Mother Earth News Books for Wiser Living
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The Homeowner's Guide to Renewable Energy
Achieving Energy Independence through Solar, Wind, Biomass and Hydropower
by Dan Chiras
Part of the Mother Earth News Books for Wiser Living series
From the author of Power from the Sun, the complete guide to switching to clean, affordable, renewable energy resources.
Energy bills have skyrocketed in the United States, and traditional energy sources can be as damaging to the environment as they are to your pocketbook. The Homeowner's Guide to Renewable Energy will show you how to slash your home energy costs while dramatically reducing your carbon footprint.
Completely revised and updated, this new edition describes the most practical and affordable methods for significantly improving in-home energy efficiency and tapping into clean, affordable, renewable energy resources. If implemented, these measures will save the average homeowner tens of thousands of dollars over the coming decades.
Focusing on the latest technological advances in residential renewable energy, this guide examines each alternative energy option available including:
· Solar hot water and solar hot air systems
· Passive and active solar retrofits for heating and cooling
· Electricity from solar, wind, and microhydro
· Hydrogen, fuel cells, methane digesters, and biodiesel
This well-illustrated and accessible guide is an essential resource for those wanting to enter the renewable energy field. Packed with practical tips and guidelines, it gives readers sufficient knowledge to hire and communicate effectively with contractors and is a must-read for anyone interested in saving money and achieving energy independence.
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The Compassionate Hunter's Guidebook
Hunting from the Heart
by Miles Olson
Part of the Mother Earth News Books for Wiser Living series
Wild meat, hunted in a responsible way, is one of the most healthful, sustainable foods possible. Depending on how it is done, hunting can be as local, intimate and humane as it gets. And aside from this, it demands the hunter enter a world of awareness, wildness, life and death that as a culture we have lost connection to.
The Compassionate Hunter's Guidebook is for those who come to the act of hunting with pure intentions, motivated by a desire for healthy food that comes directly from the land where they live. This practical manual suggests that hunting is not a "sport" and the animals whose lives are taken are not "game." It combines a deep, philosophical exploration of the ethics of killing with detailed instructions on every step of the process including:
• Understanding your prey
• Tools, techniques and preparation
• The act of the hunt
• From forest to table processing, preserving and preparing your kill.
A unique and comprehensive, fully-illustrated guide to the complexity, ethics and spirit of the hunt, The Compassionate Hunter is a must-read for beginning and experienced hunters alike. It will appeal to anyone who wishes to delve more deeply into the complex, humbling and ultimately profound reality of our relationship with the food that nourishes us.
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Making Home
Adapting Our Homes and Our Lives to Settle in Place
by Sharon Astyk
Part of the Mother Earth News Books for Wiser Living series
Other books tell us how to live the good life-but you might have to win the lottery to do it. Making Home is about improving life with the real people around us and the resources we already have. While encouraging us to be more resilient in the face of hard times, author Sharon Astyk also points out the beauty, grace, and elegance that result, because getting the most out of everything we use is a way of transforming our lives into something much more fulfilling.
Written from the perspective of a family who has already made this transition, Making Home shows readers how to turn the challenge of living with less into settling for more-more happiness, more security, and more peace of mind. Learn simple but effective strategies to:
· Save money on everything from heating and cooling to refrigeration, laundry, water, sanitation, cooking, and cleaning
· Create a stronger, more resilient family
· Preserve more for future generations
We must make fundamental changes to our way of life in the face of ongoing economic crisis and energy depletion. Making Home takes the fear out of this prospect, and invites us to embrace a simpler, more abundant reality.
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The Thinking Beekeeper
A Guide to Natural Beekeeping in Top Bar Hives
by Christy Hemenway
Part of the Mother Earth News Books for Wiser Living series
A beginner's complete guide to keeping bees in top bar hives, and why.
What's the buzz about the growing popularity of backyard beekeeping? Providing habitat for bees, pollinating your garden, and producing honey for your family are some of the compelling reasons for taking up this exciting hobby. But conventional beekeeping requires a significant investment and has a steep learning curve. The alternative? Consider beekeeping outside the box.
The Thinking Beekeeper is the definitive do-it-yourself guide to natural beekeeping in top bar hives. Based on the concept of understanding and working with bees' natural systems as opposed to trying to subvert them, the advantages of this approach include:
· Simplicity, sustainability, and cost-effectiveness
· Increased safety due to less heavy lifting and hive manipulation
· Chemical-free colonies and healthy hives
Top bar hives can be located anywhere bees have access to forage, and they make ideal urban hives.
