by Carla Emery
One of the all-time best-selling independent-living books that we have ever carried - we can't recommend it too highly!
Whether you want to learn useful rural, homesteader or "back-to-the-land" survival skills, acquire invaluable money-saving or
food-raising and preserving techniques, or to use and enjoy the astonishing wealth of over 1,000 recipes and hundreds of proven tips for cutting your personal living costs or becoming more self-reliant, or you just want regular access
to Carla Emery's unparalleled storehouse of experience and advice on everything related to self-sufficient living, this is a book that you must have!
This amazing 864 page volume, now in its ninth printing, is the result of an extraordinary fusion of Carla Henry's vast experience in every area of self-reliant living with the feedback and comments [many of which are reproduced in the book] of her more than thirty thousand readers around the world. The book, in consequence, is an invaluable treasure-trove of well-tested, practical and ingenious recipes, formulas, ideas and advice. Whether you live in the city or the country, you'll find yourself consulting Carla Henry's Encyclopedia Of Country Living frequently and profiting by it - or just sitting down and reading it for sheer pleasure! It is perhaps the most comprehensive resource available on the topics it covers.
You'll learn:
"If you're dreaming about moving "back to the land" someday, or if you're already there and want to live more self-sufficiently [wherever you may be] you'll want a copy of the ninth edition of The Encyclopedia of Country Living...We think you're pretty swell, Carla."
- Organic Gardening
"Carla Emery is certifiably one of the craziest, warmest, [sometimes unintentionally] funniest, wisest, most lovable, and idealistic zanies now walking the face of the earth and we think this old world would be a lot better off if we had a few more people like her."
- Mother Earth News
We couldn't agree more, and we urge you to add this one-of-a-kind telephone book-sized treasury of earthy, folksy and wise country wisdom to your own library, while you still can! You'll save a lot, you'll learn a lot, end you'll be endlessly informed, intrigued, amused and edified by its seemingly-inexaustible and ever-useful contents.
Paperbound; 864 pages
by Maurice G. Kains
In the endless debate about the relative merits of food storage versus attempting
to live off the land in the event of a major crisis, social breakdown or sudden
serious food shortage, this invaluable book is worth recommending as a "third option".
We can't recommend it highly enough! It's a simply-written goldmine of information on food production
and "independent living" - well worth investing in,
even if you don't buy the farm [it may even help you
avoid "buying the farm" in desperate circumstances!]
"Anyone who has ever dreamed of getting back to the soil will get from Maurice Grenville Kains' practical and easy -to-understand discussions a more complete view of what small-scale farming means. Most likely, you, like thousands of others who have read Five Acres and Independence will come away with specific projects that you can begin, specific plans that you can start to materialize. The farmer in you will begin to appear, bringing you closer to the fulfillment of that dream of on dependence on a small farm of your own.Whether you already own a suitable place or whether you are still looking, Five Acres and Independence will help you learn to evaluate land for both its total economic and its specific agricultural possibilities. There are methods of calculating costs of permanent improvements - draining the land, improving soil, planting wind breaks, putting in septic tanks, cellars, irrigation systems, greenhouses, etc. - and methods of carrying out those improvements.
There are suggestions for specific crops - strawberries, grapes, vegetables, orchards, spring, summer and fall crops, transplanting, timing, repairing what already exists - with methods of deciding what is best for your land and purposes, and methods of making each of them pay. There are suggestions of animals for the small-scale farmer -goats, chickens, hens - and means of working them into your overall farm design. And finally there are suggestions for keeping your small farm in top production condition, methods of continually increasing the value of your farm, methods of marketing your produce, methods of accurately investing in improvements, virtually everything a small- scale farmer needs to know to make his venture economically sound.
Some things, of course, have changed since 1940 when M. G. Kains revised Five Acres and Independence. But the basic down-to-earth advice of one of the most prominent men in recent American agriculture, and the methods of farming the small-scale, pre-DDT farm, are still pretty much the same. Much of the information in this book was built on USDA and state farm bureau reports; almost all of it was personally tested by M. G. Kains either on his own farms or on the farms of the people who trusted him as an experi- enced consultant. His book went through more than 30 editions in the ten years after it was first printed and helped countless small farmers attain their dream; it continues today as an exceptional source for those who want to make their first farming attempt."
If you're going thinking of getting back to the land, why reinvent the plough? This extraordinarily valuable book will enable you to quickly benefit from the immense reservoirs of experience garnered over a lifetime by one of America's most expert and outstanding small farmers.
Unabridged republication of the second (1940) edition. New introduction by J. E. Oldfield. 95 figures. Appendices. Index. xvi + 397pp. 5 3/8" x 8 1/2". Paperback.
by Richard W. Langer
"A unique and handy introduction for any back-to-the-lander, much better than any guide currently in print"
- John Shuttleworth, Editor of Mother Earth News [1972]
This reprint of a great classic of the 1970's "back to the land" movement is invaluable! We thoroughly concur with the book's back cover description:
"Here - in clear and succinct language - are step-by-step instructions for the beginning farmer, ranging from fruit and vegetable growing to the raising of small livestock. Starting with an explanation of how to improve soil and watershed and how to organize working time [for both the weekend and full-time farmer], GROW IT! gives complete and detailed information on every aspect of homesteading."Here," says Euell Gibbons [author of Stalking The Wild Asparagus and many other books], "is an approach to rural life that today's ecologically turned-on generation can accept. Langer is no 'conquest of nature' farmer, demanding that the land stand and pay tribute. His attitude is one of cooperation and harmony with nature. He is a believer in organic methods, but he uses them with practicality rather than with fanaticism. He has an easy, joyful at-homeness with nature and he communicates it so pleasantly that he will soon have you feeling the same way.""
