Building one will appeal to bakers, builders, and beginners of all kinds, from: the serious or aspiring baker who wants the best low-cost bread oven, togardeners who want a centerpiece for a beautiful outdoor kitchen, tooutdoor chefs, tocreative people interested in low-cost materials and simple technology, toteachers who want a multi-faceted, experiential project for students of all ages (the book has been successful with everyone from third-graders to adults)."Build Your Own Earth Oven" is fully illustrated with step-by-step directions, including how to tend the fire, and how to make perfect sourdough hearth loaves in the artisan tradition. The average do-it-yourselfer with a few tools and a scrap pile can build an oven for free, or close to it. Otherwise, $30 should cover all your materials--less than the price of a fancy "baking stone." Good building soil is often right in your back yard, under your feet. Build the simplest oven in a day! With a bit more time and imagination, you can make a permanent foundation and a fire-breathing dragon-oven or any other shape you can dream up.Earth ovens are familiar to many that have seen a southwestern "horno" or a European "bee-hive" oven. The idea (pioneered by Egyptian bakers in the second millennium bc!) is simplicity itself: fill the oven with wood, light a fire, and let it burn down to ashes. The dense, 3- to 12-inch-thick earthen walls hold and store the heat of the fire, the baker sweeps the floor clean, and the hot oven walls radiate steady, intense heat for hours.Home bakers who can't afford a fancy, steam-injected bread oven will be delighted to find that a simple earth oven can produce loaves to equal the fanciest "artisan" bakery. It also makes delicious roast meats, cakes, pies, pizzas, and other creations. Pizza cooks to perfection in three minutes or less. Vegetables, herbs, and potatoes drizzled with olive oil roast up in minutes for a simple, elegant, and delicious meal. Efficient cooks will find the residual heat useful for slow-baked dishes, and even for drying surplus produce, or incubating homemade yogurt.

    Practical projects as useful today as when first published 75 years ago.

    Discover just how easy and fun canning can be. - Choose from 70 user-friendly recipes and additional helpful tips for canning success. - Get started quickly and painlessly with equipment and supplies checklists. - Make perfect pickles, relishes, and jams and jellies throughout the year as fresh fruits and vegetables become available. - Stay safe with comprehensive instructions and safety guidelines that ensure your canning projects are both easy and foolproof. - Satisfy family members' special dietary needs with low-sodium and low-sugar recipes. - Simplify the process of pressure canning of home-cooked meats and prepared dishes.

    Using truly simple techniques, you can cultivate the pioneer's independence to provide safety against lost wages, harsh weather, economic recession, and commercial contamination and shortages. Strengthen your family's self-reliance as you discover anew the joy of homegrown food, thrift, and self-sufficient living.

    Stephanie Tourles shows you how to use fruit, flowers, herbs, and minerals to craft healthy products that promote radiant skin, strong nails, shiny hair, and an elevated mood. Pamper yourself from head to toe with products like Strawberry Cleanser, Pineapple Sunflower Scrub, and Almond Rose Body Lotion. Gentle on your skin and free of harsh chemicals found in commercial products, you’ll want to indulge yourself over and over with these luxuriously aromatic bath blends, face masks, and body scrubs.

    Pickled beets. Homegrown tomatoes. These are the tastes of Kevin West’s Southern childhood, and they are the tastes that inspired him to “save the season,” as he traveled from the citrus groves of Southern California to the cranberry bogs of Massachusetts and everywhere in between, chronicling America’s rich preserving traditions.   Here, West presents his findings: 220 recipes for sweet and savory jams, pickles, cordials, cocktails, candies, and more; plus 300 full-color photographs. From Classic Apricot Jam to Green Tomato Chutney; from Pickled Asparagus with Tarragon and Green Garlic to Scotch Marmalade, Saving the Season is the ultimate guide for cooks — from the novice to the professional — and the only book you need to save (and savor) the season throughout the entire year.

