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

Product Information

The Resilient Gardener: Food Production and Self Reliance in Uncertain Times by Carol Deppe ~ Carol is a seed breeder and home gardener that grows an impressive variety of food crops to supply the bulk of her daily calories. If you really want to grow calories, not just fancy lettuce, she has a great guide. Updated Tenth Edition. Coinciding with the fortieth anniversary of the book’s beginning, all resource information has been brought up to date.

Growing Gourmet and Medicinal Mushrooms by Paul Stamets ~ Definitely a technical book, and an incredibly dense read, but it’s hard to beat this volume for information regarding mushroom cultivation. The book by Tradd Cotter above is a lot more accessible for the average reader though. Die Lerchen singen so schön (1982). München: Heyne Science Fiction Bibliothek (English version, unpublished: The Larks They Sang Melodious, novel)

General Food Preservation

Growing your own food is a great way to become self-sufficient and contribute to sustainability. Growing seasonal produce ensures that your food is always fresh and available when you need it. Additionally, with the right knowledge and resources, one can become self-sufficient in their own food production. Mastering Artisan Cheesemaking: The Ultimate Guide for Home-Scale and Market Producers by Gianaclis Caldwell ~ An incredible guide that really dives deep into the “why” of cheesemaking. It’s less a recipe book, and more a technical book that will allow you to understand what’s happening in the cheesemaking process start to finish for just about every style of cheese.

Just like charcuterie, cheesemaking can be simple and easy…or it can be incredibly complex and detailed. Thankfully, this book will keep you motivated to take on such projects. Especially if you have limited DIY skills, this book , complete with plans to help you increase your self reliance skill,s will help you manage each project by breaking it down into a parts list and a set of instructions for construction. The Nearings reasons for becoming self-sufficient were both personal and political. But their experience has proved useful to generations of us who have followed in their footsteps. With lots of practical advice, interspersed with lessons in living well, this classic still has enormous value today. There’s something meditative about working bees. Some days I’d just pull up a chair a few yards from the hive entrance and just watch the ladies about their work, streaming in and out of the hive loaded down with pollen and nectar. The Do-able Off Grid Homesteadby Sharon Stronger ~ Sharon lives in a 100% hand built off grid homestead in Texas, and her family has done everything from the ground up on a tight budget. If you don’t have a lot to spend, you really want to read this one before trying to go off grid.

Mushroom Books

The Self-Sufficient Life and How to Live It (2003). London: Dorling Kindersley. (with Will Sutherland) A Year in an Off Grid Kitchen by Kate Downham ~ More of a cookbook for off grid homes homesteaders, Kate teaches you how to cook on a wood cook stove, preserve food and put garden fresh food on the table. Simple herbal remedies, homemade cleaning products, from scratch bread and maybe a few canning recipes. This book is more than just practical advice, as it gives you illustrated examples of how to perform tasks. The illustrations go so far as to break down accurate floor plans for a new home.