Book picks similar to
Little House in the Suburbs: Backyard Farming and Home Skills for Self-Sufficient Living by Deanna Caswell
gardening
homesteading
non-fiction
nonfiction
Possum Living: How to Live Well Without a Job and With (Almost) No Money
Dolly Freed - 1978
At the time of its publication in 1978, Possum Living became an instant classic, known for its plucky narration and no-nonsense practical advice on how to quit the rat race and live frugally. In her delightful, straightforward, and irreverent style, Freed guides readers on how to buy and maintain a home, dress well, cope with the law, stay healthy, save money, and be lazy, proud, miserly, and honest, all while enjoying leisure and keeping up a middle-class façade.Thirty years later, Freed's philosophy is world-renowned and Possum Living remains as fascinating, inspirational, and pertinent as it was upon its original publication. This updated edition includes new reflections, insights, and life lessons from an older and wiser Dolly Freed, whose knowledge of how to live like a possum has given her financial security and the confidence to try new ventures.
Pure Soapmaking: How to Create Nourishing, Natural Skin Care Soaps
Anne-Marie Faiola - 2016
And with the help of author Anne-Marie Faiola, it's easy to make luscious, all-natural soaps right in your own kitchen. This collection of 32 recipes ranges from simple castile bars to intricate swirls, embeds, and marbled and layered looks. Begin with a combination of skin-nourishing oils and then add blueberry puree, dandelion-infused water, almond milk, coffee grounds, mango and avocado butters, black tea, or other delicious ingredients -- and then scent your soap with pure essential oils. Step-by-step photography guides you through every stage of cold-process soapmaking.
The Gardener's A-Z Guide to Growing Organic Food: 765 varities of vegetables, herbs, fruits, and nuts
Tanya Denckla Cobb - 2003
This plant-by-plant guide includes profiles of more than 765 tasty varieties of vegetables, herbs, fruits, and nuts. In addition to expert advice on selecting suitable plants and growing, harvesting, and storing them, this invaluable resource includes more than 100 tried-and-true organic remedies that fight off diseases and pests. Get out in your vegetable garden and discover how easy and fun it is to grow your own healthy food.
How to Build Animal Housing
Carol Ekarius - 2004
Stressing the importance of evaluating your goals, planning ahead, and budgeting accordingly, Carol Ekarius helps you determine the best structure for your particular situation and offers expert advice on tools and construction techniques. Build a functional and comfortable house for your animals that they’ll be proud to call home.
Surviving Off Off-Grid: Decolonizing the Industrial Mind
Michael Bunker - 2011
Agrarian Blogger, historian, and "plain" preacher Michael Bunker has been living off of the grid for many years, and he has some advice for those living in the industrial/consumerist economy …living an off off-grid life is achievable. It has been done for thousands of years, and it can be done today... It is quite possible that many people who have relied on a failing system for their means of survival will very soon find that they have made a mistake of historic proportions. Historic, because every major "classical" culture went down the same road our society is on today. This book is about the lessons we should have learned, and what you can do to survive what history tells us must come next.
Eat to Live: The Revolutionary Formula for Fast and Sustained Weight Loss
Joel Fuhrman - 2003
In EAT TO LIVE, Dr. Fuhrman offers his healthy, effective, and scientifically proven plan for shedding radical amounts of weight quickly, and keeping it off.Losing weight under Dr. Fuhrman's plan is not about willpower, it is about knowledge. The key to this revolutionary diet is the idea of nutrient density, as expressed by the simple formula Health=Nutrients/Calories. When the ratio of nutrients to calories is high, fat melts away and health is restored. Losing 20 pounds in two to three weeks is just the beginning. The more high-nutrient food Dr. Fuhrman's patients consume, the more they are satisfied with fewer calories, and the less they crave fat and high-calorie foods. Designed for people who must lose 50 pounds or more in a hurry, EAT TO LIVE works for every dieter, even those who want to lose as little as 10 pounds quickly. No willpower required-just knowledge
Homegrown Tea: An Illustrated Guide to Planting, Harvesting, and Blending Teas and Tisanes
Cassie Liversidge - 2014
It shows you how to grow your tea from seeds, cuttings, or small plants, as well as which parts of the plant are used to make tea. Liversidge lays out when and how to harvest your plants, as well as information on how to prepare the plant, including how to dry tea leaves to make tea you can store to last you throughout the year. As a guide to using tea to make you feel better, there are nutritional and medicinal benefits. Finally, there is an illustrated guide to show how to make up fresh and dried teabags and how to serve a delicious homegrown tea. It is sustainable way to look at a beverage, which is steeped in history and tradition.Sample drinks include well-known plants such as rose hips, mint, sage, hibiscus, and lavender, as well as more obscure ones like chicory, angelica, apple geranium, and lemon verbena.
