In The Great Mother's Day Giveaway the participating bloggers have assembled a great gift package that includes a diverse assortment of books, DVDs, jewelry, and a very cool gift certificate.
Photo: insulatingfirebrick.com
In The Great Mother's Day Giveaway the participating bloggers have assembled a great gift package that includes a diverse assortment of books, DVDs, jewelry, and a very cool gift certificate.
I’ve been reading books to inspire my lifestyle lately and these really impressed me. Farm City: The Education of an Urban Farmer by Novella Carpenter The idea of creating a productive urban farm in the less desirable parts of Oakland, California is mind boggling to me. But while the location freaks me out a little – I’ve been lost in the seedier parts of Oakland. It is a scary place. – the story is an honest look at the author’s efforts to raise her own food. It’s not always pretty, but her determination and resourcefulness move her toward her goal and will certainly give those interested in adopting this sort of lifestyle an intimate look at what it’s like to raise poultry in a small space, scrounge for materials, and create something from nothing. When I mentioned this title on Facebook, The Metropolitan Homestead said: I’ve read it, and honestly, it was one of the things that pushed me into seriously starting our homesteading activities. I always wanted to get back to this lifestyle, but didn’t’ think we could in the city. Her book changed that mindset for me. The author has just released a second book, The Essential...
I have to admit, when I received a review copy of The Kitchen Counter Cooking School by Kathleen Flinn and flipped through it, I was a little disappointed. It was not the book I expected it to be. And yet, when I sat down and started reading I was hooked. Possibly because the author starts out by admitting that she stalked one woman in the grocery store. You know the one: cart full of Lunchables, boxed pasta mixes, jars of gravy, frozen waffles. I have stalked a similar woman out of sheer curiosity. What I didn’t do, though, is what the author did. Kathleen Flinn managed to strike up a conversation with this woman and ultimately discovered that she shopped the way she did because she didn’t know how to cook. As someone who cooks from scratch pretty much daily, the idea of not knowing how to cook blows my mind, though I know there are plenty of people out there who just never learned thanks to generations of packaged foods and the demise of Home Ec classes in the schools. A graduate of Le Cordon Bleu, the author definitely knows how to cook – and cook well. Her...
For years, my plant bible has been the Sunset Western Garden Book. Filled with listings of specific plants (over 8,000 in the 2011 edition) that detail plant characteristics, growth habits, and zone requirements, this is a must-have if you garden in the west. The book includes information about both edible and ornamental plants and trees. Of course, this is region specific and works for me; if you’re east of the Rockies I’d love to hear about your favorite regional reference book. In Animal, Vegetable, Miracle Barbara Kingsolver chronicles her family’s year of eating only homegrown food (supplemented by locally grown products, on occasion). It’s an inspiring look at the possibilities of living self-sufficiently. I particularly loved reading that even though this was her idea, even though she wanted to live this way, it was hard for her to actually begin. She worried that the spring months would offer spare produce for her family’s table, and she was right. I found reading about her choices in sustainable living to be an education in itself. Hungry Planet may seem like an odd choice for a sustainability site, but the images in the book are a visual reminder that the way we...