GROW IT! covers: land, tillage, fertilizer, fruit, nuts, berries. vegetables, pest control, grain, forage, goats, chickens, ducks, geese, swans, turkeys, pigs, honeybees, storing the harvest, rootcellars, krauting, drying fruit, making cheese, butter and yoghurt, sausage making, lard, smoke curing your meat, and where to obtain advice, farm equipment, fruit and vegetable seeds, organic fertilizers, tree stocks and farm books by mail. Superb!
Hardback, 365 pages.
by Wilson, Thompson, and Worth
![Click here to review or to order the superb gardening classic, 'THE VICTORY GARDEN: The Essential Companion" [3 Complete Volumes In 1]'- Wilson, Thompson, and Worth](victgdn.jpg)
For two decades, millions of Americans have been tuning in eagerly to The Victory Garden on PBS - and learning to plant, cultivate and harvest the garden of their dreams. And just as careful planting leads to great
bounty, the success of the television program led to an indispensable series of companion books written by The Victory Garden staff. Masters Of The Victory Garden, The New Victory Garden and The Victory Garden Landscape Guide constitute a library on vegetable, flower, and landscape gardening - and for the first time they're available in this information-packed single volume!
This one-stop guide is unparalleled: featuring more than 1,000 full-colour photographs, drawings and diagrams, it includes comprehensive instruction on growing the widest possible variety of flowers, vegetables, fruits, shrubs, and trees; it provides plans for garden designs and construction projects such as sheds, feeders and cold frames; and it even tackles the environmental isssues of insecticides and composting. In short, The Victory Garden is the most authoritative source ever compiled for gardeners of every level - from the nervous novice to the accomplished green thumb.
Masters Of The Victory Garden provides continuing inspiration and guidance by distilling the wisdom of eleven hobby gardeners - masters who specialize in the cultivation of a variety of specific plants. Whether itt's prize-winning blooms, new hybrids, or carefully nurtured heirloom plants, the accomplishments of these master gardeners are brought within reach of the dedicated amateur in these easy-to-follow, illustrated pages. And the experts' enthusiasm is contagious!
The New Victory Garden moves month by month through the growing season, from the Winter ritual of ordering seeds and planning the garden through Spring planting, Summer growing, Fall harvesting - and preparing the soil for the following year. Practical, time-tested advice on such topics as buying seedlings from a nursery, ordering from a catalog, and how to use the first months to improve conditions for the following Spring, is augmented by instruction on cider- and wreath-making, landscaping to attract birds, growing culinary herbs, and much more.
The Victory Garden Landscape Guide teaches city and country gardeners alike how to design outdoor spaces perfectly suited to their needs and tastes. In the down-to-earth and practical style that is the hallmark of both the TV series and the books it has given birth to, it demystifies the process of choosing, using and caring for hundreds of varieties of shrubs, trees, ground covers, vines and other decorative plantings. It also offers invaluable tips on the use of inanimate practical or decorative materials such as stone, gravel, concrete, wood and brick.
Each single Victory Garden volume has been awaited eagerly by the TV program's many fans, and has sold hundreds of thousands of copies to avid gardeners everywhere. The Victory Garden is the ultimate guide, the must-have addition to the library of anyone who has felt the joy of plunging up to the elbows in warm Spring soil, or plucking a juicy August tomato from the vine - or who wants to learn from scratch how to expertly and economically supply all of their family's fruit and vegetable needs, and have a gorgeous garden too! It's a gardener's dream come true.
894 pages; hardbound.
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"The SAS Survival Handbook: How to Survive in the Wild, in Any Climate, on Land or at Sea" - John Wiseman [Note: this is the US edition; the British edition is shown above - the contents are the same in both editions, only the covers and sizes differ]
"The Complete Wilderness Training Book" - Hugh McManners
"Camping And Woodcraft" - Horace Kephart
"Wilderness Living" - Gregory J. Davenport
"Wilderness Survival" - Gregory J. Davenport
"Primitive Wilderness Living and Survival Skills: Naked into the Wilderness" - John McPherson and Geri McPherson
"Primitive Wilderness Skills, Applied And Advanced" - John McPherson and Geri McPherson
"Primitive Technology: A Book of Earth Skills" - David Wescott, Society of Primitive Technology
"Primitive Technology II: Ancestral Skills from the Society of Primitive Technology" - edited by David Wescott, Society of Primitive Technology
"Participating in Nature: Thomas J. Elpel's Field Guide to Primitive Living Skills" - Thomas J. Elpel
"Making Arrows the Old Way" - Doug Wallentine
"Old Tools, New Eyes: A Primal Primer of Flintknapping
" - Bob Patten and Richard Jagoda
"Early Hunting Tools: An Introduction to Flintknapping" - Matt Gravelle
"Flintknapping" - Paul Hellweg
"Flintknapping: Making and Understanding Stone Tools" - John C. Whittaker
"Earth Knack: Stone Age Skills for the 21st Century" - John C. Whittaker
"US Army Survival Manual: FM 21-76" - Department of Defense