The Prepper's Cookbook: 300 Recipes to Turn Your Emergency Food into Nutritious, Delicious, Life-Saving Meals
Tess Pennington - 2013
But if you follow this book’s plan for stocking, organizing and maintaining a proper emergency food supply, your family will have plenty to eat for weeks, months or even years, with comforting, nutritious meals such as: • French Toast • Black Bean Soup • Chicken Pot Pie • Beef Stroganoff • Fish Tacos • Potatoes Croquette • Asian Ramen Salad • Quinoa Tabouli • Rice Pilaf • Buttermilk Biscuits • Peach Cobbler . . . and much more Packed with tips for off-grid cooking, canning charts for over 20 fruits and vegetables, and checklists for the best emergency pantry items, The Prepper’s Cookbook will have you turning shelf-stable, freeze-dried and dehydrated foods into delicious, nutritious dishes your family will love eating. "The Prepper’s Cookbook is an excellent resource and foundation that covers many topics of preparation. Especially helpful for the seeker and the new-to-prepping, however, there are great ideas for even the seasoned prepper." —Real Food Living "It’s more than a cookbook. It’s also a handy guide for beginning preppers who have wondered, 'So what do I actually do with all this extra food I’m buying?'" —The Survival Mom
Crops in Pots
Bob Purnell - 2007
Plant lists, step-by-step instructions, and at-a-glance symbols of growing requirements make each of the 40 projects easy to tackle.
One Magic Square: The Easy, Organic Way to Grow Your Own Food on a 3-Foot Square
Lolo Houbein - 2010
Amateur gardeners wondering how to get started and veteran gardeners looking for new ideas will be inspired by Houbein’s practical, often charming, and always optimistic advice. One Magic Square includes:Earth-friendly tips, tricks, and solutions for establishing and maintaining an organic gardenIllustrated, annotated plans for 30 plots with different themes—including perennials and “pick-and-come-again” plants, anti-cancer and anti-oxidant-rich vegetables, and salad, pizza, pasta, and stir-fry ingredientsComprehensive information about every plant in every plotColor photographs of the author’s own garden—plus helpful illustrationsHoubein family recipes for making the most of your bounty—including salad dressings, fruit and vegetable juices, stir-fries, and more.
Love the Home You Have: Simple Ways to…Embrace Your Style *Get Organized *Delight in Where You Are
Melissa Michaels - 2015
With humor and candor Melissa reveals how to transform your rooms (and your life) from plainly livable to fabulously lovable.Like a perfectly overstuffed chair, Melissa’s encouragement beckons you to get comfortable and then get creative as you: find beauty in the ordinary discover your style and let it shine with simple ideas entertain possibilities and people with more gratitude and joy gather inspiration in the 31-day Love Your Home Challenge leap from dreamer to doer with confidence Much more than décor! This is your invitation to fall in love with the home you have and embrace the gifts of life, people, and blessings right where you are.
Simple Matters: Living with Less and Ending Up with More
Erin Boyle - 2015
At once pragmatic and philosophical, Simple Matters is a nod to the growing consensus that living simply and purposefully is more sustainable not only for the environment, but for our own happiness and well-being, too. Boyle embraces the notion that “living small” is beneficial and accessible to us all—whether we’re renting a tiny apartment or purchasing a three-story house. Filled with personal essays, projects, and helpful advice on how to be inventive and resourceful in a tight space, Simple Matters shows that living simply is about making do with less and ending up with more: more free time, more time with loved ones, more savings, and more things of beauty.
The Contrary Farmer
Gene Logsdon - 1994
One of Logsdon's principle contrarieties is the opinion that--popular images of the vanishing American farmer, notwithstanding--greater numbers of people in the U.S. will soon be growing and raising a greater share of their own food than at any time since the last century. Instead of vanishing, more and more farmers will be cottage farming, part-time. This detailed and personal account of how Logsdon's family uses the art and science of agriculture to achieve a reasonably happy and ecologically sane way of life in an example for all who seek a sustainable lifestyle. In The Contrary Farmer, Logsdon offers the tried-and-true, practical advice of a manual for the cottage farmer, as well as the subtler delights of a meditation in praise of work and pleasure. The Contrary Farmer will give its readers tools and tenets, but also hilarious commentaries and beautiful evocations of the Ohio countryside that Logsdon knows as his place in the universe.
Epic Tomatoes: How to Select and Grow the Best Varieties of All Time
Craig Lehoullier - 2014
He also offers a comprehensive guide to the various pests and diseases of tomatoes and explains how best to avoid them. No other book offers such a detailed look at the specifics of growing tomatoes, with beautiful photographs and helpful tomato profiles throughout.
The Beginner's Guide to Raising Chickens: How to Raise a Happy Backyard Flock
Anne Kuo - 2019
From constructing coops to rearing chicks, you’ll learn everything you need to know to make sure your chickens stay happy and healthy all year round.Which breed of chicken is right for you? What’s the best coop-bedding material? What sort of feed should you use? Let expert chicken keeper Anne Kuo answer these questions—and many others—in The Beginner’s Guide to Raising Chickens.The Beginner’s Guide to Raising Chickens includes:
All cooped up—Create the perfect home for raising chickens using detailed backyard coop designs and construction guides.
From chickens to eggs—Find out how to pick the right breed, raise chicks, collect eggs, keep your birds safe from predators, and more.
Learn to speak bird—Start talking the talk thanks to an extensive glossary of common chicken-keeping terms.
Get your own flock started in no time—The Beginner’s Guide to Raising Chickens shows you how.