Homesteading: A Backyard Guide to Growing Your Own Food, Canning, Keeping Chickens, Generating Your Own Energy, Crafting, Herbal Medicine, and More

By Abigail R. Gehring

Book Overview

Whether you want to live off the grid as part of the modern back to nature movement, or simply learn new skills that will make your home more comfortable and your garden grow, this companion to the bestseller Back to Basics, is for you

Who doesn't want to shrink their carbon footprint, save money, and eat homegrown food whenever possible? Even readers who are very much on the grid will embrace this large, fully illustrated guide on the basics of living the good, clean life. It's written with country lovers in mind--even those who currently live in the city.

Whether you live in the city, the suburbs, or in the wide-open spaces, there is plenty you can do to improve your life from a green perspective:
Start container gardening. With a few plants, fresh tomato sauce is a real option with your own homegrown fresh tomatoesReduce electricity use by eating dinner by candlelight (using homemade candles, of course)Learn to use rainwater to augment water suppliesMake your own soap and hand lotionConsider keeping chickens for the eggs
From what to eat, to supporting sustainable restaurants, to avoiding dry cleaning, this book offers information on anything a homesteader needs--and more.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1629143669
• ISBN13: 9781629143668
• Release Date: October 2014
• Publisher: Skyhorse Publishing
• Length: 464 Pages
• Weight: 3.52 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 8.5" x 11.0"

Customer Reviews

Typos and Errors

I really wish I had read the reviews on other sites prior to purchasing this book. The organization is clunky. There are typos in the text. The livestock section has very bad information (why raise llama for fiber when alpaca are easier and bred specifically for it? no mention of what temp water to use to wash eggs - makes a big difference in not pulling microorganisms into the shell! beheading a chicken is not recommended since the heart stops and you will have a harder time bleeding the carcass; no mention of scouring a fleece (just picking some matter out of it), etc.). There are a few scattered references to sources for more information, but there are no sources cited for any of the material in here.