdough loaves, quilting, raising chickens, and creating your own natural cleaning supplies. In these richly illustrated pages, sustainability-guru Kris Bordessa offers DIY lovers an indispensable home reference for sustainability in the 21st century, with tried-and-true advice, 50 enticing recipes, and step-by-step directions for creating easy, cost-efficient projects that will bring out your inner pioneer. Filled with 340 color photographs, this relatable, comprehensive book contains time honored-wisdom and modern know-how for getting back to basics in a beautiful, accessible package.

Domesticated small animals, from the cow to the rabbit, have been enjoyed by human owners around the world since the dawn of civilization nearly 12,000 years ago. From pets to beasts of burden and even just a friendly face in the barn, animals like these produce thousands of products you use around the house every day and can be a great addition to your home, property, or small farm. For anyone looking to raise such animals, though, the realities of their new furry and feathery companions can be jolting — from the care they need on a regular basis to the food they eat.This book was written for anyone considering raising domesticated animals for family pets, producers of eggs and milk, or a source of humanely treated meat. You will learn how to care for chickens, from choosing the right breed to raising them for egg production. You will learn how to handle geese and ducks and information about choosing the correct breeds, feeding, housing, breeding, and selecting the right ones for egg production. You will also learn about egg incubation, maintaining poultry health, and how to raise them for meat. Other animals you will learn how to care for include rabbits, goats, sheep, dairy cows, and beef cattle.Small farmers and animal experts have been interviewed in detail and their responses added to this book to provide additional insight into every aspect of raising farm animals. This includes details about how to purchase, house, feed, breed, record, and butcher animals of all types as well as how to gather milk, use goats and cows for maintaining your fields, and even keeping records of births and selling babies. Everything you need to know about raising small animals for your farm is included in this guide to provide you the first steps to raising domesticated poultry and livestock.Atlantic Publishing is a small, independent publishing company based in Ocala, Florida. Founded over twenty years ago in the company president’s garage, Atlantic Publishing has grown to become a renowned resource for non-fiction books. Today, over 450 titles are in print covering subjects such as small business, healthy living, management, finance, careers, and real estate. Atlantic Publishing prides itself on producing award winning, high-quality manuals that give readers up-to-date, pertinent information, real-world examples, and case studies with expert advice. Every book has resources, contact information, and web sites of the products or companies discussed. This Atlantic Publishing eBook was professionally written, edited, fact checked, proofed and designed. The print version of this book is 288 pages and you receive exactly the same content. Over the years our books have won dozens of book awards for content, cover design and interior design including the prestigious Benjamin Franklin award for excellence in publishing. We are proud of the high quality of our books and hope you will enjoy this eBook version.

Families looking for nature-based fun away from phones and screens will adore this wholesome children’s collection of cooking, crafting, and gardening projects, locally printed on 100% recycled paper.In the Little Homesteader: A Spring Treasury of Recipes, Crafts, and Wisdom, young readers can try their hand at various spring-themed projects as well as learn interesting seasonal wisdom, and nature-related facts along the way.Packed with fun ideas to keep kids occupied during holidays or at weekends, readers can discover the joy of sowing seedlings, learn how to care for baby chicks, brew dandelion tea and, craft windchimes from foraged materials.The activities from author and homesteading teacher Angela Fanning include eco-friendly practices, such as recycling or reusing materials, and encourage readers to respect nature.All the activities are broken down into steps, clearly explained and accompanied by AnneliesDraws’ adorably wholesome illustrations. The gardening and planting activities will suit any space, as they will work equally well on windowsills as in gardens.The latest from theLittle Homesteader series, with these books readers can get creative, practice handy self-sufficiency skills, handcraft items for themselves or as gifts for loved ones, learn about nature, and celebrate the best of each season.Find even more nature-centered seasonal fun in: Little Homesteader: A Summer Treasury of Recipes, Crafts, and Wisdom.Ivy Kids brings you beautiful, sustainably printed books to rewild your child, nurture creativity, and foster a deep connection with the living world. Winner of the Sustainability Award at the Independent Publishers Awards 2022, Ivy Kids books are planet-friendly, printed on 100% post-consumer recycled paper, locally to where they will be sold.

