The Homesteading Handbook: A Back to Basics Guide to Growing Your Own Food, Canning, Keeping Chickens, Generating Your Own Energy, Crafting, Herbal Medicine, and More (Handbook Series)

Spring is approaching and I revisited this book while planning the garden for this season. I THREW THE BOOK AWAY. I've never thrown out a book in my life that wasn't damaged, but this one had to go. I didn't want to chance it getting passed on to someone later. For example, the mushroom section should have just been skipped. The bad in here far out weighs the little good. (that can be found elsewhere.) So, I threw it in the trash. Dropped to one star. Zero if I could.Let me start off by saying that my expertise in the subjects covered by this book run from I've never heard of that to The author should rethink that one. I found the book interesting in some aspects, but lacking in others. For example; describing a technique of cooking X with a home made Y, but not giving approximate times or info that a beginner would definitely need. Then again, trial and error is great teacher also.My biggest complaints are with the actual book. It was extremely difficult for me to read. I'm a little older and my eyes aren't what they were but, the type is in what looks like 6-7pt, maybe. That is contract fine print size. The pages have busy colors and backgrounds that make the words disappear at times. And the font chosen is a narrow one and I found myself constantly shifting the book to decrease shadows or light just to see the letters. It didn't take long for that to become too much of a burden for the information presented.All of this is highly subjective, of course, but I found the book interesting and somewhat informative however probably not as helpful as it could be.

I got this book hoping it would teach me something I didn't already know, and all I got was basic general info and dangerous misinformation. FYI TO THE AUTHOR: The vast majority of coral mushrooms are poisonous to inedible and in a survival situation, if you were to eat one that looked like the one in the book, you would get bad diarrhea, dehydration, and even death if you were compromised. You have to do a microscopic analysis on corals in order to identify, since they all pretty much look alike! DUMB DUMB DUMB thing to put in a book. people are trusting you with their well being!!!!!!! With their lives!!! If I could give this book negative stars I would.

This book has some good information, however, it's presented in a poorly thought out manner. As a "handbook", I expected to flop the book down on the counter and follow along while performing some of the tasks. The font used in the book is extremely small (guessing an 8 point) and can barely be read while sitting. There's lot's of white space, it almost appears that the publisher shrank everything down and plopped in on a smaller page. I have 20/20 vision and read books/magazines daily, the font size is nowhere close to a normal book/magazine and way to small.The content of the book has some good information, although key items are missing, and other more technical items found there way in to a chapter. For example there is a section on preserving food and they do a nice job of teaching canning and drying food, however there is no mention of smoking food for preservation, yet later in the book they have plans for building a smokehouse??? They dedicate 4 pages to knitting with only 3 small pictures of the actual technique. they talk about making your own soap and if you want to add color, just run down to the local arts and crafts store and pick some up. Isn't the point of homesteading to be self sufficient?5 pages are dedicated to geothermal energy, yet no information is provided on something simple and necessary like an outhouse. You can't learn how to install a geothermal system in 5 pages, this requires multiple books read by a mechanically inclined person and likely several consultations with an HVAC engineer. Detailed plans for a simple windmill, or sand point well is where I would draw the line for this book...

This book isn't exhaustive in subjects, and it isn't going to get you through any end-of-the-world scenario, but for someone who is collecting a few books on self-sufficiency, it covers a lot of subjects: some lightly, some more in-depth.I do recommend people interesting in homesteading get this as a "basics" book, and from here, you can decide to buy other books that you might need to give you much more detail about one subject. For example, there's a short section on how to build a..chicken coop or animal shed (brain fog at the moment,) and if you know carpentry, it's all you need. If you're not a carpenter but clever, you could use it as a guide to build something suitable. If you can barely tell one end of a nail from the other, you'll need a book on basic carpentry.Oh, and it has quite a good section on canning, which I consider very important in homesteading.

There are not to many times i give 5 star ratings to anything but I have to admit that this is a must 5 star!!!!! The author put so much info and time into this book that it has become one of my go to bibles that I always review. If you are interesred in Homesteading,farming,planting, critters or anything with just learning on how to grow your own food or animals or any type oy rural living, this book is a must have. Again, just chocked with information, and you can tell that it was well written. there are ton's of tips, pictures and info that will show you how to do things that you had no idea about. Again a must have!!!!

This is a great resource in your homesteading collection. I love that there are a variety of homesteading topics in one area. I will say that you will need other resources to supplement this book as this is not exhaustive. But, if you are looking for a great general reference, this is a great place to start! I recommend this book for all beginners who want to learn the different aspects of homesteading without spending a lot of money on books from each different area of homesteading.

A very informative book. Great reference articles. Hours of reading.

Awesome book! Lots of useful information. This will be a book i continuously go back to as a reference. Only pitfall was that the font was small.

This book is great for beginners, it has everything in there on making things homemade. It's been a great help and a great addition to my homesteading lifestyle!

The price was very affordable, and the information is really good. Thumbs up for this product ! Would recommend to anyone !

Perfect condition