Product Description

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #97600 in Books
• Published on: 2003-03-06
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 864 pages

Amazon.com Review
For twenty years people have relied on these hundreds of recipes, instructions, and morsels of invaluable practical advice on all aspects of growing and preparing food. This definitive classic on food, gardening, and self-sufficient living is a complete resource for living off the land with over 800 pages of collected wisdom from country maven, Carla Emery--how to cultivate a garden, buy land, bake bread, raise farm animals, make sausage, milk a goat, grow herbs, churn butter, catch a pig, make soap, work with bees and more. Encyclopedia of Country Living is so basic, so thorough, so reliable, it deserves a place in every home--whether in the country, the city, or somewhere in between.

From Publishers Weekly
The updated ninth edition of this compendium of food production information is the hefty result of over three decades of intelligence-gathering by Emery, whose initial encyclopedia project was designed to help newbies in the "back to the land" movement of the early 70s learn self-sufficiency. Tasks Emery covers run the gamut from the simple to the complex, and from the common to the strange, and include how to: bake bread, make seed milk, sew a cornhusk bed, dry flowers, prune kiwi vines, culture yogurt, plant beans, keep bees, build a fish pond, artificially inseminate a turkey and help a cow who's eaten nails. In chapters such as "Grasses, Grains & Canes," "Food Preservation" and "Goats, Cows & Home Dairying," Emery offers advice, recipes (including many that are vegan), folk wisdom and plenty of hard facts. Though it's definitely not aimed at them, urbanites will find the recipes and resources lists (of herb periodicals, nurseries, organizations dedicated to simple living, etc.) useful, the trivia interesting ("catsup" was originally a thick sauce made from any fruit or vegetable), and Emery's personal reflections ("Once upon a time, in the bad old ways when the Communists and the Western countries were poised on the brink of mutual nuclear annihilation...") compelling. Even readers with no plans to raise sheep, sell homemade cheese or plant millet will find this a fascinating cultural document.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review
Carla Emery is certifiably one of the craziest, warmest, (sometimes unintentionally) funniest, wisest, most lovable, and idealistic zanies now walking the face of the earth and we think this old world would be a lot better off if we had a few more people like her. -- Mother Earth News

Carla Emery started this ambitious reference project in 1969 as a complete guide to family food production and now, in its ninth edition, it has grown into an all-encompassing encyclopedia spanning everything from buying land to family farming to raising livestock to barn building to beekeeping to bread baking to making your own yogurt, plus a generous helping of suppliers, catalogers, books and magazines, and organizations. Hundreds of unique down-home recipes fill these pages, along with advice and instructions on all manner of food growing and preparation and a wealth of folk wisdom collected over the years from homesteaders that Carla has met or corresponded with. This book is an absolute gold mine of how-to, where-to information, whether you want to head for the hills or you just want to learn to live more self-sufficiently. -- From The WomanSource Catalog & Review: Tools for Connecting the Community for Women; review by Tara Springer

If you're dreaming about moving "back to the land" someday, or if you're already there and want to live more self-sufficiently (wherever you may be) you'll want a copy of the ninth edition of The Encyclopedia of Country Living...We think you're pretty swell, Carla. -- Organic Gardening

No library is complete without this one-of-a-kind encyclopedia. There isn't a more complete source of step-by-step information about food production, from the garden or barnyard, all the way to the kitchen table. Filled with hundreds of recipes , detailed instructions, and wisdom gleaned from a multitude of readers, The Encyclopedia of Country Living is so basic, thorough, and reliable it deserves a place in every country life collection. With a wealth of practical information, anecdotes, recipes, and personal advice, readers will quickly become devoted fans of growing and processing every kind of food! -- Midwest Book Review

Customer Reviews

Great Book
I absolutely love this book! It is full of just about everything you need to know about anything you need to know about being self sufficient.

The Be All End All
This is an excellent reference book for a person just starting out in the back to the land movement. It lets you know how much you can do with your land, reviews the pros and cons of different livestock, gives recipes for soap and the like, explains how to slaughter your own animals (if you so choose), and the like. We've made great use of this book while starting out, even on a lot as small as an acre. Nice candid tone through out. A wealth of knowledge worth more than the price.

Very accurately informative
For someone who knew nothing of outdoor, independant living, I walked away from this book a wealthy, knowledgeable person after having read it. In a nutshell, please buy this book FIRST! You will find that after buying this book that you will need very few other books out in the market. This author addresses everything you need to know about various topics of outdoor, independant living, and if she doesn't have all the answers, she forwards you to other sources that will get you the specific info you need. This book is worth the money. I bought it to learn more about gardening, and came away learning so much more. This is a book that one MUST purchase as a staple in their book collection.