books about ‘practical self-sufficiency’ and ‘backyard farming’ in- Northwestern Europe and North America –

“John Seymour has made self-sufficiency feasible. This book gives you al the information you need and more! From planning your 1 or 5 acre plot to crop rotation, from making beer, bread and rollmops to building a furnace! Essential accessory to self-sufficiency, whether you need to remove a tree stump, butcher livestock, harness a ploughhorse, plan your dairy, brew beer, dress stone or even distilling! The drawings are stunning, exquisitely drawn and incredibly clear. It is also a sobering caveat for those planning to dream the dream …”

“Thanks to this book and of course the all knowing John seymour, I am a city girl who now owns Sheep, ducks and hens. Soon to move to a small holding, I am confident that I can also cope with goats and donkeys – And make a small income from the land and feed the family! It gives you the info you need to care for the animals, but also to talk to others without looking a complete novice! As soon as you have a bit of knowledge under your belt, others with heaps more experience are soon happy to give you good advice and before you know it – you really DO know what you are doing!”

“This book is the only one of it’s kind I have found. Not only does it have step-by-step instructions and tables on when and how to plant and harvest, it also has plans for building your own cold frames and a portable greenhouse (hoop house). Many books on the same subject focus on artificially heating a greenhouse to grow warm-weather vegetables. This one does not! The focus is instead on how to use what is naturally cold tolerant, and how to keep your plants harvestable throughout the winter.

“This book is well dubbed “A Practical Guide to Self-Reliance.” It is a good choice for anyone interested in someday getting their own farm and making it self-contained; or just for people who are interested in the way grandma used to do all that neat stuff back on the farm in the old days. It includes chapters both on specific techniques of country living (gardening, care of livestock, self home maintainence, etc.) as well as a chapter on the planning of the farm itself, including discussions of house designs, methods of construction (and economy thereof), layout of farm as well as overviews of particular building and design schemes such as passive solar heating and solar and wind power, ‘living off the grid’. Overall an excellent primer in rural living.”

“Seymour, an expert in self-sufficiency, takes readers back to another age with this combination of the classic titles The Forgotten Arts (1984) and Forgotten Household Crafts (1987). There is something here for everyone: woodcrafts, basketry, soap making, food production, wool production, lace making, and more. As we have come to expect from DK, the illustrations are an attractive asset, featuring numerous period photographs and drawings. If the Y2K premonitions had come to pass, this book would have been worth its weight in gold (and it’s a hefty tome). For most public libraries.”

“On first glance, because I have very much ‘the Garden Farm’, I thought the book was going to be a bit ‘above my station’. Once reading though,on every page I found something relevant to what I’m looking for. Whether it’s just vegetables and a few chickens or vast amounts of arrable land – this book has sound advice and very easy to follow text. Even if you don’t read it for self sufficiency purposes, it shows the romantic and strenuous work required for the ideal life.”

“A practical guide for the novice gardener who wants to grow vegetables, fruits, nuts, herbs, and other useful plant products with the intent of becoming less dependent on outside sources. Includes a section on computer gardening resources, including free resources on the Internet.”

“After 20-plus years of tutelage at the feet of Vermont’s climate, landscape designers and authors Joe Eck and Wayne Winterrowd have mastered the art of living seasonally. Fundamentally, this means eating what’s ripe in the garden–there’s no freezing and very little canning at North Hill–when it’s ripe. The meditative, ardent Living Seasonally: The Kitchen Garden and the Table at North Hill describes this life hitched to the wax and wane of the seasons.”

floor plan for my wife’s “dream house”), barns, and other outbuildings.”

“This enlightening book offers options to the traditional methods of preserving fruits and vegetables from the garden by freezing or canning. In a foreword written by Eliot Coleman, the well-known gardener notes how the use of more natural methods serves to enhance the flavors as well as the nutritional values of foods. Contained here are 250 recipes that feature eight different ways to preserve fresh produce. In various instances, spoilage is prevented by using salt, sugar, oil, vinegar, wine, or alcohol. Some recipes preserve foods for weeks, while others keep foods good for many months. Should the millennium bug be a problem, look to this manual for information on how to preserve food by storing it in the ground or a root cellar, by air drying, by preserving with the condiments mentioned above, and by other techniques that deserve wider recognition.”