Do you want to know how to grow your own food? Or how to keep bees? How to forage for edible seaweed along the shoreline, or wild greens down by the stream? Maybe you're curious about growing mushrooms or how to grow the perfect tomato. You're invited to make these skills your own. Designed to be read with a pot of tea by your elbow and a notebook beside you, Milkwood is all you need to start living a more home-grown life. From DIY projects to wild fermented recipes, the in-depth knowledge and hands-on instruction contained in these pages will have your whole family fascinated and inspired to get growing, keeping, cooking and making. Milkwood is the name of Kirsten Bradley and Nick Ritar's first farm as well as their school where anyone can learn skills for down-to-earth living. Kirsten, Nick and a team of educators offer courses on topics contained in this book as well as permaculture design, natural building and much more. Kirsten and Nick live on a small regenerative farm near Daylesford, Australia, where many things from the sprouted grain they feed their chickens to ingredients that make up dinner is homegrown.

    Now, however, with prices rising and more chemicals than foods in the grocery store, families are starting to take notice. The return to sustainable living is long overdue, but many are so intimidated by the amount of work involved that they never even start.The Five-Year Guide to Self-Sufficiency follows a logical progression to move your homestead forward every year in an organized and affordable manner. Over the course of five years, you will learn how to get the most from your land, whether it be half an acre or 100. You'll grow everything from a basic garden bed to a fruitful orchard, pick from a wide variety of livestock ranging from chickens to alpacas, and lead a simpler life with less reliance on fossil fuels.The road may be long and arduous, but there's no need to overwhelm yourself. By taking everything at a rational pace, you too can remove yourself from a meaningless culture and improve your quality of life one day at a time.

    Jay breezes from practical topics, like “What’s in a Minimalist Kitchen” and “How Many Shoes are Enough,” to more philosophical musings, like what the Japanese or ancient Greeks can teach us about simple living. Along with valuable tips and advice, the author shares her personal stories about decluttering and living with less. Her warmth, humor, and encouraging tone make you feel like you’re chatting with a good friend over a cup of coffee—a friend you’d love to invite over to clean out your closets!These essays are a wonderful introduction to minimalist living, written by someone with a genuine passion for the topic. If you’ve ever felt overwhelmed by your clutter, or disenchanted with consumerism, you’ll find a kindred soul (and a wealth of advice) in Miss Minimalist. Best of all: you’ll likely empty a drawer or two by the time you’ve finished reading!

    Like the previous editions, this one tells you how you can make maple syrup right in your own backyard without having to build a sap house or buy buckets, holding tanks, evaporators and other expensive paraphernalia. Provides detailed "how-to" information, and makes some new and noteworthy revelations-including tips sugarers across the country have shared with the author.

    While a substantial supply should be stored, water's size and weight make storage impractical for long-term survival. Therefore it's equally critical to know how to acquire and purify additional water supplies over time. This guide addresses all of these factors and more with straight-forward instruction anyone can follow.Suitable for novice and expert preppers alike, this book's laser-sharp focus on water allows for a depth of information not found in any other guide. Storage is the first area covered including details on types of containers, where to store them, and how to avoid contamination—from basic bottles to large tanks. The author follows with real-world applications for harvesting water from every possible source including digging a well, collecting rain, and purifying lake and river water.Whether you are looking to set up a supply for a week, month, year, or longer, this book offers a solution for your specific need.

    With The Complete Guide to Pressure Canning you will discover the ease of pressure canning, understand the science behind safe food preservation, and enjoy delicious recipes for stocking your kitchen and feeding your family.In the pages of this all-in-one pressure canning roadmap you’ll find: An overview of pressure canning basics that includes guidance for buying a pressure canner and pressure canning fundamentals More than 80 pressure canning recipes for: stocks, broths, soups, and stews; meats including wild game and fish; meals-in-a-jar; tomatoes and vegetables; beans and legumes; and more Pressure canning charts for safely canning vegetables and meats that include quantity, yield, jar size, processing time, and PSI gauge guidance A “First Batches” Chapter that includes two practice recipes for those new to pressure canning With The Complete Guide to Pressure Canning, readers of all skill levels will learn to successfully preserve and serve wholesome, nourishing foods that everyone will enjoy.

    Whether you live in a small space or a large one, Real Simple has the best why-didn't-I-think-of-that advice for creating-and keeping-an easy, stylish, organized home. This practical and inspiring handbook covers everything from how to pare down to cleaning in way less time; from savvy storage solutions to apps that make organizing a snap; from handy checklists and cheat sheets to the most useful products. Organize Every Room is a clutter-busting, timesaving, space-maximizing road map to simplifying your life and creating a happier home.

    From goji berries to food-mile free sweet potatoes, James’ revolutionary approach to edible gardening will show you how to grow, cook and eat all manner of superfood crops that are just as easy (if not easier) and far more exciting to grow than the ‘ration book’ favourites.Inspiring, fun and full of plant know-how, this book is set to revolutionise the whole concept of ‘growing your own’ for newbie growers and seasoned allotment veterans alike. You’ll never look at your garden the same way again!

