resources for digging deeper
Chapter 3: Homestead Design and Layout
The Resilient Farm and Homestead: An Innovative Permaculture and Whole Systems Design Approach by Ben Falk. This is one of the more accessible permaculture design texts around.
Edible Forest Gardens, volumes 1 and 2, by Dave Jacke and Eric Toensmeier. These books are more detailed and “textbook-ish” than Falk’s offering, but crammed with excellent information.
Chapter 4: Real Food and Deep Nutrition
www.westonaprice.com. The website of the Weston A. Price Foundation, a wealth of information.
Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon with Mary Enig is our go-to cookbook for traditional, nutrient-dense foods.
Wise Traditions is the quarterly magazine of the Weston A. Price Foundation, an excellent resource with lots of accessible science and studies.
Cure Tooth Decay: Remineralize Cavities and Repair Your Teeth Naturally with Good Food by Ramiel Nagel. A fantastic resource for anyone with dental problems. Or who wants to avoid future problems.
Keeping Food Fresh: Old World Techniques and Recipes by the gardeners and farmers of Terre Vivante. An informal but practical guide to traditional food preservation.
Wild Fermentation by Sandor Katz. Perhaps the best introduction to homestead-scale fermenting.
The Art of Fermentation by Sandor Katz picks up where Wild Fermentation leaves off—much more detail, culture, history, and so on. Many excellent recipes.
Rootcellaring by Mike and Nance Bubel is our favorite root cellaring resource.
Edible Wild Plants and Forager’s Harvest by Samuel Thayer. We love Thayer’s guidebooks; he only writes about real, wild edible foods that he makes use of personally. He also takes the fear out of foraging.
Chapter 5: Soil and Gardens
The Holistic Orchard: Tree Fruits and Berries the Biological Way by Michael Phillips. There are few people who know as much about cultivating organic fruit as Michael.
The New Organic Grower: A Master’s Manual of Tools and Techniques for the Home and Market Gardener; Four-Season Harvest: Organic Vegetables from Your Home Garden All Year Long; and The Winter Harvest Handbook: Year-Round Vegetable Production Using Deep-Organic Techniques and Unheated Greenhouses, all by Eliot Coleman. These three books from Eliot are accessible, clear, and based on his extensive experience. We consider these indispensable reference works. Eliot has saved us a lot of time over the years.
The Farm as Ecosystem: Tapping Nature’s Reservoir—Biology, Ecology, Diversity by Jerry Brunetti. Brunetti understands soil like few others. This book is an important resource for anyone who wants to better understand the role of biologically active soils and their relation to environmental and human health.
The Intelligent Gardener: Growing Nutrient-Dense Food by Steve Solomon with Erica Reinheimer is an extremely accessible guide to growing nutrient-dense food on a home-garden scale with particular attention to interpreting soil tests.
Edible Forest Gardens, volumes 1 and 2, by Dave Jacke with Eric Toensmeier. These essential references list hundreds of edible and useful species. These are a little “textbook-y,” but you can use them solely for their categorical lists of plants. Or if you’re into the textbook-y thing, you can geek out on the ecological vision, theory, design, and practice of temperate climate permaculture.
www.bionutrient.org. The website of the Bionutrient Food Association is full of information and resources, including workshop schedules.
suppliers
Nutrient Dense Supply Company (ndsupply.com). Minerals, inoculants, other amendments, and supplies.
Logan Labs (loganlabs.com).
Johnny’s Selected Seeds (johnnyseeds.com). Seeds, soil blockers, broadforks, and other garden goodies.
Fedco Seeds (fedcoseeds.com). Our primary seed supplier.
High Mowing Seeds (highmowingseeds.com) specializes in certified organic seeds.
Field and Forest Products, Inc. (fieldforest.net). Specialty mushroom spawn and supplies.
Chapter 6: The Nourished Animal
Natural Cattle Care; Natural Sheep Care; and Natural Goat Care, all by Pat Colby. Colby’s books are must-haves for anyone interested in holistic livestock husbandry.
Alternative Treatments for Ruminant Animals by Paul Dettloff. Along with Colby’s books, this is our most-reached-for reference when animal health problems arise.
The Small-Scale Poultry Flock: An All-Natural Approach to Raising Chickens and Other Fowl for Home and Market Growers by Harvey Ussery. By far the best small-scale poultry book in a crowded market.