You’re excited to plant your first vegetable garden—but where to start? In The First-Time Gardener: Growing Vegetables, you’ll find the answers you’re looking for.*Winner of the GardenComm 2022 Media Awards Silver Award of Achievement in the Photography/Book General Readership Category*Homesteader Jessica Sowards, the warm and energetic host of YouTube’s Roots and Refuge Farm, is the perfect teacher for new gardeners, offering not just know-how but inspiration and time-management tips for success.Before you sink your hands into the soil, she’ll answer all those questions rolling around inside your head:Where do I put my new garden? How do I prepare the soil? What vegetables should I plant? Is it better to start new plants from seed or should I buy transplants? What about watering, feeding, and taking care of my garden? What do I do if bugs show up?There are no stupid questions here. Everyone has to start somewhere, after all. Not only will you learn how to prepare, plant, and tend your first vegetable garden, you’ll also learn:How to design an eco-friendly layout How to grow with the seasons How to maximize your harvest, even if you only grow in a small spaceJessica wants your first food-growing experience to be a positive one, and she’s prepared to go the distance to make sure tending the earth becomes your new favorite hobby.A single growing season is all it takes to fall in love with growing your own healthy, organic, nutrient-dense food. With Jessica as your guide, you’ll soon discover all the satisfactions, challenges, and great joys of growing your own food garden.This book is part of The First-Time Gardener’s Guides series from Cool Springs Press, which also includes The First-Time Gardener: Growing Plants and Flowers and The First-Time Gardener: Raised Bed Gardening. Each book in The First-Time Gardener’s Guides series is aimed at beginner gardeners and offers clear, fact-based information that’s presented in a friendly and accessible way, including step-by-step instructions and full-color illustrations throughout.

Live a Bountiful Life Do something good for your family by learning how to plant a garden that will yield healthy, wholesome food throughout the year. Melissa K. Norris, fifth generation homesteader and host of the popular Pioneering Today podcast, will walk you through each step of the process, from planning your food crops and garden space to harvesting and preserving the food you grow. Even intermediate to experienced gardeners will discover dozens of new ideas. More than just practical advice, you’ll learn how gardening can contribute to a sustainable lifestyle and give you a sense of accomplishment, peace of mind, and overall joy. Make the Family Garden Plan your “grow-to” guide for good eating and greater well-being for you and your loved ones.

Seasonal ingredients, traditional techniques, and nourishing recipes Cooking traditional foods from scratch is easier and less expensive than you might think. In simpler times, people cooked from scratch using seasonal ingredients and traditional techniques like canning, fermenting, and drying to preserve the harvest. Mary Bryant Shrader follows these principles to create delicious, nutrient-dense meals that are affordable, budget-friendly, and additive-free. Now you can learn why so many people are big fans of the Mary's Nest website and YouTube channel. In The Modern Pioneer Cookbook, Mary shows you how to master the basics of pioneer cooking to make over 85 delicious recipes that are all simple and incredibly nourishing. She shows you how to make cultured dairy, nourishing bone broths, fermented vegetables, sourdough starters, and sourdough bread, as well as traditional home-cooked recipes. You'll also learn how to soak and sprout grains, prep ingredients, stock your pantry, and shop for other essential ingredients. Here's what you'll find inside: Over 85 traditional, from-scratch recipes for bone broths, cultured dairy, ferments, home-baked breads, including sourdough, as well as recipes for chicken, meats, fish, vegetables, desserts, and much more. Beautiful photography, including detailed pictures that will help you learn traditional cooking techniques. Detailed instructions and cooking guidance that will help readers of all abilities cook like a pioneer, using traditional techniques. Tips for sourcing ingredients and stocking and equipping your own traditional foods kitchen. Discover for yourself how you can use simple ingredients and traditional techniques to cook the modern pioneer way.

