One Green Generation
This list is an “if I were stranded on a desert island what would I bring?” top ten list. Of course I don’t plan on being stranded on a desert island....
Why I Think It’s Important to Have These Books.
I am not a fatalist. However, I do believe harder times are before us. It looks like the world economy is still going to get worse before it gets better.
Our oil supply isn’t going to last forever. I believe we’re going to feel increasing economic pressure, as it becomes increasingly expensive to extract oil. I don’t think the world will end in a big kaboom. However, slowly but surely... our world will change. When I think about everything in our infrastructure that relies on oil, it seems clear to me that we’re not going to continue living as we do forever.
And I believe we probably won’t have a big world-ending crash due to climate change either. But we are already beginning to see increasing amounts of extreme weather patterns. Extreme weather leads to crop failures, fires, floods, and much more.
What climate change means for me locally is that I need to prepare for the fact that our road might flood and we’ll be stuck here home for several days. Or we have a terrible drought and I need to keep my garden going despite it. Or our local climate begins to get warmer, and I need to know enough about gardening to adapt to that change. Our local economy will suffer if the weather changes abruptly and local crops fail, in which case we may have to get by with a lot less.
I know there are some readers here who think I’m crazy at this point. Please don’t click away. Because even if you believe none of this, there are reasons to become more sustainable, more self-sufficient. Your personal income ebbs and flows, jobs come and go, medical issues occur from time to time... When you are down economically, it’s important to know how to feed, clothe, and house your family.
Plus, I can tell you quite honestly that living more sustainably is very fulfilling. I am happier, healthier, and I enjoy food more. I enjoy life more.
Our oil supply isn’t going to last forever. I believe we’re going to feel increasing economic pressure, as it becomes increasingly expensive to extract oil. I don’t think the world will end in a big kaboom. However, slowly but surely... our world will change. When I think about everything in our infrastructure that relies on oil, it seems clear to me that we’re not going to continue living as we do forever.
And I believe we probably won’t have a big world-ending crash due to climate change either. But we are already beginning to see increasing amounts of extreme weather patterns. Extreme weather leads to crop failures, fires, floods, and much more.
What climate change means for me locally is that I need to prepare for the fact that our road might flood and we’ll be stuck here home for several days. Or we have a terrible drought and I need to keep my garden going despite it. Or our local climate begins to get warmer, and I need to know enough about gardening to adapt to that change. Our local economy will suffer if the weather changes abruptly and local crops fail, in which case we may have to get by with a lot less.
I know there are some readers here who think I’m crazy at this point. Please don’t click away. Because even if you believe none of this, there are reasons to become more sustainable, more self-sufficient. Your personal income ebbs and flows, jobs come and go, medical issues occur from time to time... When you are down economically, it’s important to know how to feed, clothe, and house your family.
Plus, I can tell you quite honestly that living more sustainably is very fulfilling. I am happier, healthier, and I enjoy food more. I enjoy life more.
My Top Ten Books About Self-Reliance:
1. Joy of Cooking.
Surprise! I’m not kidding. It’s my #1 choice. In it you will find just about everything you need to cook and preserve food. There are several editions, and they’re not the same. I’ve had each of the last three. I prefer the 2006 edition, as it has more about preserving and less about microwaving. There are even recipes for preserving here, though if this list were longer I would include the Blue Ball Book of Preserving as well.
2. Seed To Seed, by Suzanne Ashworth.
Not just about seeds, this is a page-turner of a gardening book. I love it - read it all in one night! Extremely valuable.
3. Back to Basics, by Reader’s Digest.
I did not expect Reader’s Digest to have such a book, but it’s great! From making candles and bread, to beekeeping and metal working, to making cheese and building a stone house. And everything in between! Fascinating stuff.
4. Storey’s Basic Country Skills.
The subtitle is: “A Practical Guide to Self-Reliance.” Whatever isn’t in Back to Basics is probably here. It includes farm and ranch animals, water supplies, basic plumbing and electrical skills, and more.
5. Four-Season Harvest, by Eliot Coleman.
So little winter gardening is done in the U.S., and it’s too bad. There is so much you can grow and eat when it’s cold. Eliot Coleman lives in Maine, and walks you through how to create and maintain a productive garden year-round without a heated greenhouse. I’ve benefitted greatly by reading this book, and we’ve had loads of veggies this winter.
