I'm a landscaper, and so come to most gardening books from a design perspective - I look at the photos and read some of the text, but not all. This book is different. While the photos are attractive and appropriate, the text is so packed full of intense tutorials and ways of re-thinking our relationship with, well, everything, that I had to slow down and read carefully to get the most from this book.
While the philosophical sections are non-preachy and inspiring, the meat of the book is in the suggestions and simple how-tos that make all aspects of homesteading seem doable, fun and attractive. You can learn to:
garden vertically
make and plant a seed ball
create your own self-watering container
plant an herbal medicine chest in your garden
grow potatoes in a barrel or trash can
grow mushrooms
make your own cultured butter or cheese
attract pollinators to your garden
make your own natural, safe pesticides
keep rabbits
choose and keep goats
harvest edible weeds
build a solar drying rack
ferment your own sauerkraut and make your own naturally-bubbly sodas
figure out your soil type
build a composting toilet
harvest rainwater
This book is clearly destined to stay in my shelf for a long, long time. While none of the articles will make you an expert on the topic, after trying a few of these projects, you'll realize you don't need to become an expert in order to live lightly on the land, make your own healthy foods and simple medicines for basic ailments, and become more independent and self-reliant. Each of the how-tos is simple enough to get you started successfully on a new path and give you confidence to do things in a new way.
If you want to buy just one book on how to live lightly on the land even with limited money or space, this is the book to start with. I was blown away by how thorough it is. And while my political beliefs may be different from that of the authors, I didn't find their philosophies overbearing or preachy. Their genuine desire to see us all become confident, productive people able to take care of our own needs is evident, and makes their writing attractive for people from any background.
Urban Homesteading: Heirloom Skills for Sustainable LivingI only bought this book as a protest against the Dervais family's copyright of the phrase Urban Homesteading (I also bought another wonderful book here - The Urban Homestead. Anyway, as I began to read this book, I was really sucked in by the wonderful photos and ideas about things I can do here on my own homestead. I highly recommend this book. Lots of great info and ideas. I have never been so invigorated and excited.
The only negative I would give this book is not really a negative at all. With so much information, and so many ideas, it's hard to know "where do I start", but that's what I have ThoughtOffice for, right?
I was inspired by the section which teaches us how to transform our ornamental or boring yards into food production area - starting with bringing life to the soil.
Just this week I made the ricotta cheese with organic whole milk. Best. Ricotta. Ever. Absolutely MADE the lasagna (although it was an amazing recipe - (Google: "World's Best Lasagna"). I am looking forward to making the cultured butter (I now make regular, non-cultured butter from organic whole cream, which is delicious). The nice thing about cultured butter is that the buttermilk, which is a byproduct, can be used to culture cheese, make buttermilk pancakes, bread, dressing ect. Non-cultured buttermilk cannot.
I have the 2 specialty ingredients for feta cheese on order and cannot wait to stop paying for store bought, bland feta. Our household goes through a lot of feta - this is going to be a very good thing. Tomorrow I make mozzarella cheese (not in the book, but it's easy to find directions online, and it uses much of the same things you use to make the dairy recipes in the book).
I have been rereading the section on bee-keeping, raising rabbits, preserving and storing food, and many others which I won't bore you with. Bottom line - get this book. You'll be happy you did.
This is a great book. It is simply, a great book. It's also a great book if you need motivation or information on moving toward self and community sustainability. Or if you need to see that people are actually doing the sustainability things you only hear about. I already make much of my own food, have a CSA farm share, milk from a cow share, I ferment my own veggies, grow a garden, etc. I really didn't think this book would teach much. After all, I'm already ahead of the curve when it comes to sustainability...(or so I thought).
Well, I was wrong. Thankfully and delightedly wrong!! Not only did I learn about things I had no idea about before (composting toilets? rainwater systems? companion planting?) but she gives diagrams and instructions on how to actually go about it. I was SO excited to start new projects and keep going on my current ones. Keep moving towards one-ness with self, community and environment. Keep learning more and more about how to grow things in my area. Keep talking to others in my community to improve relations. Keep bees!
As the industrial food system keeps plugging away, creating more and more disease and pollution and public outcry, we can STILL MAKE A STAND by bucking the system and doing it ourselves. Who says you have to purchase food at a huge chain grocery store? Who says you can't see how your meat becomes meat? Who says you have to stay ignorant about food safety and storage? Who says you can't feed yourself??? It's down right un-American to assume we have to have others do it for us! We are smarter than that!!!
And this book gently, beautifully and lovingly explains it all. The pictures alone are worth the price of admission.
I'm (im)patiently waiting for the second book to come out....'
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