Imagine the excitement of four children playing in the park when they discover a real, live fairy. Not just any fairy, but Stellaria, the chickweed fairy. Chickweed is one of their favorite healing plants and it turns out Stellaria was looking for them. She needs the children’s help to restore the fading magic in the Fairy Herb Garden. When Stellaria takes them to her fairy home, the children find that restoring the magic means facing a troll. Can they figure out how to use chickweed to heal the troll’s ailments? Will they be able to solve the riddle to guess her name? This story is the start of the Herb Fairies thirteen book series. Herb Fairies is a magical tale of plants and their remedies that teaches kids about the healing herbs.

Whether you want to live off the grid in a fully self-sufficient way, or just turn your backyard into your own small homestead, here is advice on backyard chicken care, how to plant a no-till garden that heals the soil, composting, canning, and much more.The Weekend Homesteader is organized by month—so whether it’s January or June you’ll find exciting, quick-to-do projects that allow you to start your own homestead without getting overwhelmed. If you need to fit homesteading into a few hours each weekend and would like to have fun while doing it, these projects will be right up your alley, whether you live on a forty-acre farm, a postage-stamp lawn in suburbia, or a high rise. Permaculture techniques will turn your homestead into a vibrant ecosystem and attract native pollinators while converting our society's waste into high-quality compost and mulch. Meanwhile, enjoy the fruits of your labor right away as you learn the basics of cooking and eating seasonally, then preserve homegrown produce for later by drying, canning, freezing, or simply filling your kitchen cabinets with storage vegetables.As you become more self-sufficient, you'll save seeds, prepare for power outages, and tear yourself away from a full-time job, while building a supportive and like-minded community. You won't be completely eliminating your reliance on the grocery store, but you will be plucking low-hanging (and delicious!) fruits out of your own garden by the time all forty-eight projects are complete.

The urban homesteading movement is spreading rapidly across the nation. Urban Homesteading is the perfect "back-to-the-land" guide for urbanites who want to reduce their impact on the environment. Full of practical information, as well as inspiring stories from people already living the urban homesteading life, this colorful guide is an approachable guide to learning to live more ecologically in the city. The book embraces the core concepts of localization (providing our basic needs close to where we live), self-reliance (re-learning that food comes from the ground, not the grocery store; learning to do things ourselves), and sustainability (giving back at least as much as we take). Readers will find concise how-to information that they can immediately set into practice, from making solar cookers to growing tomatoes in a barrel to raising chickens in small spaces to maintaining mental serenity in the fast-paced city environment. Full of beautiful full-color photographs and illustrations, and plenty of step-by-step instructions, this is a must-have handbook for city folk with a passion for the simple life.

Start a mini farm on a quarter acre or less, provide 85 percent of the food for a family of four and earn an income. Mini Farming describes a holistic approach to small-area farming that will show you how to produce 85 percent of an average family’s food on just a quarter acre—and earn $10,000 in cash annually while spending less than half the time that an ordinary job would require. Even if you have never been a farmer or a gardener, this book covers everything you need to know to get started: buying and saving seeds, starting seedlings, establishing raised beds, soil fertility practices, composting, dealing with pest and disease problems, crop rotation, farm planning, and much more. Because self-sufficiency is the objective, subjects such as raising backyard chickens and home canning are also covered along with numerous methods for keeping costs down and production high. Materials, tools, and techniques are detailed with photographs, tables, diagrams, and illustrations.

Written especially for the young sugarmaker and filled with photos, illustrations, and activities, this book takes the reader from tree to table. You'll learn what trees to tap, how to collect the sap, how to make syrup, and the science behind this age-old process. The book also includes a special section for adults with step-by-step instructions on home sugaring.