Emphasizing the intimate connection between our food systems, bees, and the well-being of the planet, The Thinking Beekeeper will appeal to the new breed of beekeeper who is less focused on maximizing honey yield, and more on ensuring the viability of the bee population now and in the coming years.
Mother Earth News Books for Wiser Living Recommendation
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The Home Energy Diet
How to Save Money by Making Your House Energy-Smart
by Paul Scheckel
Part of the Mother Earth News Books for Wiser Living series
An energy auditor's guide to using less, saving more, and choosing appliances and systems that will make your home healthier and more efficient.
Many homeowners are beginning to examine the energy efficiency of their own homes, asking questions about where energy comes from and how much it costs, how to choose new appliances, and what options exist for renewable energy.
The Home Energy Diet answers all these questions and more while helping readers take control of their personal energy use and costs so they can save money, live more comfortably, and help the environment. Energy auditor Paul Scheckel first explores energy literacy, and then describes how your home uses-and loses-energy you pay for via electricity, hot water, heating, air conditioning, windows, walls, and insulation.
Energy efficiency is an investment that offers returns greater than Wall Street-and readers can potentially earn several hundred dollars every year just by following the advice in this book. As a bonus, many of these strategies, habits, and upgrades can make for improved indoor air quality and healthier, more comfortable homes.
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Solar Water Heating
A Comprehensive Guide to Solar Water and Space Heating Systems
by Bob Ramlow
Part of the Mother Earth News Books for Wiser Living series
Heating water with the sun is a practice almost as old as humankind itself. Solar Water Heating, now completely revised and expanded, is the definitive guide to this clean and cost-effective technology.
Beginning with a review of the history of solar water and space heating systems from prehistory to the present, Solar Water Heating presents an introduction to modern solar energy systems, energy conservation and energy economics. Drawing on the authors' experiences as designers and installers of these systems, the book goes on to cover:
• Types of solar collectors, solar water and space heating systems and solar pool heating systems, including their advantages and disadvantages
• System components, their installation, operation, and maintenance
• System sizing and siting
• Choosing the appropriate system.
This book focuses on the financial aspects of solar water or space heating systems, clearly showing that such systems generate significant savings in the long run. With many diagrams and illustrations to complement the clearly-written text, this book is designed for a wide readership ranging from the curious homeowner to the serious student or professional.
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Independence Days
A Guide to Sustainable Food Storage & Preservation
by Sharon Astyk
Part of the Mother Earth News Books for Wiser Living series
Hard times aren't just coming, they are here already. The recent economic collapse has seen millions of North Americans move from the middle class to being poor, and from poor to hungry. At the same time, the idea of eating locally is shifting from being a fringe activity for those who can afford it to an essential element of getting by. But aside from the locavores and slow foodies, who really knows how to eat outside of the supermarket and out of season? And who knows how to eat a diet based on easily stored and home preserved foods?
Independence Days tackles both the nuts and bolts of food preservation, as well as the host of broader issues tied to the creation of local diets. It includes:
· How to buy in bulk and store food on the cheap
· Techniques, from canning to dehydrating
· Tools-what you need and what you don't
In addition, it focuses on how to live on a pantry diet year-round, how to preserve food on a community scale, and how to reduce reliance on industrial agriculture by creating vibrant local economies.
Better food, plentiful food, at a lower cost and with less energy expended: Independence Days is for all who want to build a sustainable food system and keep eating-even in hard times.
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The Human-Powered Home
Choosing Muscles Over Motors
by Tamara Dean
Part of the Mother Earth News Books for Wiser Living series
A complete guide to modern pedaled-powered, treadled, and hand-cranked devices for the home.
What if I could harness this energy? An unusual question for anyone putting in a long stint on a treadmill perhaps, and yet human power is a very old, practical and empowering alternative to fossil fuels. Replacing motors with muscles can be considered a political act-an act of self-sufficiency that gains you independence.
The Human-Powered Home is a one-of-a-kind compendium of human-powered devices gathered from a unique collection of experts. Enthusiasts point to the advantages of human power:
• Portable and available on-demand
• Close connection to the process or product offers more control
• Improved health and fitness
• The satisfaction of being able to make do with what is available
This book discusses the science and history of human power and examines the common elements of human-powered devices. It offers plans for making specific devices, grouped by area of use, and features dozens of individuals who share technical details and photos of their inventions.