    Like the new generation of beer drinkers who consciously seek out distinctive craft-brewed beers, many people find that their palates have been reawakened and re-educated by the taste of locally baked, whole-grain breads. Today's village bakers are finding an important new role--linking tradition with a sophisticated new understanding of natural levens, baking science and oven construction.Daniel Wing, a lover of all things artisinal, had long enjoyed baking his own sourdough bread. His quest for the perfect loaf began with serious study of the history and chemistry of bread baking, and eventually led to an apprenticeship with Alan Scott, the most influential builder of masonry ovens in America.Alan and Daniel have teamed up to write this thoughtful, entertaining, and authoritative book that shows you how to bake superb healthful bread and build your own masonry oven. The authors profile more than a dozen small-scale bakers around the U.S. whose practices embody the holistic principles of community-oriented baking based on whole grains and natural leavens.The Bread Builders will appeal to a broad range of readers, including:Connoisseurs of good bread and good food.Home bakers interested in taking their bread and pizza to the next level of excellence.Passionate bakers who fantasize about making a living by starting their own small bakery.Do-it-yourselfers looking for the next small construction project.Small-scale commercial bakers seeking inspiration, the most up-to-date knowledge about the entire bread-baking process, and a marketing edge.

    Twenty Instructables illustrate just how simple it can be to make your own backyard chicken coop, or turn a wine barrel into a rainwater collector.Illustrated with dozens of full-color photographs per project accompanying easy-to-follow instructions, this Instructables collection utilizes the best that the online community has to offer, turning a far-reaching group of people into a mammoth database churning out ideas to make life better, easier, and in this case, greener, as this volume exemplifies.

    From making your own sweet jams and preserving whole fruits, to the fundamentals of brining vegetables, Ball Back to Basics focuses on the building block techniques and classic recipes that every canner should know. The book begins with in-depth information on the equipment you need, preparing your fruits and vegetables, and food safety guidance. Each canning and preserving method is thoroughly explained with step-by-step photographs and beginner-friendly tutorials highlighting key steps. Packed with 100 foolproof recipes for the modern pantry, a wealth of variation ideas for low-sugar and flavor change-ups, and time-tested tips from the most trusted authority in home canning, this handy teaching cookbook is designed to ensure success.

    government’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program informally known as food stamps? The answer is surprisingly well: Broiled Tilapia with Lime, Spicy Pulled Pork, Green Chile and Cheddar Quesadillas, Vegetable Jambalaya, Beet and Chickpea Salad—even desserts like Coconut Chocolate Cookies and Peach Coffee Cake. In addition to creating nutritious recipes that maximize every ingredient and use economical cooking methods, Ms. Brown gives tips on shopping; on creating pantry basics; on mastering certain staples—pizza dough, flour tortillas—and saucy extras that make everything taste better, like spice oil and tzatziki; and how to make fundamentally smart, healthful food choices.Download a free PDF copy at http://www.leannebrown.ca/cookbooks

    Today the term encompasses a vast range of preparations, most of which involve salting, cooking, smoking, and drying. In addition to providing classic recipes for sausages, terrines, and pâtés, Michael Ruhlman and Brian Polcyn expand the definition to include anything preserved or prepared ahead such as Mediterranean olive and vegetable rillettes, duck confit, and pickles and sauerkraut. Ruhlman, coauthor of The French Laundry Cookbook, and Polcyn, an expert charcuterie instructor at Schoolcraft College in Livonia, Michigan, present 125 recipes that are both intriguing to professionals and accessible to home cooks, including salted, airdried ham; Maryland crab, scallop, and saffron terrine; Da Bomb breakfast sausage; mortadella and soppressata; and even spicy smoked almonds.

    Wheelbarrow's Practical Pantry, food preserving expert Cathy Barrow presents a beautiful collection of essential preserving techniques for turning the fleeting abundance of the farmers’ market into a well-stocked pantry full of canned fruits and vegetables, jams, stocks, soups, and more.As Cathy writes in her introduction, “A walk through the weekend farmers’ market is a chance not only to shop for the week ahead but also to plan for the winter months.” From the strawberries and blueberries of late spring to the peaches, tomatoes, and butter beans of early fall, Mrs. Wheelbarrow’s Practical Pantry shows you how to create a fresh, delectable, and lasting pantry—a grocery store in your own home.Beyond the core techniques of water-bath canning, advanced techniques for pressure canning, salt-curing meats and fish, smoking, and even air-curing pancetta are broken down into easy-to-digest, confidence-building instructions.Under Cathy’s affable direction, you’ll discover that homemade cream cheese and Camembert are within the grasp of the weekday cook—and the same goes for smoked salmon, home canned black beans, and preserved and cured duck confit.In addition to canning techniques, Practical Pantry includes 36 bonus recipes using what’s been preserved: rugelach filled with apricot preserves, tomato soup from canned crushed tomatoes, arugula and bresaola salad with Parmigiano-Reggiano and hazelnuts, brined pork chops with garlicky bok choy.Tips for choosing the best produce at the right time of season and finding the right equipment for your canning and cooking needs—along with troubleshooting tips to ensure safe preserving—will keep your kitchen vibrant from spring to fall.Whether your food comes by the crate, the bushel, or the canvas bag, just a few of Cathy’s recipes are enough to furnish your own practical pantry, one that will provide nourishment and delight all year round. Canning and preserving is not just about the convenience of a pantry filled with peaches, dill pickles, and currant jelly, nor is it the simple joy of making a meal from the jars on the shelf—creating a practical pantry is about cultivating a thoughtful connection with your local community, about knowing exactly where your food comes from and what it can become.