Do you lie awake at night, wondering how to make your family more self-sufficient in an uncertain world? Are you concerned and wondering how you are going to make it through to your homesteading dreams with your current finances? Are you wanting to feel more prepared for any eventuality so that you no longer experience fear when reading the newspaper? Are you wondering how to expand your homesteading efforts while still maintaining the rest of your life? Maybe you’ve considered homesteading, but you’re stuck in an apartment, and don’t even know where to begin. Master Gardener, teacher, and author Tessa Zundel’s book, The Do It Yourself Homestead, will help you go from home to homestead little by little. The Do It Yourself Homestead covers eight topics, with each one given its own chapter:The Homestead Kitchen, The Homestead Garden, Greening the Homestead, Livestock Wherever You Are, Homestead Finances, Family Times, The Homestead Community and The Prepared Homestead. There are four levels of homesteadyness (a totally made up word) in The Do It Yourself Homestead, ensuring that it truly has something for everyone. Are you a HOMESTARTER, the curious and courageous novice? Or do you belong at the HOMESTEADISH level, with a bit of experience under your belt? Perhaps you’re a HOMESTEADAHOLIC, eagerly pursing homesteading wherever you live? Are you the sage HOMESTEADED type who fully identifies with the homesteading lifestyle? With each level comes its own education, challenges, goals and projects. Extensive resources are recommended in every section to provide further reading and study for the serious homestead student. Challenges are issued to help you expand outside of your comfort zone and build up your homesteading community – especially the community that is your home and family. Also included are countless quotes and interviews with real life homesteaders, all on varying lot sizes. Each one has a different family make up, a different vision and a different voice but each are inspiring homesteaders. Provided, too, are abundant bonus materials including a DIY Homestead Journal, homeschooling addendum to the book and free downloads. Four hundred pages of quality, DIY homesteading information and encouragement! The Do It Yourself Homestead shows you how to:\n\nNot worry that you’re missing out on an important skill because you’ll see that all homesteading goals are connected and you’re taking it one step and at time. Gain peace of mind because have clear goals and meaningful projects to engage in on specific homesteading topics. Make your own food staples and use up what you already have on hand in healthy ways. Feel years younger and pounds lighter by letting go of clutter on your homestead, emotional baggage, and outmoded thought patterns. Learn to preserve surplus fruits and vegetables safely and even more efficiently than your great grandmother did, so that you don’t have to go to the grocery store as often. Find the livestock that’s right for you, even if you have no land. Create homesteading systems that are self-sustaining even if you live in the city. Gain a level of preparedness that doesn’t depend on how big your food storage is whether you live in an apartment or on hundreds of acres. Get out of debt and live without feeling deprived. Teach your kids responsibility by getting them involved. And so much more!\n

From the pitas of ancient Mesopotamia to the white breads of the modern bakery, kids can explore the globe with more than 30 exciting recipes and activities about the history of bread.

One part science, one part cultural history, and countless parts fascination, Bees celebrates the important role that these intriguing insects have played in our ecosystem throughout the ages. From Athena to Alexander the Great and from Egypt to Ethiopia, Bees explores different methods of beekeeping and uncovers the debt that humans owe this vital species. With beautifully accessible illustrations depicting everything from bee anatomy to the essentials of honey making, readers will be captivated by the endless wonders of this seemingly small speck of the animal kingdom.

Here is a full-color guide to help you and your family to be kinder to Mother Earth, while being kind to your bank account! It doesn’t matter where your homestead is located—farm, suburb, or even city—you can learn to grow vegetables, use alternative energy, can and preserve, and more! You, too, can be more self-sufficient!With the rapid depletion of our planet’s natural resources, we would all like to live a more self-sufficient lifestyle. But in the midst of an economic crisis, it’s just as important to save money as it is to go green.\nPlan, plant, and harvest your own organic home garden.\nEnjoy fruits and vegetables year-round by canning, drying, and freezing.\nBuild alternate energy devices by hand, such as solar panels or geothermal heat pumps.\nDifferentiate between an edible puffball mushroom and a poisonous amanita.\nPrepare butternut squash soup using ingredients from your own garden.\nConserve water by making a rain barrel or installing an irrigation system.\nHave fun and save cash by handcrafting items such as soap, potpourri, and paper.\n\nExperience the satisfaction that comes with self-sufficiency, as well as the assurance that you have done your part to help keep our planet green. The Homesteading Handbook is your roadmap to living in harmony with the land.

