36% Off Discounts: Buy Cheap The Backyard Homestead: Produce all the food you need on just a quarter acre Review

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The Backyard Homestead: Produce all the food you need on just a quarter acre Review

Like most of the people who buy this book, I'm interested in urban farming and the DIY ethos. So I found this book really exciting for the breadth of topics it covered. How to select a breed of beef cow? Goat? Chicken? Cool! But as I read through some of the sections covering topics I know about I was surprised how out-dated and incomplete they were, which makes me suspicious that the rest of this book is equally poorly researched.
I've been a homebrewer for 5 years, and I grow wine grapes at home. The home-brew beer recipies in this book are from 1989, and are based around buying pre-made beer kits from Coopers or Muntons. Some of the ingredients listed are archane: "Laaglander malt extract" good luck finding it, Laaglander went out of business nearly a decade ago, or "Russian Malt beverage concentrate" whatever that is, you don't need it to make good homebrew.
The wine grapes section is terribly out of date as well. The American hybrid grapes she recommends were the best varieties availible 20 years go (DeChanuc, Baco, Foch) leaving out newer varieties that are much better (Traminette, Marquette, Corot Noir). She refers to Baco, Foch, and Chardonel as European varieties which they aren't. (there's a great book on growing a back-yard vineyard if you search for that phrase)
It may seem like I'm nit-picking, but it leaves me to wonder what careless mistakes are in the sections I don't know anything about? How out-of date are the other varietal recommendations? I get the impression that she culled all of this info from old books and has little experience of her own.
I'm returning my copy.

The Backyard Homestead: Produce all the food you need on just a quarter acre Overview

Put your backyard to work! Enjoy fresher, organic, better-tasting food all the time. The solution is as close as your own backyard. Grow the vegetables and fruits your family loves; keep bees; raise chickens, goats, or even a cow. The Backyard Homestead shows you how it's done. And when the harvest is in, you'll learn how to cook, preserve, cure, brew, or pickle the fruits of your labor.From a quarter of an acre, you can harvest 1,400 eggs, 50 pounds of wheat, 60 pounds of fruit, 2,000 pounds of vegetables, 280 pounds of pork, 75 pounds of nuts.

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32% Off Discounts: Best Price Root Cellaring: Natural Cold Storage of Fruits & Vegetables Review

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Root Cellaring: Natural Cold Storage of Fruits & Vegetables Review

This is a great book for (food) gardeners and for people who have some land available to them. Although there are suggestions for "nooks and crannies" in your house, most of those ideas sound like ideas for older (draftier) homes.
The suggestions for building your own working root cellar are clear, with illustrations to help you plan. There are lists of things that keep well and under what conditions to keep them. The authors even list certain varieties of (for instance) apples that keep better than others. There's a month-by-month plan of what could be coming out of your garden, going into the root cellar, and what could be canned or frozen. If you have a large garden, this is an incredibly useful book.
However, those of us with smaller modern homes, smaller yards, and smaller, less heavily-producing gardens will be a little disappointed. As I read this, I came to the conclusion that it would be pretty darned difficult to have a root cellar on our property, because we don't have a useable cool north corner to put one in. Not impossible, mind you, it would just take a lot more effort, planning, and money to build it.
I recommend this book highly for people who raise substantial amounts of their own produce. This book will really extend your harvest. With imagination and a little time and effort, you can have a root cellar that keeps your family in fresh food you grew all year long.

Root Cellaring: Natural Cold Storage of Fruits & Vegetables Overview

Anyone can learn to store fruits and vegetables safely and naturally with a cool, dark space (even a closet!) and the step-by-step advice in this book.

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37% Off Discounts: Lowest Price The Forager's Harvest: A Guide to Identifying, Harvesting, and Preparing Edible Wild Plants Review

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The Forager's Harvest: A Guide to Identifying, Harvesting, and Preparing Edible Wild Plants Review

I am a botanist and I'm in love with this book. Admittedly, it treats only a few dozen plants, but each is described in detail, with methods of distinguishing it in the field from similar species, harvesting, and preparing it. Numerous color photos are very useful. There are good general discussions of plant identification, harvesting, and preservation. The author complains about previous edible plant references, which exhaustively list hundreds of plants but give inadequate information on each, and frequently recycle information from previous literature, allowing misinformation to creep in (an undeniable problem). Thayer proposes that writers on edible plants should provide only information from their own experience or else specifically referenced information, a praiseworthy code of conduct and one that really makes this book shine. When he gives you detailed instructions for when and how to gather and prepare a plant, you know that he's actually done it himself and it worked. I like his standards for the plants as well: Food should taste good! If it doesn't taste good, he says, don't eat it! So, while other books provide long lists of "survival foods" that would gag a goat, Thayer discusses only the plants that he actually enjoys eating. He tells you what sort of quality to expect in the final products, and whether they will be worth the work you put into them. The only volume I can recall seeing of remotely similar quality was Steve Brill's book, which dealt with a different set of plants (emphasizing the common "weedy" species that Thayer is not particularly interested in), so if you already have Brill, you can buy this too. Otherwise, if you want to start learning to use edible wild plants, start with this volume.

