Homegrown and Handmade: A Practical Guide to More Self-Reliant Living - Softcover

Niemann, Deborah

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0865717028 ISBN 13: 9780865717022

Publisher: New Society Publishers, 2011

Synopsis

Our food system is dominated by industrial agriculture and has become economically and environmentally unsustainable. The incidence of diet-related diseases, including obesity, diabetes, hypertension, cancer, and heart disease, has skyrocketed to unprecedented levels. Whether you have forty acres and a mule or a condo with a balcony, you can do more than you think to safeguard your health, your money, and the planet.

Homegrown and Handmade shows how making things from scratch and growing at least some of your own food can help you eliminate artificial ingredients from your diet, reduce your carbon footprint, and create a more authentic life. Whether your goal is increasing your self-reliance or becoming a full-fledged homesteader, it's packed with answers and solutions to help you:

• Take control of your food supply from seed to plate
• Raise small and medium livestock for fun, food, and fiber
• Rediscover traditional skills to meet more of your family's needs than you ever thought possible

This comprehensive guide to food and fiber from scratch proves that attitude and knowledge is more important than acreage. Written from the perspective of a successful self-taught modern homesteader, this well illustrated, practical, and accessible manual will appeal to anyone who dreams of a simpler life.

Deborah Niemann is a homesteader, writer, and self-sufficiency expert who presents extensively on topics including soapmaking, bread baking, cheesemaking, composting, and homeschooling. She and her family raise sheep, pigs, cattle, goats, chickens, and turkeys for meat, eggs, and dairy products, while an organic garden and orchard provides fruit and vegetables.

About this title

From the Author

One of the first questions anyone asks when they hear about my lifestyle is, "Did you grow up like this?" Whether they are asking about our homesteading lifestyle or my diet, the answer is a resounding, "No!" I grew up in Refugio, Texas, a small town on the Gulf Coast, and I couldn't wait to move to the big city. I spent many weekends in Houston, and after graduating from high school, I attended college at Eastern Connecticut State University. Armani was more familiar to me than arugula. I ate out more than I ate at home, and when I did eat at home, the food often came from a box or can. I was close to my teen years before I ate a raw vegetable, and that was iceberg lettuce drowned in salad dressing.

When I became pregnant with my first child, I honestly believed that a cheeseburger and fries was a good, healthy meal. I had my meat, dairy, bread, and vegetables. Yes, I thought that a piece of lettuce, a couple of pickle slices, and french fries counted as vegetables. I was proud of myself for eliminating caffeine from my two-liter daily soda consumption. After my baby was born, I started reading about nutrition and thought that maybe my poor diet had contributed to my constant illness as a child. Hoping to save my own children from the same sad fate, I started eliminating artificial ingredients from our diet and began baking bread. Over the years, we became more conscientious about our dietary choices, and by 2002, it seemed like moving to the country to grow our own food was the next logical step.

I always say that if we can do this, anyone can, and I'm not joking. Our livestock experience consisted of caring for two cats and a poodle before we moved out here. You don't have to be a master gardener to grow your own food. Our first garden produced only a handful of stringy green beans, but from reading books, finding mentors, trying, and making mistakes, we've learned to do everything we do today.

From the Back Cover

A modern approach to homesteading – no farm required

...buy this book, read it and then go do something. You are not alone. Mentors to help you along the way are out here.— Joel Salatin, from the Foreword

 

Dreaming of a mindful life? Niemann’s advice on gardening, cooking, orcharding, raising livestock, and much more demonstrates that it’s possible to begin the journey in your own backyard. — Rebecca Martin, Managing Editor, Mother Earth News

 

FOOD RECALLS, dubious health claims, scary and shocking ingredients in health and beauty products. Our increasingly industrialized supply system is becoming more difficult to navigate, more frightening, and more frustrating, leaving us feeling stuck choosing in many cases  between the lesser of several evils.

 

In this fully updated and revised edition of Homegrown and Handmade, author Deborah Niemann offers healthier, more empowering choices, by showing us how to reclaim links in our food and purchasing chains, to make choices that are healthier for our families, ourselves, and our planet. Along the way, she shows how making things from scratch and growing some of your own food can help you eliminate artificial ingredients from your diet, reduce your carbon footprint, and create a more authentic life.

 

Whether your goal is increasing your self-reliance or becoming a full-fledged homesteader, it’s  packed with answers and solutions to help you rediscover traditional skills, take control of your food from seed to plate, and much more.

 

Deborah Niemann presents and teaches extensively on topics ranging from soapmaking to livestock care. She and her family raise livestock for meat, eggs and dairy products, while an organic garden and orchard provide fruit and vegetables. Deborah is also the author of Raising Goats Naturally.

 

Wherever you are on your journey toward a more self-reliant lifestyle, Homegrown and Handmade provides practical guidance and gentle encouragement to help you make the choices that work best for you. — Victoria Redhed Miller, author, Pure Poultry and Craft Distilling

 

Edition details

• Publisher: New Society Publishers
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 0865717028
• ISBN 13: 9780865717022
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 288