Craft a soothing aloe lotion after an encounter with poison ivy, make a dandelion-burdock tincture to fix sluggish digestion, and brew up some lavender-lemon balm tea to ease a stressful day. In this introductory guide, Rosemary Gladstar shows you how easy it can be to make your own herbal remedies for life’s common ailments. Gladstar profiles 33 common healing plants and includes advice on growing, harvesting, preparing, and using herbs in healing tinctures, oils, and creams. Stock your medicine cabinet full of all-natural, low-cost herbal preparations.

Around the globe most people get their calories from annual agriculture - plants that grow fast for one season, produce lots of seeds, then die. Every single human society that has relied on annual crops for staple foods has collapsed. Restoration Agriculture explains how we can have all of the benefits of natural, perennial ecosystems and create agricultural systems that imitate nature in form and function while still providing for our food, building, fuel and many other needs - in your own backyard, farm or ranch. This book, based on real-world practices, presents an alternative to the agriculture system of eradication and offers exciting hope for our future.

The Skillful Forager is the ultimate forager’s guide to working with any wild plant in the field, kitchen, or pantry. From harvesting skills that will allow you to gather from the same plant again and again to highlighting how to get the most out of each and every type of wild edible, trusted expert Leda Meredith explores the most effective ways to harvest, preserve, and prepare all of your foraged foods. Featuring detailed identification information for over forty wild edibles commonly found across North America, the plant profiles in this book focus on sustainable harvesting techniques that can be applied to hundreds of other plants. This indispensable reference also provides simple recipes that can help you make the most of your harvest each season.

Do you want to become self-sufficient but aren’t sure where to start? Unsure if the homesteading life is for you? Even concerned you can’t achieve this dream in your current living situation? These are typical sentiments of people who share the homesteading dream or are just starting their journey. But you don’t have to stay trapped in those thoughts, The Homesteading Companion will show you how to: · Grow and preserve your own food · Raise small livestock · Save money · Get your finances in order · Share tips on apartment and micro-homesteading · Build a great homestead right where you are · Test the waters to see if homesteading really is the life for you · And so much more! This book will teach you valuable skills while the author, Jennifer Poindexter, gives it to you straight about new-homesteading mistakes and valuable lessons she learned when launching her homestead dreams many years ago. If you are ready to figure out if the homesteading lifestyle is right for you and how to go about launching your dream right where you are, then this book is for you.

Unlike other children’s books, this one talks to kids, not their parents. Vibrant copy and zany illustrations will excite them about digging in the dirt, planting, making special projects, and loving nature.\n38 kid-tested and kid-approved projects for young gardeners ages 6-14.\nMore than 50 illustrations energize the book.\nEvery page piques kids’ curiosity about plants and sparks their creativity.\nPrimer on tools, identification of plant parts, and simple vocabulary.\nEasy-to-follow format makes gardening doable.\nAll projects include materials that can easily be found around the house.\nTeaches how to create garden spaces from a recycled pop bottle planter to a raised garden bed.\nLong-term projects are paired with short-term crafts.\nStep-by-step instructions and illustrations, plus color photographs of finished projects.\nFeatures children’s gardens from the American Horticultural Society and Garden Clubs of America.

New and experienced gardeners find this book (companion to the Flower Gardener’s Handbook and Container Gardener’s Handbook) to be so useful that it is now in its sixth printing! Created for novices, aspiring growers, green thumbs, and old hands alike, The Old Farmer’s Almanac Vegetable Gardener’s Handbook is loaded with advice and inspiration to guarantee success for every vegetable garden—and every gardener! Contains step-by-step advice for successfully growing 32 vegetables; scores of timesaving tips and proven veggie-growing techniques; more than 150 stunning, full-color photos; insightful and entertaining anecdotes from experienced gardeners; recommended varieties; essential reference tables and charts; dedicated pages for recording ongoing observations; and much more! The Old Farmer’s Almanac, founded in 1792, has a strong presence in the gardening information field that includes such products as the annual Garden Guide (available in both print and digital formats), the Garden Planner (an interactive online resource for planning and recording garden activities), the Gardening calendar (a perennial favorite of gardeners and nature lovers for more than 45 years that has been the #1 best-seller in garden calendars on Amazon), and the Gardening Club (a membership opportunity that offers people a selection of Old Farmer’s Almanac gardening and related products every year). The Old Farmer’s Almanac reaches millions through its powerful presence on Almanac.com and the Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest social media platforms. In addition, a daily e-newsletter promotes the Almanac family of products to more than 600,000 recipients, and a biweekly gardening e-newsletter reaches 157,575 gardeners. 54% of young adults (ages 18 to 34) would rather go to a garden center than a nightclub. According to latest trends for popular gardening projects, “Creating vegetable gardens” is #1. Growing vegetables offers folks—even those who have only a small space—the opportunity to grow their own food, get outdoors and exercise in a wholesome environment, feel the peace of working with nature, and enjoy the satisfaction of watching plants develop and thrive through one’s own efforts. Growing one’s own food also offers a sense of security in these days of supply shortages and high prices, and a bountiful harvest provides a perfect opportunity for sharing with family, friends, and the community. Vegetable gardening also provides people more choices in variety and flavor than most grocery stores can offer and allows them to have more control over the use of pesticides on their food. Fresher, healthier, and satisfying—it’s no wonder that vegetable gardening is such a favorite pastime!