For those who want to apply their own ingenuity, or for those who have never heard of human-powered machines, this book is a fine reference. For those who are beginning to understand the importance of a life of reduced dependency on fossil fuels, this book could be a catalyst for change.
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The Intelligent Gardener
Growing Nutrient-Dense Food
by Steve Solomon
Part of the Mother Earth News Books for Wiser Living series
To grow produce of the highest nutritional quality, the essential minerals lacking in our soil from intensive agriculture must be replaced. The Intelligent Gardener is the practical, step-by-step guide for any serious gardener who wants to:
· Demystify this process
· Debunk much of the false and misleading information perpetuated by both the conventional and organic agricultural movements
· Re-mineralize our soil.
Accompanied with customizable web-based spreadsheets, this toolkit calls for far more attention to detail than the simple addition of composted manure or NPK fertilizers. It conclusively establishes the link between healthy soil, healthy food, and healthy people.
Vegetables, fruits, and grains are a major source of vital nutrients, but centuries of intensive agriculture have depleted our soils to historic lows. As a result, the broccoli you consume today may have less than half the vitamins and minerals that the equivalent serving would have contained a hundred years ago. This is a matter of serious concern, since poor nutrition has been linked to myriad health problems including cancer, heart disease, obesity, high blood pressure, and diabetes. For optimum health we must increase the nutrient density of our foods to the levels enjoyed by previous generations.
The Intelligent Gardener goes beyond organic-it offers the essential tools for those who care about the quality of the produce they grow.
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Real Goods Solar Living Sourcebook
by John Schaeffer
Part of the Mother Earth News Books for Wiser Living series
What book would you want if you were stranded on a desert island? Widely regarded as the 'bible' of off-grid living, The Solar Living Sourcebook might be your best choice. With over 600,000 copies in print worldwide, it is the most comprehensive resource available for anyone interested in lessening their environmental footprint and increasing their energy independence.
The Solar Living Sourcebook-14th Edition is the ultimate guide to renewable energy, sustainable living, natural and green building, off-grid living and alternative transportation, written by experts with decades of experience and a passion for sharing their knowledge. This fully revised and updated edition includes brand new sections on permaculture and urban homesteading, and completely rewritten chapters on solar technology, sustainable transportation and relocalization. It also boasts greatly expanded material on:
• Natural Building
• Permaculture and biodynamics
• Electric and biofuel-powered vehicles
• Passive solar
• Solar water heating
• Grid-tie photovoltaic systems
-plus maps, wiring diagrams, formulae, charts, electrical code, solar sizing worksheets and much more.
Whether you're a layperson or a professional, novice or longtime aficionado, the Sourcebook puts the latest research and information at your fingertips-everything you need to know to make sustainable living a reality.
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Farmstead Chef
by John Ivanko
Part of the Mother Earth News Books for Wiser Living series
The proprietors of Inn Serendipity show, how easy it is to cook homemade and homegrown meals that help the planet and go easy on your budget.
Join Lisa Kivirist and John Ivanko, proprietors of the award-winning Inn Serendipity, as they launch a return to our roots of independence, self-sufficiency and frugality, blended with the spice of modern living. Farmstead Chef whips up a quirky, homespun tale of how we can eat well, nourish our bodies, and restore the planet. Rediscover the benefits of homegrown and homemade cooking, preserving the harvest, stocking the pantry, all while building community.
From breakfasts to mouth-watering desserts, Farmstead Chef showcases the creative and budget-friendly side to eating lower on the food chain more often, while taking responsibility for the food we put into our bodies-by growing it, sharing it and savoring it. Recipes include:
• Zucchini Feta Pancakes
• Winter Squash Fritters
• Herb-infused Spare Ribs
• Strawberry Dessert Pizza
• Homemade Graham Crackers
After your meal, pull up a chair and enjoy inviting slice-of-life "Kitchen Table" features, such as interviews with local food heroes and visionaries transforming our food system. Farmstead Chef also shares tips practical cooking tips and lively short essays inspired by John and Lisa's organic, self-reliant homestead and bed & breakfast. This fully illustrated cookbook will show you how to reconnect with nature through food, especially when shared with friends.
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Your Green Home
A Guide to Planning a Healthy, Environmentally Friendly, New Home
by Alex Wilson
Part of the Mother Earth News Books for Wiser Living series
A guide to designing and building the environmentally friendly, energy efficient home of your dreams.
More and more homeowners today want houses that are healthy to live in and cause minimal damage to the environment. That's what green building is all about.
