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The Backyard Homestead: Produce all the food you need on just a quarter acre!
| Our Price |
$ 14.97
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| Retail Value |
$ 18.95 |
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| You Save |
$ 3.98 (21%) |
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| Item Number |
748043 |
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Item Description...
Overview
Suggests organic methods for growing plants and raising animals on a small plot of land, explains how to determine the proper times for planting, and provides tips for using and preserving food.
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Item Specifications...
Pages 367
Dimensions: Length: 1.25" Width: 7" Height: 9"
Weight: 1.55 lbs.
Binding Softcover
Publisher Storey Publishing, LLC
ISBN 1603421386
EAN 9781603421386
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Availability 69 units.
Availability accurate as of May 21, 2012 10:17.
Usually ships within one to two business days from Johnson City, TN.
Orders shipping to an address other than a confirmed Credit Card / Paypal Billing address may incur and additional processing delay.
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Reviews - What do our customers think?
 | Dream Book Made Easy Dec 1, 2009 |
| I wanted this book from the first moment I looked thru it online. When I finally was able to buy it - it was not a disappointment. It is as smooth and as bright as the cover and the other illustrations. Only if our American school system was as simplistically laid out as this little gem. The overviews are fabulous and they don't keep "secret" where to find the additional information. Which is as nicely laid out as the book. LOVE IT!!!! This book has become my "dream" book. Thank you! | | | | I keep going back to it Nov 30, 2009 |
| This is a really helpful piece of work, I love it, and would recomend it to anyone. The price was not bad also. | | | | Perfect! Nov 24, 2009 |
| For anyone interested in homesteading, or anything remotely related to the subject, this book is ideal! I would highly recommend adding this to your library on the subject as it is perfect! | | | | Nice Overview Nov 19, 2009 |
| This book is an excellent resource for the beginner homesteader. It covers a wide range of topics with surprising detail. Best of all, it makes it all seem possible. | | | | An Excellent Introduction Nov 1, 2009 |
I'm already planning my 2010 garden, with the aim of getting back into gardening after a four year hiatus. Many of my neighbors are planting their first gardens and still others are incorporating small animals like chickens and goats into their yards. And no, I don't live in the country. I live in the suburbs.
So when I saw The Backyard Homestead by Carleen Madigan, I was excited. The premise of this book is that with a quarter of an acre - or less - you can provide your family with lots of great food.
You may wonder if growing your own food is worth the effort. Here's how I look at it: I recall with great fondness working in the vegetable garden with my father. I want my children to experience the same thrill of pulling fresh foods from the ground and eating them with the pride that they helped grow them. Besides, homegrown foods are fresher and therefore more nutritious. And you know exactly what chemicals were used on them, and whether the seed is heirloom or genetically modified. Not so with store-bought foods, even if they are marked organic. Although my family hasn't ventured into raising farm animals, we've considered it. I hate the idea of feeding my family meats pumped full of hormones, or even just salt water. And no store bought egg can ever compare to the taste of fresh eggs, just as store-bought tomatoes don't taste remotely like store-bought.
You'll probably be surprised by how much food you can produce in your suburbia yard. Madigan says with a quarter acre you can produce 1,400 eggs, 50 pounds of wheat, 60 pounds of fruit, 2,000 pounds of vegetables, 280 pounds of pork, and 75 pounds of nuts. (The film HomeGrown says that if you just stick to produce, you'll get 6,000 pounds.) The average lot in the suburbs isn't that big, but you can still produce a lot of food - and at significant savings. (According to the National Gardening Association, the average family with a veggie garden saves $600 a year.)
You might wonder how any one book can thoroughly cover the topics of raising your own vegetables, fruits, berries, nuts, grains, herbs, and a variety of farm animals. Well, it can't. But The Backyard Homestead does a great job of providing a basic overview of what's possible.
The section on gardening is the most thorough, and probably the only guide you really need to growing veggies, fruits, and berries. There's information on growing from seed, preparing a bed, growing in containers, choosing crops most appropriate for your space, succession planting (where, when one plant stops producing, you plant another crop), getting a general idea of how much your garden can produce, harvesting (with general info on freezing and canning), basic information on storing seeds for next year's garden, general growing info on popular vegetables, growing berries, growing nut and fruit trees (hint: they don't have to take up a lot of space), and growing and using herbs. There's a short chapter on incorporating edibles into your decorative landscape, too, and a number of recipes for using your home grown produce, including homemade wine, herbal teas, cider, and vinegars.
You may have never considered growing grains, but if you've ever grown corn, you've already dabbled in it. The author provides good basic info on growing corn for grain, as well as wheat, barley, and rye. She wisely advises new grain-growers to start small, and offers general info on how to grow and harvest, as well as use the grains you've grown. This section includes info on making homemade bread from your grains, as well as how to make your own beer.
The section of the book most lacking is the one on livestock. Here, basic information is offered on raising chickens, turkeys, ducks, geese, goats, sheep, pigs, and even cows. The author gives some thoughts on why you'd want to raise these animals, how to increase egg or milk production, very general info on butchering, very basic (and sometimes vague) information on how to care for the animals, and similar topics. Oddly, she doesn't really discuss how to incorporate farm animals into a backyard. For example, I'd like to know if there are special concerns if you have children; are there ways to help prevent them from getting E. coli, for example? It also seems strange the author never mentions how to compost or use animal manure to feed your garden, although she does give information on pasteurizing milk and making cheese and yogurt.
The final sections offer super-brief information on harvesting wild plants; essentially, the author advises readers to find a field guide for their area. However, she does offer some information on using rose hips (from the wild or from your ornamental garden), dandelions (ditto!), as well as syrup from maple trees, plus some basics on beekeeping.
Overall, I think this is an excellent guide for the suburbanite or someone who lives in the country but has little or no experience growing their own food. It gave me many ideas I hope to implement next year, and I highly recommend it to anyone interested in getting back to the basics by growing some food.
Kristina Seleshanko
Proverbs Thirty One Woman
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