6. Gaia’s Garden: A Guide to Home-Scale Permaculture, by Toby Hemenway.
Another book that has helped me a great deal in learning how to create a sustainable garden. Toby Hemenway writes about seeing the garden as a whole, and taking into account how each plant will relate with one another. He spends time talking about perennial fruits and vegetables, capitalizing on the water supplied by nature, and making the garden work for you so you don’t have to work as hard. After you learn how to garden, I think it’s important to move to the next level of learning how to garden sustainably. It’s cheaper, better for the environment, and you don’t have to rely on outside sources for soil amendments, seeds, and water.
7. Home Cheese Making, by Ricki Carroll.
Learn how to keep a goat or cow in Basic Country Skills, and then make cheese to preserve it. This is Matt’s favorite - he has made several recipes from it, and they’ve all been delicious, and far less intimidating than we feared. I plan to tackle some more recipes soon.
8. Artisan Baking, by Maggie Glezer.
Well, this was a tough one. Matt is the bread maker in the family - basically, I follow his recipe whenever I make it. And our daily bread is actually made from a starter we grew using Breads from the La Brea Bakery by Nancy Silverton. But, Artisan Baking is a great introduction to bread making, and it has amazing recipes. If we could only pick one, this would be it. (Though did you see how I sort of picked two? Yes, I cheated.)
9. Complete Guide to Sewing, by Reader’s Digest.
I found this at an antique store in a suburb of Phoenix, Arizona last Thanksgiving. As Back to Basics is to simple skills, this book is to sewing. I’m not much of a sewer (big understatement), but if I had to sew, this book would walk me through whatever I needed to make.
10. Encyclopedia of Herbal Medicine, by Andrew Chevallier.
If you couldn’t go to the doctor... This book synthesizes current research and traditional healing, and walks you through different herbs, how to prepare them, and what they are used for. I keep it around just in case. Plus there are a lot of common foods and herbs here (including lemons!), and it’s interesting to see what they’re used for in traditional medicine.
Surprise! I’m not kidding. It’s my #1 choice. In it you will find just about everything you need to cook and preserve food. There are several editions, and they’re not the same. I’ve had each of the last three. I prefer the 2006 edition, as it has more about preserving and less about microwaving. There are even recipes for preserving here, though if this list were longer I would include the Blue Ball Book of Preserving as well.
2. Seed To Seed, by Suzanne Ashworth.
Not just about seeds, this is a page-turner of a gardening book. I love it - read it all in one night! Extremely valuable.
3. Back to Basics, by Reader’s Digest.
I did not expect Reader’s Digest to have such a book, but it’s great! From making candles and bread, to beekeeping and metal working, to making cheese and building a stone house. And everything in between! Fascinating stuff.
4. Storey’s Basic Country Skills.
The subtitle is: “A Practical Guide to Self-Reliance.” Whatever isn’t in Back to Basics is probably here. It includes farm and ranch animals, water supplies, basic plumbing and electrical skills, and more.
5. Four-Season Harvest, by Eliot Coleman.
So little winter gardening is done in the U.S., and it’s too bad. There is so much you can grow and eat when it’s cold. Eliot Coleman lives in Maine, and walks you through how to create and maintain a productive garden year-round without a heated greenhouse. I’ve benefitted greatly by reading this book, and we’ve had loads of veggies this winter.
6. Gaia’s Garden: A Guide to Home-Scale Permaculture, by Toby Hemenway.
Another book that has helped me a great deal in learning how to create a sustainable garden. Toby Hemenway writes about seeing the garden as a whole, and taking into account how each plant will relate with one another. He spends time talking about perennial fruits and vegetables, capitalizing on the water supplied by nature, and making the garden work for you so you don’t have to work as hard. After you learn how to garden, I think it’s important to move to the next level of learning how to garden sustainably. It’s cheaper, better for the environment, and you don’t have to rely on outside sources for soil amendments, seeds, and water.
7. Home Cheese Making, by Ricki Carroll.
Learn how to keep a goat or cow in Basic Country Skills, and then make cheese to preserve it. This is Matt’s favorite - he has made several recipes from it, and they’ve all been delicious, and far less intimidating than we feared. I plan to tackle some more recipes soon.