Your Green Home is written for homeowners planning a new home-whether you are working with an architect or builder, or serving as your own general contractor. Intended to improve the overall environmental performance of new houses being built, the book sets out to answer some of the big-picture questions relating to having a home designed and built- and getting what you want.
Your Green Home covers:
• Home location and its relationship to the community
• Site design
• Construction systems
• Building design to optimize energy performance
• Renewable energy systems
• Material selection
• Indoor environmental quality
• Water efficiency
• Material selection
Written by the founder of Building Green-North America's premier green building authority- this book will prove useful not only to future homeowners, but also to designers and builders seeking to meet this demand. Building professionals well-versed in green building may find this a useful book to give to potential clients to convey the scope and principles of green building.
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Bioshelter Market Garden
A Permaculture Farm
by Darrell Frey
Part of the Mother Earth News Books for Wiser Living series
To ensure food security and restore the health of the planet, we need to move beyond industrial agriculture and return to the practice of small-scale, local farming. The Bioshelter Market Garden: A Permaculture Farm describes the creation of a sustainable food system through a detailed case study of the successful year-round organic market garden and permaculture design at Pennsylvania's Three Sisters Farm.
At the heart of Three Sisters is its bioshelter-a solar greenhouse which integrates growing facilities, poultry housing, a potting room, storage, kitchen facilities, compost bins, a reference library and classroom area. The Bioshelter Market Garden examines how the bioshelter promotes greater biodiversity and is an energy efficient method of extending crop production through Pennsylvania's cold winter months. Both visionary and practical, this fully illustrated book contains a wealth of information on the application of permaculture principles. Some of the topics covered include:
• Design and management of an intensive market garden farm
• Energy systems and bio-thermal resources
• Ecological soil management and pest control
• Wetlands usage
• Solar greenhouse design and management
Whatever your gardening experience and ambitions, this comprehensive manual is sure to inform and inspire.
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Aquaponic Gardening
A Step-by-Step Guide to Raising Vegetables and Fish Together
by Sylvia Bernstein
Part of the Mother Earth News Books for Wiser Living series
Dive into home aquaponics with this definitive do-it-yourself guide
Aquaponics is a revolutionary system for growing plants by fertilizing them with the waste water from fish in a sustainable closed system. A combination of the best of aquaculture and hydroponics, aquaponic gardening is an amazingly productive way to grow organic vegetables, greens, herbs and fruits, while providing the added benefits of fresh fish as a safe, healthy source of protein. On a larger scale, it is a key solution to mitigating food insecurity, climate change, groundwater pollution and the impacts of overfishing on our oceans.
Aquaponic Gardening is the definitive do-it-yourself home manual, focused on giving you all the tools you need to create your own aquaponic system and enjoy healthy, safe, fresh and delicious food all year round. Starting with an overview of the theory, benefits and potential of aquaponics, the book goes on to explain:
• System location considerations and hardware components
• The living elements - fish, plants, bacteria, and worms
• Putting it all together - starting and maintaining a healthy system.
Aquaponics systems are completely organic. They are four to six times more productive and use 90 percent less water than conventional gardens. Other advantages include no weeds, fewer pests, and no watering, fertilizing, bending, digging, or heavy lifting – in fact, there really is no down side! Anyone interested in taking the next step towards self-sufficiency will be fascinated by this practical, accessible and well-illustrated guide.
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Earth-Sheltered Houses
How to Build an Affordable...
by Rob Roy
Part of the Mother Earth News Books for Wiser Living series
An earth-sheltered, earth-roofed home has the least impact upon the land of all housing styles, leaving almost zero footprint on the planet. Earth-Sheltered Houses is a practical guide for those who want to build their own underground home at moderate cost. It describes the benefits of sheltering a home with earth, including the added comfort and energy efficiency from the moderating influence of the earth on the home's temperature (keeping it warm in the winter and cool in the summer), along with the benefits of low maintenance and the protection against fire, sound, earthquake, and storm afforded by the earth. Extra benefits from adding an earth or other living roof option include greater longevity of the roof substrate, fine aesthetics, and environmental harmony. The book covers all of the various construction techniques involved, including details on planning, excavation, footings, floor, walls, framing, roofing, waterproofing, insulation, and drainage. Specific methods appropriate for the inexperienced owner/builder are a particular focus and include: Pouring one's own footings and/or floor The use of dry-stacked (surface-bonded) concrete block walls Post-and-beam framing Plank-and-beam roofing Drainage methods and self-adhesive waterproofing membranes The time-tested, easy-to-learn construction techniques described in Earth-Sheltered Houses will enable readers to embark upon their own building projects with confidence, backed up by a comprehensive resources section that lists all the latest products such as waterproofing membranes, types of rigid insulation, and drainage products that will protect the building against water damage and heat loss. Rob Roy is a former contractor with 27 years of experience and 12 previous books to his credit, including Cordwood Building and Timber Framing for the Rest of Us. An expert on underground building, he founded the Earthwood Building School in 1981 with his wife, Jaki, and is frequently a speaker at events throughout North America.
