The Backyard Homestead, edited by Carleen Madigan, is published by Storey Publishing (2009) and claims to teach readers how to “produce all the food you need on just a quarter acre of land.” How useful is this book for beginning urban farmers wanting to get back to basics and increase their self-sufficiency?
About The Backyard Homestead
The Backyard Homestead is a compilation book with excerpts and text taken from several of Storey Publishing’s other books and resources. This homesteading how-to guide has over 300 pages of text, with almost 60 pages of additional resources, maps, and a very detailed index. Sections include the home vegetable garden; backyard fruits and nuts; easy and fragrant herbs; home-grown grains; poultry for eggs and meat; meat and dairy; and food from the wild.
Overview of Contents
Growing Fruits, Herbs, and Vegetables
A large portion of the book is devoted to growing not only a cultivated garden, but fruit trees and nuts also. The return to the victory garden can do a lot to save on grocery bills for the average family. The trick is to harvest and preserve foods when they are available, so you can use them when they are not. The Backyard Homestead helps sort that out for those trying to get started with a more self-sufficient life.
Providing Meat for Your Family
Other chapters discuss the various types of home livestock. Animals that are discussed include chickens, turkey, ducks, geese, hogs, sheep, goats, cattle, and rabbits. Obviously not everyone homestead would have all of these livestock, but the pros vs cons, and the potential benefits as well as needed requirements are discussed so each family can make their own informed decisions.
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What Readers Will Love About The Backyard Homestead
- The Breadth and Scope of The Backyard Homestead. This book covers just about everything in regard to becoming more self-sufficient, from making wine to keeping bees.
- The Old-fashioned Line Drawings. While these old-fashioned drawings are in two-tone, they are very detailed and provide readers with the information they need.
What Readers Need to Know Before Buying The Backyard Homestead
- More Information Might Be Needed. While The Backyard Homestead covers many, many topics, it probably won’t provide everything you need to know about every topic. If you decide to try raising and breeding diary goats, for example, you’ll probably want to pick up a separate text with more details on that specific subject.
- No Full-color Pictures. I personally love the old-fashioned, two-toned pen-and-ink illustrations. However, some readers who prefer photography or full-color illustrations may be disappointed.
Pick up The Backyard Homestead to get started in learning how to become more self-sufficient. While it might not be the only book you throw on your homesteading shelf, it is a book that should be part of everyone’s collection.
- Title: The Backyard Homestead
- Editor: Carleen Madigan
- Publisher: Storey Publishing, 2009.
- Format: Over-size paperback
- ISBN 13: 978-1603421386
