The The New Complete Book of Self-Sufficiency: The Classic Guide for Realists and Dreamers

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Simply Living Well: A Guide to Creating a Natural Low Waste Home by Julia Watkins ~ With dozens of simple DIY recipes for herbal remedies and natural cleaning products, this book is artfully presented and inspiring. When you use your kitchen to make homemade meals, cheese, vinegar extractions, fermented vegetables, elderberry wine, or bread from scratch just about every day, it’s near impossible to keep it looking like a showplace. So, for me, Sharon’s real-life homesteading approach to greater self-sufficiency and a different way to appreciate beauty make me feel better about my own efforts. These manuals take a deeper dive into self reliant living, covering just about everything you’d need to know to move to land and provide for yourself. Second Edition. Mimeographed on Carlton and Mustang paper with an ivory Plastisheen cover; 185 copies finished April 10, 1974. Food dehydration is one of the oldest methods of preservation, and while the principles have remained unchanged for millennia, the tools available these days make the process much easier.

I’m A Stranger Here Myself - the story of a Welsh farm (1978). London: Faber & Faber. (With illustrations by Sally Seymour) In addition, it also helps to build a sense of community among neighbors, not just a sense of self. A community that is self-sufficient can survive and thrive even in the face of economic difficulties and social challenges. Importantly, self-sufficiency is not only important in times of crisis but also during times of relative peace and calmness. Essential Guide to Radical Self Reliant Gardening by Will Bonsall ~ This is technically a “gardening” book, but it covers so much more than that. Will Bonsall and his family strive to produce everything they need on their homestead in Maine, with minimal external inputs. They even grow their own seed oil. The guy is quite a character, and if I had to choose one book that really covers living off the land on a homestead, this would be it. Truly one of my favorites. John was as much at home in the humblest house on a hillside, as in the manor house of landed gentry. He was like a force of nature, always willing to listen, always interested in learning about new — or very old — ways of working the land. He was a one-man rebellion against modernism. Herbert Girardet, 2005. [1] Bibliography [ edit ] Solar energy is a renewable source of energy that can be used to power homes, businesses and even entire countries.

Metalworking & Blacksmithing

The importance of self-sufficiency and its connection to community support networks has become increasingly important in modern society. Self-sufficiency refers to a person’s ability to care for their basic needs without relying on outside help or resources, but this doesn’t want not working with others.

Easy cheese making recipes can be made at home in under an hour, things like mozzarella, ricotta and paneer, and they’re the perfect place to start for beginners. Most food preservation books cover a single topic in depth, rather than the subject of food preservation in general. It’s easy enough to find canning books, or fermenting books, or dehydrator books…but general manuals that cover all manner of food preservation techniques are much less common. The Wood Gasifier Builder’s Bible: Off Grid Fuel for the Prepared Homestead by Ben Peterson ~ He takes you through the process of building a wood gassifier from start to finish. Unfortunately, while he does show you the one he built, he’s a little spotty on the details of how they work in general. Though it’s not the best manual, it’s the best I’ve found on the topic because it actually does have a practical example.Wild food and foraging guides are often really regionally specific, as plants vary from place to place. My favorites are actually more generalist foraging books, that cover plants with wide ranges so they’re applicable across most the US. John Seymour (12 June 1914 – 14 September 2004) was a British author and pioneer in the self-sufficiency movement. In 1976, he wrote The Complete Book of Self-Sufficiency.