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More Straw Bale Building
A Complete Guide to Designing and Building with Straw
by Chris Magwood
Part of the Mother Earth News Books for Wiser Living series
Straw bale houses are easy to build, affordable, super energy efficient, environmentally friendly, attractive, and can be designed to match the builder's personal space needs, esthetics and budget. Despite mushrooming interest in the technique, however, most straw bale books focus on "selling" the dream of straw bale building, but don't adequately address the most critical issues faced by bale house builders. Moreover, since many developments in this field are recent, few books are completely up to date with the latest techniques. More Straw Bale Building is designed to fill this gap. A completely rewritten edition of the 20,000-copy best-selling original, it leads the potential builder through the entire process of building a bale structure, tackling all the practical issues: finding and choosing bales; developing sound building plans; roofing; electrical, plumbing, and heating systems; building code compliance; and special concerns for builders in northern climates. New material includes: more extensive sections on electric wiring and plumbing, updated sections on bale finishes and finishing, a section on prefabricated straw bale walls, a wider selection of case studies, photographs and illustrations, a section on common mistakes, budgeting for low-, medium- and high-cost projects, and new testing data that is in no other straw bale book. Down-to earth and complete, More Straw Bale Building makes the remarkable benefits of straw bale building available in the most comprehensive and practical book on the subject to date.
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Heal Local
20 Essential Herbs for Do-it-Yourself Home Healthcare
by Dawn Combs
Part of the Mother Earth News Books for Wiser Living series
The author of Sweet Remedies offers a straightforward, empowering guide to homegrown herbal remedies for illness injuries, and preventative health.
Most of us understand the value of eating and buying local. Taking back our food, goods, and services from multinational corporations and sourcing them from small growers, producers, artisans, and entrepreneurs benefits our families, our environment, and our communities. Heal Local argues that "100-mile healthcare" can be equally valuable in terms of how we treat illness and injury and maintain wellness.
This innovative guide demonstrates that by harnessing multifaceted whole plants, we can rely on homegrown or regionally produced herbs rather than importing exotics and non-natives. Based on the small apothecary model, author Dawn Combs explains how to:
· Maximize the benefits of homegrown first aid, from increased freshness, potency, and effectiveness to community resilience and local economic growth
· Make home herbal healthcare less intimidating and more attainable, by focusing on twenty herbs to effectively treat most common injuries and ailments
· Implement a local medicine culture safely and sustainably, while protecting and respecting wild plant populations
Many herbals overwhelm their readers, presenting a list of hundreds of herbs, each with a different purpose. Heal Local empowers readers by showing that you don't need to know everything about every herb on the planet to create a complete home apothecary. Anyone can be self-sufficient with their wellness, regardless of their previous knowledge, experience, or available space.
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The Chinese Greenhouse
Design and Build a Low-Cost, Passive Solar Greenhouse
by Dan Chiras
Part of the Mother Earth News Books for Wiser Living series
"A prescription for survival in this gorgeously illustrated and accessible guide to the future of farming." -Albert Bates, author of The Biochar Solution
Grow vegetables year-round in a greenhouse powered only by solar energy!
Originally developed in China to feed millions, Chinese greenhouses are earth-sheltered, solar-heated, east-west oriented, intelligently glazed, and well-insulated. They have proven highly effective in growing warm-weather vegetables and fruits like green peppers and tomatoes in cold climates through fall, winter, and early spring using passive solar energy as the sole heat source.
The Chinese Greenhouse is a full-color comprehensive guide to these passive solar greenhouses for self-sufficiency and growing year-round in soil or aquaponic grow beds with no additional heat. Coverage includes:
• How to design, build, and operate a Chinese greenhouse
• How to improve performance via short-term and long-term heat banking
• How to provide additional heat to make your greenhouse operate even more effectively
• How to cool the greenhouse during the summer.
Become a more self-sufficient gardener, growing and harvesting a variety of fresh fruits and vegetables year-round, with your own Chinese greenhouse.