The Forager's Harvest: A Guide to Identifying, Harvesting, and Preparing Edible Wild Plants Overview

A practical guide to all aspects of edible wild plants: finding and identifying them, their seasons of harvest, and their methods of collection and preparation. Each plant is discussed in great detail and accompanied by excellent color photographs. Includes an index, illustrated glossary, bibliography, and harvest calendar. The perfect guide for all experience levels.

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43% Off Discounts: Best Buy for Canning for a New Generation: Bold, Fresh Flavors for the Modern Pantry Review

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Canning for a New Generation: Bold, Fresh Flavors for the Modern Pantry Review

Well, having been canning for several years now, I opened up this book and was instantly hooked. There are so many delicious recipes I'm not sure where to begin. But more importantly, I'm so very glad that the author uses minimal amounts of sugar for preserves, and like myself, is more concerned about the fruit tasting like real fruit than adding copious amounts of sugar to ensure a certain gel consistency. Also, she relies on granny smith apples and peels for almost all of her jam/jelly recipes, as well as in others. I can't wait to start trying several of these recipes, and have a made a list for my next visit to the farmers market! yummy! UPDATE: I've made the 'classic peach jam', 'peach and cilantro salsa', and the 'nectarine jam with vanilla bean'. These were all great, but the nectarines with the vanilla bean was magnificent! My husband couldn't stay out of the kitchen while I was cooking it up, and he normally isn't into jams. After several 'tastings' I finally managed to get it into jars. we'll see how long this lasts at our house!

Canning for a New Generation: Bold, Fresh Flavors for the Modern Pantry Overview

"When I was growing up, canning was for old folks and cranks and separatists," writes Liana Krissoff in her introduction to Canning for a New Generation. But not anymore. With soaring food prices and the increasing popularity of all things domestic and DIY, there's never been a better time to revisit the centuries-old techniques of preserving food at home. This hip, modern handbook is filled with fresh and new ways to preserve nature's bounty throughout the year. Organized by season and illustrated with beautiful photographs, it offers detailed instructions and recipes for making more than 150 canned, pickled, dried, and frozen foods, as well as 50 inventive recipes for dishes using these foods. Basic information on canning techniques and lively sidebars round out this refreshing take on a classic cooking tradition.Praise for Canning For a New Generation:"A seasonal guide to putting up produce, with innovative recipes that incorporate the fruits (and vegetables) of your labor." -The New York Times


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39% Off Discounts: Best Buy for Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving Review

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Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving Review

I got this book about three weeks ago, having never canned or preserved, and I was completely impressed. Using the recipes inside, I've made pickled ocra, green beans, brandied cherries, sweet asparagus, and the hands down best pickle relish I've ever had in my life. It has hundreds of recipes, and they are all wonderful. If you're into fruit preserves or jams, sweet or dill pickles, slasas, relishes, chutneys, condiments, you name it, there are dozens of recipes of each type of food. I'll be tackling some home made wine and cranberry mustard next week. The first batches of pickles I made were with utensils I already had on hand. All you need is the mason jars if you have a well stocked kitchen. I've sense bought some bottle clamps to get the jars out of the hot water, but that's about it.
Here are the pros:
*) Thorough discussion of the steps of preserving.
*) Discussion on foodborne illness and how to kill it through preserving.
*) A look at high acid versus low acid canning.
*) A handy guide of produce weight and volume (for example, one pound of cherries equals 2 1/2 cups of cherries, so you know exactly what to get at the store).
*) Amazing, easy recipes for all levels of skill and tastes.
*) Dozens of variations on recipes (not just one type of cucumber pickle, but several!)
Buy this book if you're thinking of starting or even an old time pro. It's great fun, and it can produce pickles, ketchups, and preserves where you controll all the ingredients (and can even go organic!).

Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving Overview

From the experts, the new bible in home preserving.

Ball Home Canning Products are the gold standard in home preserving supplies, the trademark jars on display in stores every summer from coast to coast. Now the experts at Ball have written a book destined to become the "bible" of home preserving.

As nutrition and food quality has become more important, home canning and preserving has increased in popularity for the benefits it offers:

Cooks gain control of the ingredients, including organic fruits and vegetables
Preserving foods at their freshest point locks in nutrition
The final product is free of chemical additives and preservatives
Store-bought brands cannot match the wonderful flavor of homemade
Only a few hours are needed to put up a batch of jam or relish
Home preserves make a great personal gift any time of year



These 400 innovative and enticing recipes include everything from salsas and savory sauces to pickling, chutneys, relishes and of course, jams, jellies, and fruit spreads, such as:

Mango-Raspberry Jam, Damson Plum Jam
Crab Apple Jelly, Green Pepper Jelly
Spiced Red Cabbage, Pickled Asparagus
Roasted Red Pepper Spread, Tomatillo Salsa
Brandied Apple Rings, Apricot-Date Chutney



The book includes comprehensive directions on safe canning and preserving methods plus lists of required equipment and utensils. Specific instructions for first-timers and handy tips for the experienced make the Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving a valuable addition to any kitchen library.


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