    Developing new vegetable varieties doesn't require a specialized education, a lot of land, or even a lot of time. It can be done on any scale. It's enjoyable. It's deeply rewarding. You can get useful new varieties much faster than you might suppose. And you can eat your mistakes.Authoritative and easy-to-understand, Breed Your Own Vegetable Varieties: The Gardener's and Farmer's Guide to Plant Breeding and Seed Saving is the only guide to plant breeding and seed saving for the serious home gardener and the small-scale farmer or commercial grower. Discover:- how to breed for a wide range of different traits (flavor, size, shape, or color; cold or heat tolerance; pest and disease resistance; and regional adaptation)- how to save seed and maintain varieties- how to conduct your own variety trials and other farm- or garden-based research- how to breed for performance under organic or sustainable growing methodsIn this one-size-fits-all world of multinational seed companies, plant patents, and biotech monopolies, more and more gardeners and farmers are recognizing that they need to "take back their seeds." They need to save more of their own seed, grow and maintain the best traditional and regional varieties, and develop more of their own unique new varieties. Breed Your Own Vegetable Varieties: The Gardener's and Farmer's Guide to Plant Breeding and Seed Saving shows the way, and offers an exciting introduction to a whole new gardening adventure.

    "The Mediterranean Diet For Dummies" features expert advice on transitioning to this healthful lifestyle by providing meal planning tips, exercise regimens, and more than 150 recipes inspired by the cuisines of Italy, Greece, southern France, and Spain to improve your health, lose weight, and prevent and fight disease.Rather than focusing on restricting certain foods and ingredients, the Mediterranean diet embraces a variety of food choices that promote freshness, whole grains, healthy fats, more vegetables and less meat, understanding proper portion control, and using items like wine and olive oil to create rich flavors. With "The Mediterranean Diet For Dummies" you'll find out how a delicious diet can reduce the long-term risk of obesity, heart disease, Parkinson's and Alzheimer's diseases, and more.More than 150 tasty recipesExpert tips on meal planning, exercise regimens, and healthy lifestyle choicesPrevent and fight diseases by eating delicious foodWhether you're just discovering the healthfulness of the Mediterranean diet or are looking for some new recipes to add to your repertoire, "The Mediterranean Diet For Dummies" has everything you need to start living a healthier life.Related Title: For a quick introduction to this hot, diet phenomenon, try "Mediterranean Diet In A Day For Dummies." Only available as an E-book, it is the fastest way to start the Mediterranean diet and lifestyle!

    She wants nothing less than to reconnect us all with the food we eat and the heritage of farming that belongs to all of us, and nothing more than to empower and encourage rural women everywhere ... she is cultivating not just a farm but a philosophy of living. " -- Body & Soul "Carpenter, waitress, janitor, upholsterer, secretary, milkmaid, wilderness ranger, environmental activist, entrepreneur-the founder of "MaryJanesFarm" has worn many hats in her day, but none more proudly than that of modern-day farmgirl. Speaking to the farmgirl in all of us, MaryJane Butters offers a captivating introduction to the organic lifestyle, resurrects forgotten domestic arts, and shares lessons gleaned from her diverse background and two decades of life as an Idaho farmer. Whether you simply need encouragement to embrace a more authentic, wholesome lifestyle or you're looking for guidance on building a greenhouse, chopping firewood, hosting a town event, caring for a flock of chickens, making your own butter, growing a winter salad, or choosing a water filter, "MaryJane's Ideabook, Cookbook, Lifebook" is both an inspiration and a practical road map for farmgirls of all stripes." "Dreams are MaryJane Butters' business, and she has always pursued them without pausing to consult conventional wisdom. "-- House & Garden "MaryJane Butters, a natural teacher, has a gift for simplification, and makes it seem that everything she does is easy and attainable. "-- The New Yorker"