Description
The author of Ecothrifty shows you how to life more self-sufficiently with her guide to modern homesteading―no farm required.
Food recalls, dubious health claims, scary and shocking ingredients in health and beauty products. Our increasingly industrialized supply system is becoming more difficult to navigate, more frightening, and more frustrating, leaving us feeling stuck choosing in many cases between the lesser of several evils. That’s why author Deborah Niemann is here to offer healthier, more empowering choices, by showing us how to reclaim links in our food and purchasing chains, to make choices that are healthier for our families, ourselves, and our planet.
In this fully updated and revised edition of Homegrown and Handmade, Deborah shows how making things from scratch and growing some of your own food can help you eliminate artificial ingredients from your diet, reduce your carbon footprint, and create a more authentic life.
Whether your goal is increasing your self-reliance or becoming a full-fledged homesteader, this book is packed with answers and solutions to help you rediscover traditional skills, take control of your food from seed to plate, and much more. This comprehensive guide to food and fiber from scratch proves that attitude and knowledge is more important than acreage. Written from the perspective of a successful, self-taught modern homesteader, this well-illustrated, practical, and accessible manual will appeal to anyone who dreams of a more empowered life.
“Dreaming of a mindful life? Niemann’s advice on gardening, cooking, orcharding, raising livestock, and much more demonstrates that it’s possible to begin the journey in your own backyard.” —Rebecca Martin, Managing Editor, Mother Earth News
Read more
Arlene MacDonald –
Loved this little read filled with great info. I love the story’s and recipes added through out. Material was well descriptive and has given me much enthusiasm for homesteading
Thomas Parsons –
I’m still reading through this one but so far I’ve really enjoyed the content.
Ryan Bemowski –
Many of the other reviews are right on about this book in their own way. It really depends on how you plan to use it. It is a good book, and I enjoy reading it, but actually being in the position to use most of what the author says is not relevant to me. I felt some of the content was slightly bloated with details or irrelevant information as well. The content can be very good and I would recommend it to individuals who are looking to better utilize their resources around them. Often times this seems to mean also getting more “stuff” to have what you need. That is where the book falls short for me. Good book overall, but I was hoping it would be a little more direct.
C Robinson –
First, the content is five stars! The Kindle e-book version is a joke! In the Kindle version you cannot go to the table of contents from within the book. You must first go to the cover page and then page forward to the table of contents. Get the hard copy…you won’t be disappointed! The Kindle version is a waste of money!
D. MacMullin –
Great stuff!
Weasley –
I really can’t say enough good things about this book. We have an acre of land with chickens, I bake my own bread and get raw milk from a farm down the road (and a rabbit and dogs). We also have a garden but I wanted to expand my garden, start canning my over abundance of produce and learn more things and decide if goats were worth it. This book touches on almost all the subjects I was interested in (soap making is my next venture). She has put many recipes in the book also. There’s enough information on each subject that you get a feel if you’re interested and then feel confident enough to buy a whole book on the subject. I would highly reccomend this book if you’re thinking about or have started homesteading on a small or large scale!
Connie Plemmons –
A lot of information in one book. Mostly general. I would probably need more detail for specific subjects before I tried to grow or make the stuff covered in the book. I enjoyed it!
Kelly Killeen –
First off, this book arrived much earlier than the expected delivery date. It also included a copy of The Mail Order Catalog for Healthy Eating which was a nice surprise. This book is pretty much as advertised. It touches base on several aspects of basic homesteading. Gardening, poultry, dairy, and fiber animals. It even had a section on knitting which I have been wanting to learn. It introduces you to the idea of what you can manage at your homestead. Of course, if you want in-depth details on one particular subject, you need to find other sources. This book makes a great starting point.
Smlz Mom –
Having recently moved to the country, I was looking for a book which would provide me with great ideas, knowledge and information on getting back to living off the land. I found a give away on the Homemade Mothering website for this book and decided I couldn’t wait and just bought it — I was glad I did.
The author has a very down-to-earth writing style and she provides valuable hands on experience. The book provides an array of topics on self-reliance and includes information on planning, growing or caring for and then cooking or processing what you grow/raise.
This book was a great find for someone that just moved to the country but would also be helpful to those that live in the city due to information the author provides on how to adapt and be self-reliant even when living in the city.
Alecia Rivas –
I really enjoyed this book. The information within it is useful, interesting, and approachable. Some self-reliance books seem very overwhelming and preachy, but this book was really a comfortable approach to the topics it covers. I really appreciated how this book took each topic (Garden, Orchard, Poultry, Dairy, Fiber) and split them into three sub-topics (planning, managing, producing). I also enjoyed the little inserts of comments and tips from the author’s blog posters. This is a book I’ll use as a reference in the years to come.
SingingGoose –
I am a big fan of overview books with lots of information about lots of different things. Books like this help me to get a bigger picture of the options we have for becoming more self selficient. Also, I am able to see what we are interested in and then delve further into the topics.
We are hoping to start making cheese this year, and the chapter on simple cheese making is awesome! I tallied many of the recipe ages to try later on as well. There are also many “I wish I had know” excerpts which make you think of things in a completely different way. Sometimes it is good to know everything that could go wrong before going into something! The only thing missing is colour photos, but lots of black and white images almost makes up for it!
Homegrown and Handmade is a Mother Earth News Books for Wiser Living Recommendation. It is the perfect beginner book for a small urban or rural homestead, and something I am happy to have on my bookshelf!