"Wonderfully researched . . . brilliant." -Jean-Martin Fortier, farmer and author of The Market Gardener, editor of Growers Magazine
"Essential reading for pioneers of Chinese greenhouses." -Pam Dawling, author of The Year-Round Hoophouse and Sustainable Market Farming
"Every enthusiastic vegetable farmer dreams of this winter-growing miracle, and Dan shows how to do it." -Shawna Coronado, author of 101 Organic Gardening Hacks
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Advanced Top Bar Beekeeping
Next Steps for the Thinking Beekeeper
by Christy Hemenway
Part of the Mother Earth News Books for Wiser Living series
A guide for backyard beekeepers who have advanced into their second year with top bar hives.
Bee populations are plummeting worldwide. Colony Collapse Disorder poses a serious threat to many plants that rely on bees for pollination, including a significant proportion of our food crops. Top bar hives are based on the concept of understanding and working with bees' natural systems, enabling top bar beekeepers to produce honey and natural wax while helping bees thrive now and in the years ahead.
Advanced Top Bar Beekeeping picks up where The Thinking Beekeeper left off, providing a wealth of information for backyard beekeepers ready to take the next step with this economical, bee-friendly approach. Author Christy Hemenway shares:
• Guidance and techniques for the second season and beyond
• An in-depth analysis of the dangers climate change and conventional agriculture present to pollinators
• An inspiring vision of restoring bee populations through organic farming and natural, chemical-free beekeeping.
While continuing to emphasize the intimate connection between our food system, bees, and the wellbeing of the planet, Advanced Top Bar Beekeeping breaks new ground in the quest to shift the dominant agricultural paradigm away from chemical-laden, industrial beekeeping monoculture and towards healthy, diverse local farming. See what all the buzz is about with this must-read guide for the new breed of thinking beekeeper.
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The EcoNest Home
Designing & Building a Light Straw Clay House
by Paula Baker-Laporte
Part of the Mother Earth News Books for Wiser Living series
An EcoNest is not just a home-it is a breathtakingly beautiful structure that nurtures health and embraces ecology. This unique approach to construction combines light straw clay, timber framing, earthen floors, natural plasters, and other natural techniques with the principles of Building Biology to create a handcrafted living sanctuary. By bringing together time-honored traditions and modern innovations, owners of EcoNests enjoy living spaces that reflect the best of both worlds.
The EcoNest Home is an in-depth exploration of the benefits of choosing this technique over conventional alternatives, combined with a complete practical guide for prospective designers and builders. Authors Paula Baker-Laporte and Robert Laporte draw on their own extensive experience to provide:
• A detailed explanation of the nature-based science behind EcoNests
• Fully-illustrated, step-by-step instructions to guide you through construction
• Dozens of inspiring photos of completed projects
The most comprehensive, North American resource on light straw clay construction, written by its leading proponents, The EcoNest Home is a must-read for anyone considering building their own healthy, affordable, environmentally friendly, natural home.
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Earthbag Building
The Tools, Tricks and Techniques
by Kaki Hunter
Part of the Mother Earth News Books for Wiser Living series
The only comprehensive, illustrated, step-by-step guide to building with earthbags.
Over seventy percent of Americans cannot afford to own a code-enforced, contractor-built home. This has led to widespread interest in using natural materials-straw, cob, and earth-for building homes and other buildings that are inexpensive, and that rely largely on labor rather than expensive and often environmentally-damaging outsourced materials.
Earthbag Building is the first comprehensive guide to all the tools, tricks, and techniques for building with bags filled with earth-or earthbags. Having been introduced to sandbag construction by the renowned Nader Khalili in 1993, the authors developed this "Flexible Form Rammed Earth Technique" over the last decade. A reliable method for constructing homes, outbuildings, garden walls and much more, this enduring, tree-free architecture can also be used to create arched and domed structures of great beauty-in any region, and at home, in developing countries, or in emergency relief work.
This profusely illustrated guide first discusses the many merits of earthbag construction, and then leads the reader through the key elements of an earthbag building:
• Special design considerations
• Foundations, walls, and floors
• Electrical, plumbing, and shelving
• Lintels, windows and door installations
• Roofs, arches and domes
• Exterior and interior plasters.
With dedicated sections on costs, making your own specialized tools, and building code considerations, as well as a complete resources guide, Earthbag Building is the long-awaited, definitive guide to this uniquely pleasing construction style.