Acres Magazine (acresusa.com) is a monthly magazine covering all aspects of biological farming.
Small Farmer’s Journal (smallfarmersjournal.com) is a quarterly covering all aspects of practical animal-powered farming.
Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association (MOFGA; mofga.org) monthly newsletter. Even if you don’t live in Maine, MOFGA’s monthly newsletter is well worth the modest subscription price.
suppliers
Clearview Hatchery (717-365-3234). Hertiage-breed fowl.
Premier One Supplies (www.premier1supplies.com). Fencing and related equipment.
Wellscroft Fence Systems (www.wellscroft.com). More fencing and miscellany.
North American Kelp (noamkelp.com). Our source for high-quality, livestock-grade kelp.
Chapter 7: Animal Slaughter and Processing
www.farmsteadmeatsmith.com is an amazing instructional resource, thanks to a collection of informative and entertaining videos.
The Gourmet Butcher’s Guide to Meat by Cole Ward—when you’re ready to step it up a notch.
Home Sausage Making: How-To Techniques for Making and Enjoying 100 Sausages at Home by Susan Mahnke Peery and Charles G. Reavis. Oodles of awesome recipes.
Charcuterie: The Craft of Salting, Smoking, and Curing by Michael Ruhlman and Brian Polcyn. A foundational resource for small-scale charcuterie.
suppliers
Butcher Packer (www.butcher-packer.com). All manner of meat-processing and sausage-making equipment.
Chapter 8: Infrastructure, Skills, and Tools
Celebrating Birch: The Lore, Art and Craft of an Ancient Tree by North House Folk School. If you want to develop an entirely new appreciation of the humble birch—as well as learn some amazing skills—Celebrating Birch is the ticket.
Edible Wild Plants and Forager’s Harvest by Samuel Thayer. We love Thayer’s guidebooks; he only writes about real, wild edible foods that he makes use of personally. He also takes the fear out of foraging.
Handmade Baskets: From Nature’s Colorful Materials by Susie Baughan. Clear descriptions of willow basket techniques.
Participating in Nature: Field Guide to Primitive Living Skills by Thomas Jaelpel is a good, basic overview of wilderness craft.
Herbal Antibiotics: Natural Alternatives for Treating Drug-Resistant Bacteria by Stephen Buhner. The title pretty much says it all.
Mushrooms for Health: Medicinal Secrets of Northeastern Fungi by Greg Marley. Pretty much exactly what it sounds like.
suppliers
Vermont Iron Stove Works (www.vermontironstove.com). The North American source for Vermont Elm wood stoves and parts.
Chapter 9: Money and “Stuff”
Sacred Economics: Money, Gift and Society in the Age of Transition by Charles Eisenstein. A profoundly enlightening book about the role of money and gifting in the contemporary economy.
Debt: The First 5,000 Years by David Graeber. An academic but still-fascinating look at debt across the ages.
A Handmade Life: In Search of Simplicity by Wm. S. Coperthwaite. Inspirational, instructive, and accessible. Coperthwaite is a master of articulating the inherent richness of simplicity.
Captains of Consciousness: Advertising and the Social Roots of the Consumer Culture by Stuart Ewen. Ewen’s book explores the advent of modern PR and marketing and explains how it is intentionally crafted to make consumers feel insecure and lacking in identity.
Chapter 10: Children on the Homestead
Simplicity Parenting: Using the Extraordinary Power of Less to Raise Calmer, Happier, and More Secure Kids by Kim John Payne and Lisa M. Ross. If you’re seeking inspiration to avoid all the plastic baubles and digital devices of modern childhood, as well as “quiet” your family’s schedule, this is your book.
Home Grown: Adventures in Parenting Off the Beaten Path, Unschooling, and Reconnecting with the Natural World by Ben Hewitt. Okay, so it’s maybe just a little bit self-serving to plug my own book, but if you want to understand more about how we incorporate Fin and Rye into our homestead, check it out.
Free to Learn: Why Unleashing the Instinct to Play Will Make Our Children Happier, More Self-Reliant, and Better Students for Life by Peter Gray is a compelling read on the importance of creating opportunities for children to feel useful and granting them time to explore free of adult supervision.
Roots, Shoots, Buckets, and Boots: Gardening Together with Children by Sharon Lovejoy. A fun resource for parents of younger children.