Best Homesteading Books: Farming, Homesteading & Country Living Books with Reviews

See our recommended best homesteading books for farming, homesteading today and country living. Each farming book, homesteading book or country living book comes with a review and our personal recommendations. Please, be patient, the page may take some time to download.

Best Homesteading Book 1

I cannot talk more highly about this book and it is definitely one of my personal favourites. I only wish I could have met John Seymour while he was still alive, as I find him fascinating.

This is a book that you will use again and again. With a strong believe in all things organic he describes in easy terms everything that you need to know about being self-sufficient.

Even though it is written in the UK, it doesn't detract from the wealth of information he imparts and which can be used anywhere, no matter where you live. Learn about crop rotations and making compost for your vegetables. You will also get to grips with home brewing, making dairy products, hay making and basket weaving. He shows you how to cure bacon, make bricks, spin and dye wool, raising chickens and raising rabbits. The list is endless.

This is really a wonderful resource that you will be glad to have in your library.

Best Homesteading Book 2

This book definitely gives John Seymour's book on Self-sufficiency a run for its money. Written along the same lines, this is another one of those books that becomes an indispensable book for homesteaders and those who are looking to be self-sufficient.

Carla Emery was a national treasure and this book ensures her legacy. This is simply the most informative book ever written on country living, the next best thing to having a live-in grandmother who knows everything there is to getting homegrown food from dreams to dinner plates plus nearly anything else you need to know.

Begun as a 12-page table of contents for a recipe book in 1969, the present ninth edition has 858 pages of far more than recipes. growing vegetables, vines, trees, grains, poultry, goats, cows, keeping bees, rabbits, sheep, pigs. Planning, nurturing, harvesting, and home canning.

Flipping pages at random finds starting transplants, breads leavened with eggs and beating, speeding up tomato sauce-making, harvesting herbs, making cider, managing an existing stand of trees, root cellar storage, soap making, brooding chicks, secrets to safe cattle handling, cultured buttermilk, cooking on a wood stove, jams and jellies, making a wool quilt.

I use my "Carla book" constantly. If your budget or bookshelf has room for only one book, this is the book to buy. Yes, even before you buy mine.

Review by the author of: The Encyclopedia of Country Living: An Old Fashioned Recipe Book

Best Homesteading Book 3

Now here's a volume you can really drink to! Something's brewing in these pages, and it's moonshine —a word that evokes fascination, curiosity, and a warm sense of nostalgia.

Never before has there been such a richly illustrated, thorough, and entertaining celebration of the history of making fine distilled spirits.

Get in on the fun with how-to instructions that take into account all legal regulations and requirements before covering ingredients, building a still, basic distilling techniques, and dozens of moonshine recipes, all adapted for the beginner. Whiskies, brandies, grappa, schnapps: they’re all here, along with dozens of page-turning quotes, song lyrics, and vintage photographs and illustrations.

Best Homesteading Book 4

This book covers the topic in a very structured manner and backs up each section with science and reasoning. The book not only does a splendid job of explaining still building but also explains malting, mashing, fermentation and distillation -- with clear instruction. I found it so useful that I bought a copy for my brother as well.

Review by: By Ashwin Umesh "ashmesh" (Jersey City, NJ United States)

Best Homesteading Book 5

I absolutely LOVED this book. If you are into cottage gardens, then this book is a must. I am a relatively slow reader, but this book was so wonderfully written and attention-sustaining that I actually read it in about a day.

'Tasha Tudor's Garden' is a true story that describes a year in the life of a fascinating lady, providing an elaborate narrative on how she maintains her animals and lavish, romantic gardens on her several-acre hilltop property in Vermont. She lives as though she is in the nineteenth century-- (in her attire as well as in how she does most of her work using traditional methods, such as cooking in a wood-burning stove). It also talks about another love of Tasha's, that being her art.

Within the text, you can pick up ideas and small tips here and there for how to design, create, and establish a cottagy garden, as well as other small things (ie: starting primroses). However, these things are not formally laid-out, but rather briefly and lightly discussed in small bits throughout the text.

Basically, this book gives the account for an average year's worth of successes, struggles, and mundane moments for a truly admirable woman--(although for most of us, almost none of her moments are really mundane).

I couldn't possibly recommend this book anymore than I already do. Even if you don't have a garden, the book will touch your heart and leave a lasting infatuation with old-fashioned gardening. I certainly enjoyed day-dreaming about the profusion of daffodils, messes of self-sown forget-me-nots and johnny-jump-ups, gigantic bleeding hearts, masses of bomb-petaled peonies, 6-foot tall foxgloves, and countless other floral delights.READ IT! YOU WON'T REGRET GETTING THE BOOK!!!

Review by:Arthur S. Guerra (White, GA)

Best Homesteading Book 6

I really enjoyed reading this book. It gives you all the information you will need to start your own homestead whether you live in an apartment, a home with a 1/8 of an acre or if you have 10 acres. Great information on being self-sufficient, learn to make cheese, grow vegetables and herbs, have a backyard orchard, keep chickens, bees etc. I strongly recommend reading this one. It's well worth the price.

Best Homesteading Book 7

For those of you who haven't heard about square-foot gardening it really is a concept that has revolutionized traditional vegetable patches. By just using one square foot at a time to plant a particular vegetable you eliminate the need for thinning out, save water, effort, time and money.

If you have enjoyed looking at our best homesteading books, have a look at our Country Corner Bookstore for more options.

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