Cover of The Encyclopedia of Country Living

The Encyclopedia of Country Living

The bible of sustainable living, food gardening, and living green, no home is complete without this one-of-a-kind encyclopedia! For more than thirty years, people have relied on the thousands of recipes, detailed how-to instructions, and personal advice provided in this definitive classic. It is the most complete source of step-by-step information about growing, processing, cooking, and preserving homegrown foods from garden, orchard, field, or barnyard. This book is so basic, so thorough, so reliable, that it deserves a place in every home whether country, city, or in between. Carla Emery started writing The Encyclopedia of Country Living in 1969 during the back-to-the-land movement of that time. She continued to add content and refine the information over the years ad the book went from a self-published mimeographed document to a book published by Bantam and then Sasquatch. The 10th Edition reflects the most up-to-date and the most personal version of the book that became Carla Emery's life work. It is the original manual of basic country skills that have proved essential and necessary for people living in the country and the city, and everywhere in between. The practical advice in this exhaustive reference tool includes how to cultivate a garden, buy land, bake bread, raise farm animals, make sausage, can peaches, milk a goat, grow herbs, churn butter, build a chicken coop, catch a pig, cook on a wood stove, and much, much more.

Audience
adult
Length
epic · 922 pages

Click a tag to see books like this one that share it. Point at it (on a phone, tap it) for less of it instead.

Read it? Sign in to help tag it.

Liked The Encyclopedia of Country Living? Here’s where I’d start.

These suit anyone who liked The Encyclopedia of Country Living. Sign in and mark a few books for picks shaped around your own taste.

  1. Storey's Basic Country Skills: A Practical Guide to Self-Reliance Shares homesteading, nonfiction, farming
  2. Back to Basics: A Complete Guide to Traditional Skills Shares homesteading, nonfiction, gardening
  3. Reader's Digest Back to Basics: How to Learn and Enjoy Traditional American Skills Shares homesteading, nonfiction, gardening
  4. Homegrown and Handmade: A Practical Guide to More Self-Reliant Living Shares homesteading, gardening, nonfiction

“People who read The Encyclopedia of Country Living tend to reach for these next.”

  1. The Self-Sufficient Life and How to Live It: The Complete Back-To-Basics Guide
  2. Barnyard in Your Backyard: A Beginner's Guide to Raising Chickens, Ducks, Geese, Rabbits, Goats, Sheep, and Cows
  3. Seed to Seed: Seed Saving and Growing Techniques for Vegetable Gardeners
  4. Root Cellaring: Natural Cold Storage of Fruits Vegetables

“If you want more of the same (cooking about gardening), start with these.”

  1. Homesteading: A Backyard Guide to Growing Your Own Food, Canning, Keeping Chickens, Generating Your Own Energy, Crafting, Herbal Medicine, and More
  2. From Vines to Wines: The Complete Guide to Growing Grapes and Making Your Own Wine
  3. Growing Tomorrow: A Farm-to-Table Journey in Photos and Recipes—Behind the Scenes with 18 Extraordinary Sustainable Farmers Who Are Changing the Way We Eat
  4. The Contrary Farmer

“If it was the homesteading that hooked you, try one of these.”

  1. Little House in the Suburbs: Backyard Farming and Home Skills for Self-Sufficient Living
  2. Country Wisdom & Know-How: A Practical Guide to Living off the Land
  3. The Backyard Homestead Guide To Raising Farm Animals
  4. The Five-Year Guide to Self-Sufficiency: Simple Living Made Simpler

“These start from a similar idea, even if they go somewhere else with it.”

  1. Grow Cook Eat: A Food Lover's Guide to Vegetable Gardening, Including 50 Recipes, Plus Harvesting and Storage Tips
  2. Your Farm in the City: An Urban Dweller's Guide to Growing Food and Raising Animals
  3. The Art of Simple Food II: Recipes, Flavor, and Inspiration from the New Kitchen Garden
  4. Free-Range Chicken Gardens: How to Create a Beautiful, Chicken-Friendly Yard