Need Titles to New and Older Books about Homesteading, Smallhold Farming. Favorites?

01.25.10 | chickensoup

[Chickensoup]

I am looking for recommendations for books and essays about smallhold farming and homesteading. Fun books and informative books. I love to read about what people do and have done. Please list your favorite. Alibris will be busy.

[FairWitness]

You might consider trying the resources at the Homestead National Monument of America. This "Museum", located in Beatrice, Nebraska, is part of the National Park Service, and has set itself the task of bringing together as much the records of homesteading the west as possible.

[Stirner]

try

http://xroads.virginia.edu/~HYPER/CONTEXTS/Garland/lionspaw.html

http://books.google.com/books?id=iy0QAAAAYAAJ&dq=%22son+of+the+middle+border%22&printsec=frontcover&source=bn&hl=en&ei=Z1VeS_ewJ8iV8AbJv7jqBA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4&ved=0CBkQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=&f=false

[katagious]

storey’s basic country skills
Back to Basics from Readers Digest
carla Emeys Encyclopedia of country living

I think those are the 3 must haves.

Also, early on I had come across a big pile of 60’s organic gardening magazines, It’s actually what headed me towards homesteadingin the first place. They were a far cry from the Organic Gardening mag of today. If you can find some, I highly recommend perusing a few.

[Mind-numbed Robot]

Using the keywords homesteading and smallhold farming search with Google or some other search engine.

[kanawa]

[Big Horn]

I subscribed for years a long time ago. It was better than playboy.

[Mrs. Ranger]

Countryside magazine; “The Have-more Plan”, by Ed and Carolyn Robinson (somewhat dated, but a classic ;); “Carla Emery’s Old-Fashioned Recipe Book”; the “Stillmeadow” books by Gladys Tabor. That should keep you for awhile. :)

[GovernmentShrinker]

Don’t limit yourself to Alibris. http://used.addall.com/ simultaneously searches Alibris and many other aggregators and direct dealers, including Amazon, Half.com, Biblio, Abebooks, Powells, etc.

[mojo114]

All Reiman Publications, especially for your interest see Farm and Ranch Living.

[Hugin]

THE SELF-SUFFICIENT LIFE, and How to Live It, by John Seymour. An excellecnt comprehensive tome on the subjuct, with everything from raising crops and livestock, hunting, making wine and brewing beer from grain, and generating energy.

Making Your Small Farm Profitable, by Ron Macher. More oriented towards running your farm as a business, deveoling new crops and markets, etc.

How to Stay Alive in the Woods, By Bradford Angier. A classic on that subject if you’re interested in pure survival info.

You can get a lot of info from Backwoods Home Magazine too.

http://backwoodshome.com/

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

From my personal library...

Five acres and Independence
The Have More Plan by Ed and Carolyn Robinson, (An excellent read!) Still in print!

Passport to Survival by Esther Dickey

Edible Wild Plants by Elias & Dykeman
Outdoor Survival Skills by Larry Dean Olsen
Roughing it easy by Dian thomas

The Foxfire books

And my personal favorite...WILDWOOD WISDOM by Elsworth Jaeger. ( His other books are good also)

Bran Angier also wrote a large number of books on outdoor living and homesteading. I later found he was actually living in a condo in Los Angeles, California, definitly not in the country.

Get a copy of FUR FISH AND GAME Magazine. You will find lots of books on outdoor skills, many so old they were written back in the dark ages by A A Harding. I have...
Deadfalls and Snares
3001 answers and Questions
and used to have several more.

I had several by Rodale Press but I found his organic gardening books were bunk as they had carefully worded disclaimers if insects ate your plants.

Check at your county extension office. They often have booklets on raising small animals ang gardening.

Check out any used book stores for any books from the 1940s McGraw Hill Rual Activities Series. I have Shopwork on the Farm, and Repairing and constructing Farm Buildings.
I used to have many others on farm projects but they were destroyed in the 1976 Tulsa flood.

I could go into my files where I tore out of magazines hundreds of plans over the last fifty years.

[sneakers]

bookmark

[ASOC]

Ditto, got ‘em all

[STONEWALLS]

...we’ve lived on 24 acres since 1993 and I don’t have any book recommendations beyond what others have offered...I will tell you this however...my first tractor didn’t have a ROPS(roll bar)and I almost bought the ranch on two different occasions...and when you get a tractor get at least 30 hp...good luck.

[Scotsman will be Free]

You want a good laugh read The Egg and I. The Ma and Pa Kettle movies were based on those stories. It’s about life on a chicken farm in the 20s or 30s in Jefferson county in Washington state.

[ceprise]

4 fun

FARNHAM’S FREEHOLD by Robert Heinlein

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farnham%27s_Freehold

THE GOOD LIFE. BBC comedy inspired by John Seymour

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/wales/south_west/3703544.stm

[Vroomfondel]

Lindsay Publications finds and reprints older books. The last catalog I got from them (a few years ago) had one. I don’t see it on their website, but their site doesn’t list everything.

http://lindsaybks.com/

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

And here is one I forgot about! Anyone remember this, my copy was destroyed in the tulsa flood. They now have a web site!

THE WHOLE EARTH CATALOG

http://www.wholeearth.com/index.php

[Persevero]

Every book by Laura Ingalls Wilder.

The Little Britches series by Ralph Moody.

[Swiss]

You might have a hard time finding it but “A Few Acres and Security” isn’t bad

http://www.amazon.com/s?ie=UTF8&rh=i%3Astripbooks%2Cp_27%3AL%20Steelman&field-author=L%20Steelman&page=1