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The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Country Living: Beekeeping, Canning and Preserving, Cheese Making, Disaster Preparedness, Fermenting, Growing ... Raising Livestock, Soap Making, and more!
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About The Illustrated Encyclopedia Of Country
Product Description Packed with step-by-step instructions, useful tips, time-honored wisdom, and both illustrations and photographs, this might just be the most comprehensive guide to back to basics living ever published. Fans of Back to Basics, Homesteading, and Self-Sufficiency have been asking for a one-stop resource for all the subjects covered in that successful series. In response, Gehring has compiled a massive, beautifully presented, single volume that covers canning and preserving, keeping chickens, fermenting, soap-making, how to generate your own energy, how to build a log cabin, natural medicine, cheese-making, maple sugaring, farm mechanics, and much, much more. Whether you own one hundred acres or rent a studio apartment in the city, this book has plenty of ideas to inspire you. Learn how to build a log cabin or how to craft handmade paper; find out how to install a solar panel on your roof or brew your own tea from dried herbs; Cure a ham, bake a loaf of bread, or brew your own beer. This book has something for everyone. Review ". . . a comprehensive reference guide with information about keeping animals, growing a garden, and even making furniture." —J. Klemann "Very helpful and educational." —D. Pitsko "Love this manual. It covers all the basics. It's well written and has lots of pictures." —J. Harvey "This book is the quintessential country life guide. It has almost anything you could need to know about living more naturally, raising farm animals, and even plenty of helpful how-tos about fixing or installing household standards. I'd recommend this book to city dwellers and farm folk!" —H. Baker "Over the years I've purchased a library of DIY books. Many of the encyclopedic type books are too general and a paucity of information, until now. This is an exceptional volume of work, surprising detail with fabulous color photographs." —K. Broman About the Author Abigail R. Gehring is the author or editor of more than a dozen books including Back to Basics, Homesteading, and The Essential Guide to Self-Sufficient Living. She enjoys writing, gardening, experimenting in the kitchen, and spending time with family. She lives with her husband, two kids, and Siberian husky in an 1800s farmstead in southern Vermont. Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. Introduction To create an encyclopedia is a daunting task. I began this book with grandiose plans to include everything there is to know about living off the land—if anyone had ever planted it, raised it, built it, baked it, or crafted it, it would be in this book. And here it is! Okay, maybe not quite. The truth is, every time I flip through these pages I think of some other project, or some useful bit of information I would love to add. But I trust that I’ve compiled a resource that is comprehensive enough to teach even the most seasoned farmer a trick or two, and user-friendly enough to inspire the greenest green thumbs among my readers. There was some lively debate leading up to publication regarding whether an encyclopedia must be in alphabetical order. Strictly speaking (according to the all-knowing Merriam Webster), it does not. Though Merriam states that encyclopedias are usually arranged alphabetically, the criteria for fitting a book into the category is simply “a work that contains information on all branches of knowledge or treats comprehensively a particular branch of knowledge . . .” When a colleague stopped by my desk, glanced at my nearly-finished work, and casually suggested, “Shouldn’t it be in alphabetical order?” I got worried. My instinct was to keep the book arranged in a more chronological way—first you plan your garden, then you buy the seeds, then you till the soil, then plant, weed, and water, and finally you harvest. My prior books have all been set up in this way, and to me it made perfect sense. This was my position when I began asking others for their opinions. “That’s fine,” was the general respon