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How to Build With Grid Beam
A Fast, Easy, and Affordable System for Constructing Almost Anything
by Phil Jergenson
Part of the Mother Earth News Books for Wiser Living series
Grid beam is a modular, reusable building system that is fast, easy, affordable and virtually goof-proof. Ordinary people, with few skills and even fewer tools (all you need is a wrench!) can tackle projects ranging from furniture and shop benches to more ambitious projects like wind turbines, truck racks, small buildings-even electric vehicles.
Grid beam's modular pieces and bolt-together construction make the system fast and straightforward to work with. It has all the advantages of an industrial building system: standard, modular sizes; uniform materials; and interchangeable parts. Projects knock flat and are easy to transport. Since the pieces can be used over and over again, grid beam is easy both on your wallet and on the environment-the authors have been using some of their components for over 30 years.
How to Build with Grid Beam includes hundreds of photos of real projects built over a 60-year period, showing the many uses of grid beam, from shelves for college students to projects involving alternative energy. The versatility of grid beam is inspiring, for beginners, more experienced do-it-yourselfers, and innovators who will develop their own designs. Even school-age children can use grid beam to build simple projects.
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The Solar Food Dryer
How to Make and Use Your Own High-Performance, Sun-Powered Food Dehydrator
by Eben Fodor
Part of the Mother Earth News Books for Wiser Living series
The Solar Food Dryer describes how to use solar energy to dry your food instead of costly electricity. With your own solar-powered food dryer, you can quickly and efficiently dry all your extra garden veggies, fruits and herbs to preserve their goodness all year long-with free sunshine! Applicable to a wide geography-wherever gardens grow-this well illustrated book includes:
• Complete step-by step plans for building a high-performance, low-cost solar food dryer from readily-available materials
• solar energy design concepts
• food drying tips and recipes
• resources, references, solar charts, and more.
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Home Sweet Zero Energy Home
by Barry Rehfeld
Part of the Mother Earth News Books for Wiser Living series
Zero energy homes produce at least as much energy as they consume through a combination of energy efficiencies, passive design and renewable energy production. California has adopted zero net energy as the new residential standard for 2020; many other governments are considering similar policies. Developing zero energy homes is the first step towards making all buildings zero energy-a critical step in mitigating climate change, since buildings account for 40% of material and energy use worldwide.
Home Sweet Zero Energy Home is the first practical guidebook that clearly shows how zero energy homes can be good, livable, affordable homes. The author identifies all the pieces of the zero energy puzzle and how they fall into place, and explains how homeowners and buyers can also take smaller steps towards sharply reducing the energy use of existing buildings. Focusing on real costs and savings, this book takes an in depth look at:
• Site selection and passive design
• Insulation, windows, doors and building materials
• Heating and cooling
• Appliances and electronics
• Financial resources and incentives.
Whether you are a prospective buyer, owner, or developer, Home Sweet Zero Energy Home is your complete guide to creating a more comfortable, efficient, environmentally friendly home without breaking your back or your bank account.
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Ecothrifty
Cheaper, Greener Choices for a Happier, Healthier Life
by Deborah Niemann
Part of the Mother Earth News Books for Wiser Living series
A guide to saving a fortune while saving the Earth, from the author of Homegrown & Handmade.
Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without. Our grandmothers knew the importance of responsible, thrifty choices. But somewhere along the way we lost our way and succumbed to the belief that we can get everything for next to nothing, have it shipped halfway around the world and then-more often than not-just throw it away.
This consumer binge is taking its toll. Diet and lifestyle-related illnesses are epidemic, our environment is awash in a sea of plastic, our climate is changing, and the cost of everything is skyrocketing with the price of oil. Are we doomed? No. We can make greener, healthier choices, and we can do it while saving money.
Where to start? Ecothrifty is packed with simple, practical ideas and recipes to help you:
· Make homemade products for cleaning and skin care
· Grow your own food and cook more from scratch
· Raise your family without lowering your standards
A must-read for anyone who has ever wanted to live a greener life but thought that it would be too expensive, time-consuming, or difficult, this handy, complete guide will show you how small changes can have a huge environmental impact and save you thousands of dollars, all while improving your quality of life.
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Mastering Basic Cheesemaking
The Fun and Fundamentals of Making Cheese at Home
by Gianaclis Caldwell
Part of the Mother Earth News Books for Wiser Living series
This illustrated beginner's guide covers everything you need to know to start making cheese at home-from tools and techniques to basic milk chemistry.
