The Homesteader's Guides – serie

Whether you want to dabble or immerse yourself completely in the back-to-basics lifestyle, Welcome to the Farm is a fully illustrated guide to growing the very best food right in your own backyard. Shaye Elliott shows you how to harvest baskets full of organic produce, milk a dairy cow (and make butter), plant a homestead orchard, can jams and jellies, and even raise chickens and bees.

A beautiful and simple guide to edible gardeningThe “garden to table” movement is inspiring another generation of gardeners but many of them have questions. How important is composting? Is seed saving really worth it? Focusing on sustainable, organic growing practices and plants, The Backyard Gardener is a comprehensive handbook that will help get them started. Kelly Orzel covers everything from soil selection to growing and harvesting. Sidebars such as “garden center survival tips” offer useful advice to help readers build their confidence and know-how. This guide also features photographs of beautiful plant bed designs, propagation techniques, and much more.

Preserving food can be one of the most intimidating aspects of homesteading and cooking. Luckily, no one makes it as easy and as much fun as farm-girl-in-the-making Ann Acetta-Scott. For a beginner new to the world of preserving, the ideal tool is a detailed reference guide, and in The Farm Girl’s Guide to Preserving the Harvest, Ann covers all the basics on canning, dehydrating, freezing, fermenting, curing, and smoking, including how to select and use the right tools for each method.This guide takes home preservers through the beginning, moderate, and advanced stages of preserving. Newcomers can start with a simple jam and jelly recipe using a hot water bath canner, while others may be advanced enough to have mastered the pressure canner and are ready to move onto curing and smoking meat and fish. With more than 30 delicious and healthy recipesand Ann's expertise and encouragement, the home preserver will build confidence in the most common methods of preserving.