Handbook

Growing your own food is a hot topic today because of the high cost of transporting food long distances, the heightened problem of diseases caused by commercially grown foods, concerns of the overuse of chemicals in mass food production, and the uncertain health effects of GMOs. Many people-from White House executives to inner-city kids-have recently discovered the benefits of homegrown vegetables and fruits. Community gardens, and even community canning centers, are increasingly popular and have turned roof-top gardening into a great and healthy food source. And on a smaller scale, some plants can even be grown in containers for the smallest backyard or patio. The possibilities for growing your own food are endless! The Grow Your Own Food Handbook informs you how to grow all types of vegetables, fruits, and even grains on your own land or in any small space available to you and your family. Also included is information on specific health benefits, vitamins, and minerals for each food, as well as detailed instructions for fall and winter food growing. Learn how to grow for your family, harvest and store all types of home-grown produce, and find joy in eating foods planted with your own hands.

More and more cooks are turning to their own gardens or to local farmers' markets to find inspiration for their meals. Eating fresh, local produce is a hot trend, but lifelong Vermonter Marie Lawrence has been cooking with produce from her gardens, buying milk from the farmers up the road, and lavishing her family and lucky friends with the fruits of her kitchen labor since she was a kid. In this book she includes recipes for everything from biscuits and breads to pies and cookies, soups and stews to ribs and roasts. Also included are instructions for making cheese, curing meats, canning and preserving, and much more. Organized by month to coordinate with a farmer's calendar, cooks will find delicious recipes including orange date bran muffins and old fashioned pot roast in January, hot spiced maple milk and fried cinnamon buns in March, mint mallow ice cream in July, Vermont cheddar onion bread in October, and almond baked apples with Swedish custard cream in December. Other recipes include grilled chicken with peach maple glaze, veggie tempura, raspberry chocolate chip cheesecake, and dozens of other breads, salads, drinks, and desserts that are fresh from the farmer's kitchen. In addition to the recipes, readers will find old-fashioned household hints, a harvest guide, and a place to record your own favorite family recipes. Whether you have your own farm and garden or support your local farmers' market, this book will make seasonal cooking a true pleasure.

Packed with step-by-step instructions, useful tips, time-honored wisdom, and both illustrations and photographs, this compact guide has everything you need to dive into a more self-sufficient life. From canning and preserving to keeping chickens, fermenting vegetables to soap-making, Gehring covers all the basics in this easy-to-read, approachable collection. Topics covered include: Generating your own energy. Herbal medicine. Cheese-making. Maple sugaring. Farm mechanics. Building a smokehouse. Dyeing wool. Composting. Disaster. Preparedness. And more! Whether you own one hundred acres or rent a studio apartment in the city, this book has plenty of ideas to inspire you. Learn how to build a log cabin or how to craft handmade paper; find out how to install a solar panel on your roof or brew your own tea from dried herbs; Cure a ham, bake a loaf of bread, or brew your own beer. This book has something for everyone.

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. With hundreds of projects, step-by-step sequences, photographs, charts, and illustrations, The Back to Basics Handbook 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 is the ultimate concise guide to voluntary simplicity.

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. As Gehring shows in this thorough but concise guide, being kind to Mother Earth can also mean being kind to your bank account! It doesn't matter where your homestead is located-farm, suburb, or even city. Wherever you live, The Homesteading Handbook can help you: • Plan, plant, and harvest your own organic home garden • Enjoy fruits and vegetables year-round by canning, drying, and freezing • Build alternate energy devices by hand, such as solar panels or geothermal heat pumps • Differentiate between an edible puffball mushroom and a poisonous amanita • Prepare butternut squash soup using ingredients from your own garden • Conserve water by making a rain barrel or installing an irrigation system • Have fun and save cash by handcrafting items such as soap, potpourri, and paper Experience 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.

Anyone considering a shift to a greener way of living must get this inspirational and practical guide. With easy-to-read layouts and simple text, it runs the full ecological gamut, from geothermal heating to crop rotation to soap making. The Bridgewaters, well-regarded garden writers, help readers answer questions such as how much land they really require, whether or not to depend entirely on natural forms of energy, and which farm animals will best meet their needs. There's practical information on building an insulated flue-pipe chimney, identifying edible wild plants, and composting with worms. In addition to recipes for jams, rhubarb wine, and other delicious foods, three A-Z sections offer planting and harvesting instructions for vegetables and salad crops, fruits, and herbs.