    In hard times, the family can be greatly helped by growing a highly productive food garden, requiring little cash outlay or watering.Currently popular intensive vegetable gardening methods are largely inappropriate to this new circumstance. Crowded raised beds require high inputs of water, fertility and organic matter, and demand large amounts of human time and effort. But, except for labor, these inputs depend on the price of oil. Prior to the 1970s, North American home food growing used more land with less labor, with wider plant spacing, with less or no irrigation, and all done with sharp hand tools. But these sustainable systems have been largely forgotten. Gardening When It Counts helps readers rediscover traditional low-input gardening methods to produce healthy food.Designed for readers with no experience and applicable to most areas in the English-speaking world except the tropics and hot deserts, this book shows that any family with access to 3-5,000 sq. ft. of garden land can halve their food costs using a growing system requiring just the odd bucketful of household waste water, perhaps two hundred dollars worth of hand tools, and about the same amount spent on supplies — working an average of two hours a day during the growing season.Steve Solomon is a well-known west coast gardener and author of five previous books, including Growing Vegetables West of the Cascades which has appeared in five editions.

    In this indispensable guide, Farm City author Novella Carpenter and Willow Rosenthal share their experience as successful urban farmers and provide practical blueprints-complete with rich visual material-for novice and experienced growers looking to bring the principles of ethical food to the city streets. The Essential Urban Farmer guides readers from day one to market day, advising on how to find the perfect site, design a landscape, and cultivate crops. For anyone who has ever grown herbs on windowsills, or tomatoes on fire escapes, this is an invaluable volume with the potential to change our menus, our health, and our cities forever.

    The real estate collapse, the economic downturn, burning out on 12-hour workdays – many people are rethinking their ideas about shelter – seeking an alternative to high rents, or a lifelong mortgage debt to a bank on an overpriced home. Homes on land, homes on wheels, homes on the road, homes on water, even homes in the trees. There are also studios, saunas, garden sheds, and greenhouses.There are 1,300 photos, showing a rich variety of small homemade shelters, and there are stories (and thoughts and inspirations) of the owner-builders who are on the forefront of this new trend in downsizing and self-sufficiency. You can buy a ready-made tiny home, build your own, get a kit or pre-fab, or live in a bus, houseboat, or other movable shelter. Some cities have special ordinances for building "in-law" or "granny flats" in the back yard. There are innovative solutions in cities, such as the "capsules" in Tokyo.If you're thinking of scaling back, you'll find plenty of inspiration shown by builders, designers, architects, dreamers, artists, road gypsies, and water dwellers who've achieved a measure of freedom and independence by taking shelter into their own hands.

    The answer is chickens--endearing birds that require but a modest outlay of time, space and food.As they learned to raise chickens, Gail and Rick Luttmann came to realize the need for a comprehensive but clear and nontechnical guide. Their book covers all the basics in a light and entertaining sytle, from housing and feeding through incubating, bringing up chicks, butchering, and raising chickens for show.Througout Chickens In Your Backyard, the Luttmanns express their wonder at the personalities of chickens--the role of brash protector played by roosters, and the instinctive motherliness of the hens. Given some freedom and attention, these birds can become much more than the egg-and-meat machines of commercial hatcheries and broiler factories. Chickens provide backyard farmers with enjoyable pastime, as well as a supply of good food.

    Overwhelmed? Disorganized? Living in Chaos? The FlyLady's Simple FLYing Lessons Will Show You How to Get Your Home and Your Life in Order--and It All Starts with Shining Your Sink!

    You would never think of me as someone with the courage to say, 'You have everything you need to be fantastic in your own house, apartment, or trailer to set a great table.'Let's face it, you look at a lot of books on Entertaining and think 'I could never do this in my house, I don't have this stuff and it's not going to look like what I'm seeing.' That's not what's going to happen here! I want to show you there is great heart in setting the table. For two or four or the kids or Halloween or tea just for you. For dinners with friends or the holidays. I'm going to tell you stories about what I do when people come over and give you ideas about what you're seeing because Honey, everything in this book is what you can do in your house.You got a bodega or a 7-Eleven near you? They sell flowers. Take those bad boys and put them on your table. You got some crazy old plate from your grandmother (or a fancy silver one)? You got little kids' toys that have been annoying you forever, put them on the table too. Who's going to tell you it's wrong? Not me! I'm going to tell you it's right and I'm going to take you on a journey. And don't forget the bathroom; decorate it too, people are going to see it. It's all at your house. Come with me. I'll show you!P.S. I know the glass on the cover is broken. Accidents happen!

    This third edition of the best-selling and most trusted homebrewing guide includes a complete update of all instructions, recipes, charts, and guidelines. Everything you need to get started is here, including classic and new recipes for brewing stouts, ales, lagers, pilseners, porters, specialty beers, and honey meads.The Complete Joy of Homebrewing, third edition, includes:* Getting your home brewery together: the basics -- malt, hops, yeast, and water * Ten easy lessons for making your first batch of beer * Creating world-class styles of beer (IPA, Belgian wheat, German Kölsch and Bock, barley wine, American lagers, to name a few) * Using fruit, honey, and herbs for a spicier, more festive brew * Brewing with malt extracts for an unlimited range of strengths and flavors* Advanced brewing techniques using specialty hops or the all-grain method or mash extracts* A complete homebrewer's glossary, troubleshooting tips, and an up-to-date resource section* And much, much more Be sure to check out Charlie's The Homebrewer's Companion for over 60 additional recipes and more detailed charts and tables, techniques, and equipment information for the advanced brewer.