Build your way to a more self-sufficient lifestyle with step-by-step projects for backup and supplementary utilities--including independent water, heat, and electricity--growing and storing food, raising small livestock, beekeeping, and more. Many of the projects require basic materials available at your everyday home center, but this book also provides valuable DIY resources for solar, hydro, greenhouse, and gardening needs. This book will help you build security with utility backup systems and become more sustainable, resulting in less dependence on city systems for basic needs. Whether you have a city plot or simply pots, this book includes all of the information needed to plan, build, and succeed with greater self-sufficiency.

A thoroughly practical guide to curing and smoking meat, fish, cheese, and vegetables at home.River Cottage, a long-standing pioneer for high-quality sustainable food, is all about knowing the whole story behind what's put on the table. In true River Cottage form, this accessible, compact guide is bursting with essential information for sourcing, butchering, smoking, and curing the whole hog, cow, chicken, fish, and vegetable. Steven Lamb, a respected charcuterie authority, breaks down the traditional methods of curing and smoking to their most simple procedures, with abundant visual resources and 50 recipes. With some salt, pepper, and sugar from the pantry, it's easy to turn good-quality produce into fantastic, exciting food. This thorough, timely handbook begins with a detailed breakdown of tools (from sharp knives to sausage stuffers, for the gadget-loving cook) and an explanation of the preservation process, including a section on which cuts are best for various methods of curing and smoking. Lamb then dives into each method--from dry-curing to fermentation, brining to smoking--in a straightforward, comprehensive manner. And for each technique, there are many delicious recipes, including chorizo Scotch eggs, hot smoked mackerel, prosciutto, and dry-cured bacon.

Find your route to a more sustainable lifestyle with this nuts and bolts guide to all aspects of off-the-grid living.Wherever you live--be it in a small townhouse like James or on a rural small farm--this updated edition of Self-Sufficiency for the 21st Century offers the nuts and bolts of off-the-grid living to anyone who wants to embrace sustainability. Self-Sufficiency for the 21st Century contains invaluable advice on making the most of your own resources no matter where you live. This comprehensive guide to modern sustainability covers everything from how to conserve energy in the home, keep bees, and grow crops in an urban garden to recipes for smoking your own meat and fish, creating nut milks, and preparing greener cleaning products. Each project is fully illustrated and easy to follow, allowing anyone to try their hand at something new.With plenty of advice and anecdotes celebrating the importance and the satisfaction of a do-it-yourself lifestyle, Father and son, Dick and James Strawbridge demonstrate that self-sufficiency doesn't have to mean packing up and moving to the country. By making a few small changes and learning the importance of sustainable living, we can all help the planet.

