As the cold sets in and some parts of homesteading slow down for the season, I like to take mental vacations to other homesteads and farms through reading. Here are a few of my favorite inspirational reads for cold-weather that I hope will inspire you too! Kristin and her (now) husband Mark, went all-in on a full-service CSA while also navigating the travails of learning to live together and plan a wedding. Their story, from Kristin’s wry perspective, makes for a dramatic and memorable memoir that proves the adage whatever doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.

I am slightly obsessed with the French culture since I spent a lot of my early adulthood hanging out with French chefs and farmers, eating like the rich and famous, while living on a working-class budget. So, when I stumbled upon the video about Le Ferme du Bec Hallouin and saw how incredibly productive and beautiful it was, I had to buy their book too.Being frugal or thrifty is not being mean, it’s just sensible. Why spend on things you do not need and that will not add to your quality of life? This is not a beach book. It goes pretty deep into the stigmas around self-sufficiency and the problems with our current economic systems. It also has a lot of heavy hitting how to. It will challenge the way you think and what you prioritize if you take it seriously. What I really love about this book though is that Sepp Holzer is a guy who tells it like it is. He doesn’t try to over-complicate his ideas. He makes permaculture real and simple in a way that more complicated manuals sometimes miss. If you have any inkling of an interest in permaculture-style homesteading, this book will win you over with its beauty, simplicity, and common sense approach. Seymour was born in Hampstead, London, England; [1] His father was Albert Angus Turbayne, a skilled bookbinder and designer. His parents separated and his mother, Christine Owens, remarried and the family moved to the seaside town of Frinton-on-Sea in north-east Essex. [1] It was however surrounded by agricultural land, and the life led by those on the land and in small boats laid a foundation for his later vision of a simple cottage economy with farming and fishing providing the essentials of life.

John was as much at home in the humblest house on a hillside, as in the manor house of landed gentry. He was like a force of nature, always willing to listen, always interested in learning about new — or very old — ways of working the land. He was a one-man rebellion against modernism. Herbert Girardet, 2005. [1] Bibliography [ edit ] We’re not eco-warriors but we have reduced our carbon footprint and we recycle as much as anybody reasonably can in our western society. For example, we grow much of our own food and cook efficiently, which reduces food miles and our energy use. Ninth Edition. Title and much of “Definitions and Measures” chapter dropped to make room for new information. Indexed and fully illustrated; el supremo version so far. And massaged by Sasquatch’s editors to make my writing follow (most of) the rules that in the past I’ve been famous (infamous?) for spurning. No more world records for typos. Oh, well.Self-Sufficiency (1973). London: Faber & Faber. (With Sally Seymour.) The original self-sufficiency guide. There are lots of us out there trying to find a better way to live. We all have different ways to go about it. Reading each others’ stories, learning from those who have taken the path before us, and opening our minds to new ideas are great ways to enhance your homesteading skills in a hurry. Even though the basic storylines start roughly the same – e.g. get fed up, try something new – each person’s experiences from that point forward are totally different. To me, the completely unique ways we all approach the same basic idea of self-sufficiency are fascinating. He had multiple roles as a writer, broadcaster, environmentalist, agrarian, smallholder and activist; a rebel against: consumerism, industrialisation, genetically modified organisms, cities, motor cars; an advocate for: self-reliance, personal responsibility, self-sufficiency, conviviality (food, drink, dancing and singing), gardening, caring for the Earth and for the soil.