8. Artisan Baking, by Maggie Glezer.
Well, this was a tough one. Matt is the bread maker in the family - basically, I follow his recipe whenever I make it. And our daily bread is actually made from a starter we grew using Breads from the La Brea Bakery by Nancy Silverton. But, Artisan Baking is a great introduction to bread making, and it has amazing recipes. If we could only pick one, this would be it. (Though did you see how I sort of picked two? Yes, I cheated.)
9. Complete Guide to Sewing, by Reader’s Digest.
I found this at an antique store in a suburb of Phoenix, Arizona last Thanksgiving. As Back to Basics is to simple skills, this book is to sewing. I’m not much of a sewer (big understatement), but if I had to sew, this book would walk me through whatever I needed to make.
10. Encyclopedia of Herbal Medicine, by Andrew Chevallier.
If you couldn’t go to the doctor... This book synthesizes current research and traditional healing, and walks you through different herbs, how to prepare them, and what they are used for. I keep it around just in case. Plus there are a lot of common foods and herbs here (including lemons!), and it’s interesting to see what they’re used for in traditional medicine.
Where to Find these Books.
Library.
You can probably find most of these books in your local library. However, in this particular case you might want these reference books in your home for easy access. I find myself going to them often.
Antique Stores, Thrift Stores & Used Bookstores.
I have found a couple of these used. I love that they have a history, that someone else used them and they’re passing them on to me. Try this particularly for the Reader’s Digest books and Joy of Cooking.
Your Local Bookstore.
Get to know your local book seller - they are generally lovely people who will order these books for you if they don’t have them. Support that local infrastructure, and keep it open for business.
What Is on Your Bookshelf?
There are many other books on our bookshelf (as you can see in the photo above!), but these are my top 10. However, I know it's incomplete. For instance, I would like to include a knitting/crocheting book, but I'm not versed in these areas yet.... any ideas?
What would you add to this list?
25 comments:
Earth Garden magazine here in
Australia published a book
called Hard Times Handbook. I
don't know whether it's still
in print (my copy is at least 15
years old) but it's full of
very useful, basic information
presented in a a very accessible
way.
I have 3 of those, I love the Back to Basics book. My parents gave me their old copy (I come from a long line of DIYers). I do need to get a medicinal book, I would recommend "Where There Is No Doctor: A Village Health Care Handbook". My parents used this book while living in the jungles of South America and they were able to stay healthy and teach health to many people there as well.
Natural Cures "They" Don't Want You to Know About (Kevin Trudeau), The Maker's Diet (Jordan Rubin), The Good Life - Helen & Scott Nearing's 60 Years of Self-Sufficient Living and The Simple Life - edited by Larry Roth are among my favorites! We used to have the first three Foxfire books but I think we sold them on eBay.
Melinda, the 1993 Australian edition of the Reader's Digest Sewing book includes knitting and some crochet :)
Sarahtee
I'd have to put Carla Emery's Encyclopedia of Country Living at the top of my list, along with Rita Bingham's Passport to Survival. My copy of The Joy of Cooking was my mother-in-law's - the 1953 version.
I would add Steve Solomon's "Gardening When It Counts, growing food in hard times" and all the Foxfire series.
I love Back To Basics! And I would add Organic Housekeeping. :)
I would agree with Barbara and add the Earth garden book as well.
I borrow it regularly from the library.
Reading the first chapter of this book about 10 years ago was a major lightbulb moment for me. I regularly re-read it for inspiration.
I have Artisan Bread by Glezer, and as much as I admire it, I would not recommend it for a novice baker. It has some of my most favorite bread recipes in it, but I have found it short on the sort of detail that greatly helps the first time you make a given batch of bread.
I think that The Bread Baker's Apprentice, by Peter Reinhart, and Baking with Julia, by Dorie Greenspan, both do a better job of describing exactly what needs to be done at each stage of baking. Greenspan's book covers more than just breads.
So if I were assembling the list for myself, I might possibly consider Artisan Bread over the other two titles. But I wouldn't include it on a list for a non-baker who wants an all around primer and single baking reference book.
I've just requested Seed to Seed from my library via inter-library loan. Thanks for the recommendation.
I also have Four-Season Harvest, and Storey's Basic Country Skills, and would certainly include them on my list. I would probably substitute an America's Test Kitchen cookbook, or maybe even one of Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything titles, for The Joy of Cooking.
Nice write up!