“Updated for its 30th anniversary edition; [This book] remains as relevant as ever.”―New York Times Book Review Since its original publication in 1989, The New Organic Grower has been one of the most important farming books available, with pioneer Eliot Coleman leading the charge in the organic movement in the United States. Now fully illustrated and updated, this 30th Anniversary Edition is a must-have for any agricultural library. Eliot Coleman’s books and innovative methods have helped innumerable organic farmers build successful farms in deep accordance with nature. The wisdom in this seminal book holds true even as the modern agricultural canon has grown―in large part due to Coleman’s influence as a wise elder with decades of experience. New information has been included in this edition to showcase the new tools and techniques that Eliot has been developing over the last thirty-five years. Inspired by the European intensive growers, The New Organic Grower, 30th Anniversary Edition, offers a very approachable and productive form of farming that has proven to work well for the earth and its stewards for centuries. Gardeners working on 2.5 acres or less will find this book especially useful, as it offers proof that small-scale market growers and serious home gardeners can live good lives close to the land and make a profit at the same time. The New Organic Grower is ideal for young farmers just getting started, or gardeners seeking to expand into a more productive enterprise. New material in this edition includes: \nBeautiful color photographs throughout, taken by master gardener and author Barbara Damrosch (Eliot’s wife and co-farmer) Updated information throughout on how Eliot’s practices have changed through his experiments over the years A new section from Damrosch about incorporating flowers on the small farm More information on new tools Eliot has invented that don’t appear in any of his other books

Start a thriving garden with the beginner's guide to raised bed gardening - and give dad an amazing Father's Day gift!Are you interested in creating a bountiful garden but worried that you don't have enough space? Raised-Bed Gardening for Beginners shows you how simple it can be to plan, build, and grow your own raised-bed garden in whatever space is available. Learn to build your bed, select the right plants, grow your own vegetables, and much more. This book makes it easy for even inexperienced gardeners to serve up freshly picked vegetables and herbs in no time.Plant a flourishing garden in minimal space with a garden book that includes:An introduction to raised-bed gardening―From constructing a planting box to mixing and maintaining soil, step-by-step instructions make getting started easy. Essential advice for all green thumbs―Help your garden thrive with detailed suggestions for crop rotation, partner planting, seed starting, and growing zones. Herb and vegetable gardening for beginners―Find growing and harvesting tips on 30 beginner-friendly plants, to make choosing the right ones for your garden a cinch. The gift of gardening―Father's Day is on the way! This book makes a meaningful gift for any dad with a green thumb!Start (or expand) your collection of gardening books and get growing fast with this complete guide to raised-bed gardening.

Farm to table takes on new meaning with this comprehensive beginner's guide to creating a backyard homestead. Learn how to convert your yard into a sustainable and self-reliant space that reduces waste and puts food on your plate. Filled with practical advice and straightforward lessons, you'll soon see how feasible it is to keep poultry or can fruit you've grown. Whether you have a tiny plot or a large estate, The Beginner's Guide to Backyard Homesteading demonstrates that anyone can start living off their land. This homesteading book offers up indispensable tips and tricks, including: Project action plans--Kick-starting your homesteading journey is a breeze with action plans that help you break down necessary materials, project costs, monthly goals, and more. Seasonal timelines--Knowing what to plant and when is crucial to your success. These precise timelines reveal the ideal schedules for everything from starting seedlings to harvesting honey. Exhaustive instructions--Learn how to build the infrastructure you need with easy-to-follow directions. You'll find yourself constructing raised beds and planting fruit trees in no time. Jump into a more sustainable, affordable, and fulfilling lifestyle with The Beginner's Guide to Backyard Homesteading.

First published in 1978, this revised edition of an old favorite gives you all the knowledge and expertise to create your own self-sufficient garden. This unique guide explains how to cultivate and preserve all types of fruit, herbs, and vegetables, in addition to instructions on keeping bees, making cider, and raising chickens. Whatever your space, you’ll discover how to garden organically and maximize your harvest without the need for radical change in your lifestyle. With over 600 illustrations, many redrawn for the revised edition, this comprehensive guide to self-sufficient gardening contains everything you need to know about getting the most out of your garden, with information on drying, storing, and preserving fruits and vegetables. The New Self-Sufficient Gardener explains the "Deep Bed" method, critical to anyone with a tiny urban plot. You’ll learn to garden in tune with the seasons, growing for the year, eating for today, and storing for tomorrow.