While the craft of home cheese making gains in popularity, most books on the subject gloss over the fundamentals. Mastering Basic Cheese making is a complete hands-on guide to making cheese and other fermented dairy products from scratch, geared toward helping the novice cheesemaker get started in their home kitchens.
This fully illustrated practical guide covers topics such as:
• Understanding your ingredients, tools and techniques
• Whipping up "instant cheeses" such as ricotta and paneer while learning basic milk chemistry
• Progressing to fermented dairy products such as kefir, yogurt and sour cream
• Using bacteria and coagulant to create spreadable and tender cheeses like quark, chevre, cream cheese and American style cottage cheese
Graduating to curdled, aged and ripened cheese-mozzarella, feta, cheddar, gouda, and parmesan.
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Sustainable Market Farming
Intensive Vegetable Production on a Few Acres
by Pam Dawling
Part of the Mother Earth News Books for Wiser Living series
Growing for 100-the complete year-round guide for the small-scale market grower.
Across North America, an agricultural renaissance is unfolding. A growing number of market gardeners are emerging to feed our appetite for organic, regional produce. But most of the available resources on food production are aimed at the backyard or hobby gardener who wants to supplement their family's diet with a few homegrown fruits and vegetables. Targeted at serious growers in every climate zone, Sustainable Market Farming is a comprehensive manual for small-scale farmers raising organic crops sustainably on a few acres.
Informed by the author's extensive experience growing a wide variety of fresh, organic vegetables and fruit to feed the approximately one hundred members of Twin Oaks Community in central Virginia, this practical guide provides:
• Detailed profiles of a full range of crops, addressing sowing, cultivation, rotation, succession, common pests and diseases, and harvest and storage
• Information about new, efficient techniques, season extension, and disease resistant varieties
• Farm-specific business skills to help ensure a successful, profitable enterprise
Whether you are a beginning market grower or an established enterprise seeking to improve your skills, Sustainable Market Farming is an invaluable resource and a timely book for the maturing local agriculture movement.
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Winter Harvest Cookbook
How to Select and Prepare Fresh Seasonal Produce All Winter Long
by Lane Morgan
Part of the Mother Earth News Books for Wiser Living series
The classic seasonal cookbook featuring more than two hundred recipes, including more vegan and vegetarian options in this twentieth anniversary edition.
Winter Harvest Cookbook proves that you can take a seasonal approach to eating all year long. This fully updated and revised edition showcases fresh produce from the winter garden or local market, rounded out by introductions to unfamiliar ingredients, shopping tips, menu suggestions, and resource lists. Author Lane Morgan also invites us into her corner of the Pacific Northwest, with vignettes drawn from the region's farming, gardening, and cooking.
Tantalize your tastebuds with an incredible array of soups, salads, sides, sauces, entrées, and desserts such as:
• Roasted brussels sprouts with sweet potatoes and garlic
• Penne with arugula, kale, and goat cheese
• Salad of roasted golden beets with feta and hazelnut oil
• Pot roast with hazelnut barley
With a greatly expanded array of vegetarian and vegan dishes, Winter Harvest Cookbook is a must-have for anyone, who wants to enjoy fresh, local, and delicious food-any time of the year!
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Keeping Bees with a Smile
Principles and Practice of Natural Beekeeping
by Fedor Lazutin
Part of the Mother Earth News Books for Wiser Living series
The updated bestselling guide to laid-back beekeeping for all, naturally!
Are you a beginner beekeeper curious about bees or a practicing beekeeper looking for natural alternatives that work? Then this book is for you!
In the second edition of the bestselling beekeeping guide Keeping Bees with a Smile, Fedor Lazutin, one of Europe's most successful natural beekeepers, shares the bee-friendly approach to apiculture that is fun, healthful, rewarding, and accessible to all. This new edition includes dozens of color photographs, new hive management techniques, and an updated version of "Lazutin hive" plans. Additional coverage includes:
• Keeping bees naturally without interfering in their lives;
• Starting an apiary for free by attracting local bee swarms;
• Building low-maintenance hives that mimic how bees live in nature;
• Keeping colonies healthy and strong without any drugs, sugar, or gimmickry;
• Helping bees to overwinter successfully even in harsh climates;
• Enhancing local nectar plant resources;
• Producing truly natural honey without robbing the bees;
• Reversing the global bee decline... right in your backyard!
Keeping Bees with a Smile is an invaluable resource for apiculture beginners and professionals alike, complete with plans for making bee-friendly, well-insulated horizontal hives with extra-deep frames, plus other fascinating beekeeping advice you won't find anywhere else.
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