Storeys guides to raising
sheep
rabbits
chickens etc
Putting food by
by Janet Greene, Ruth Hertzberg, and Beatrice Vaughan
Good places to look for used books:
www.powells.com
www.abebooks.com
EJ
I have a few of those and several are still on my Amazon wish list should a good copy ever surface.
There are a couple that I would add on there for me, on is an Outdoor Living book from the 60's that is pre-liability craze, so it really does give how to get by if you're stranded somewhere. Great Little book.
I totally concur on the Back to Basics book. That is a gem!
I recommend The Encyclopedia of Country Living by Carla Emery. Recipes, gardening, preserving, raising livestock, etc.
Really intersting post. I like the sense behind planning for things we can actually do, and being a little self sufficient.
Planning for the big bang/end of the world/kaboom not actually that useful as we are unlikely to be here!
lsit too.
Lizzie
Good reading
Our first Joy was from the seventies; the current one is from the eighties, I think. Ditto Carla Emery, and we also like The Encyclopedia of Organic Gardening.
I've got 6 years of anthologies from Backwoods Home Magazine with oodles of great articles. I also have my mother's original copy of the "Handmade Cabin" and my dad's original Foxfire books.
I couldn't live without my Ball Blue Book for canning and preserving!
But, no matter what, I am always coming across something more....
Jan
I love Joy of Cooking and Four Season Harvest!
I'd add the Fannie Farmer cookbook in addition to Joy, because what I can't find in Joy I can find in Fannie.
My number one cookbook though is a collection of recipes from my great-grandmother, photocopied from her journals and given to everyone in our family. This is my treasure trove of family recipes.
It's great to hear about other simple living/green living books. As an acquisition editor for a publishing company who is publishing books in this category, I would like to invite you to review our two new upcoming books. Please visit www.krausebooks.com for a preview of Your Eco-Friendly Yard and Natural Alternatives for You and Your Home. Both books are due out late summer of 2009.
Thanks for an interesting post. I think it is realistic to plan strategies for getting through difficult economic and environmental times, no matter what your beliefs are about how it will all end or resolve.
I saw a bit of an Oprah show the other day (daytime TV is rare in my home!). The program was about longevity and so-called Blue Zones where people habitually live to 100 or more. One of the reasons given was a close connection to food and where it comes from. Growing and gathering the food, processing it (grinding, preparing, cooking), provide not only nutrition but also exercise and sunlight from being out of doors.
This may seem to be straying from the topic of books, (I don't own any must-haves yet; I read and return a lot to the library), but I mention it because no matter if our future is long or short on the earth, we will have a better quality of life in the here and now if we slow down and appreciate the things that sustain our life.
Thanks for your great comments and suggestions! It's difficult to narrow it down to 10, that's for sure. We also have Encyclopedia of Country Living & The Bread Baker's Apprentice and love them. And lol, Sarahtee, looks like I'll have to take another look at my Reader's Digest! : )
Have you ever looked at "The Self-Sufficient Life and How to Live It" by John Seymour. I read that before looking at "Back to Basics" and the reader's digest seemed like a watered down version of the Seymour. Just thought you may want to check his out. I found mine at the library. Thanks for the nice post.
John Seymour's book is great. I am currently reading gaia's garden and Growing food when it counts. May I add to your list : The Tightwad Gazette by Amy Dacyczyn, some of the advice may be updated but it could "teach" "encourage" to use some creativity in solving problems.
Mini-farming for Self- Sufficiency by Brett L. Markham, great for those of us with less than an acre. (quarter of an acre)
scribd.com has a few of these survival books on their site, read them for free no need to buy AND you can download them too.
They have The encyclopedia of country living by Carla Emery, The Self-Sufficient Life and How to Live It by John Seymour as well as a few others you can find by using search keywords.
Here is a link to John Seymours book:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/6449749/The-complete-book-of-self-sufficiency-by-John-Seymour
Hope that helps :)
this one is good too:
The Book of Household Management by Beeton, Mrs. Isabella Mary, 1836-1865
http://www.scribd.com/doc/2352781/The-Book-of-Household-Management-by-Beeton-Mrs-Isabella-Mary-18361865
any books on harvesting and using plants native to the area i am in. "wildgreens and salads" by christopher nyerges is pretty interesting. there's a lot out there on the web and there's got to be a lot more books on the subject too...
Great list! Some of my very favorite books on there. Now you have my thinking about my list -- also good! Thanks!
Post a Comment