With global recessions, political uncertainty and the increasing effects of climate change, it’s no wonder The Encyclopedia of Country Living: The Original Manual For Living Off The Land & Doing It Yourself by Carla Emery is in its 10th edition and remains one of the best selling ‘back to the land’ books on the market. Emery covers simply everything you ever wanted to know about homesteading, living off the grid and living a simpler, more natural way of life.
However, Carla Emery does caution in her introduction against moving to the country if you have a “…notion of freedom that pictures you lying on the grass all of a fine summer’s day, chewing on a succession of hay straws”. Living self-sufficiently in the country is hard work and will mean working 12-hour days in the summer. But she also explains that the rewards are endless. “Home grown food will taste better and be healthier and more affordable,” she explains. “And to grow your own food is to be in a very special and personal relationship with those species that feed you.”
The Encyclopedia of Country Living is a brilliant, no-nonsense rallying cry to return to simpler times and reclaim the land. The book is divided into 11 chapters with a chunky appendix of useful references, web addresses and mail-order references. The chapters are Oddments; Introduction to Plants; Grasses, Grains & Canes; Garden Vegetables; Herbs & Flavourings; Tree, Vine, Bush & Bramble; Food Preservation; Introduction to Animals; Poultry; Goats, Cows & Home Dairying; and Bee, Rabbit, Sheep & Pig.
Frankly, no country stone is left unturned in The Encyclopedia of Country Living. Readers will learn how to give birth without a hospital or anyone to assist you, care for and bury the dead, make a quilt, plant a food garden, store food for the winter, make a loaf of unleavened bread, can pickles, use a solar oven, grow peanuts and soy, make your own cosmetics, forage for wild food, tap for maple syrup, cook on a woodstove, prune a tree, dig a root cellar, make vinegar, home butcher animals, make soap, create rugs and clothes from animal skins, understand cow psychology, churn butter, keep beehives, and a few popular recipes for cooking with lesser known (and somewhat unappetizing) sheep bits.
For more than 30 years, people have relied on Emery’s practical advice on basic self-sufficiency skills. The Encyclopedia of Country Living was originally written at the height of the 1960s back-to-the-land movement and has been continually revised, updated, and expanded since. This updated 10th edition includes expanded and updated resources including mail-order information and Web sites.
The Encyclopedia of Country Living is simply brilliant. If you want to buy one book on the environment – it really should be this one. The Encyclopedia of Country Living is the ultimate guide to reducing your carbon footprint, living more lightly and re-establishing our connections with the land.
Order this book on Amazon.com The Encyclopedia of Country Living
Visit: http://www.sasquatchbooks.com/
Publisher: Sasquatch Books
864 Pages
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