Looking for a good living off the land book

Howdy Folks,

I have been reading reviews and searching book stores for a while now. I just can't seem to find the perfect book.

Can you point me in the right direction.

Looking for detailed information in an all inclusive book that covers things like making soap from hardwood lie and fat. Tanning hides, gardening basics with planting times harvesting and how to let crops go to "seed" and how to store those seeds for next season. How to properly dress out different large and small game. How to build permanent dwellings with tips and hints on using only what is locally available. What plants are edible and what wild plants are worth harvesting and what is not. How to store and preserve meat, fruit and vegetables with canning and beyond that to smoking, salting, drying etc.

Well I think that paints the picture pretty well.

Having put it in writing maybe it will take more than one book.



BOTTOM LINE: I want to have all of the information that our great, great grandparents took for granted on my book shelf so that If I ever need to know "how to" I will have the info in hard copy on hand.

Thanks in advance.

Cameron

I'd like to see one book with all of that, too. Although it seems like a lot of expect a single source to deliver.

Maybe an almanac from Mother Earth news or The SAS survival guide would cover alot of that,Good Luck !

I'm fairly certain such an encyclopedia doesn't exist yet.
I can't make specific book recommendations as word of mouth is usually how my family did it, and they traded furniture/tobacco/grapes/melons... and occasional angled fish, for soap

The word of mouth these days is to contact your local Cooperative Extension Service for recommendations, like say California Master Gardener Handbook

anyway, here is some mighty interesting and thought provoking free reading material I stumbled upon over the last year, for all scales , even some cool fringe

Sustainable Village Library
Village Science
Date Palm Cultivation
Sheep and goats for diverse products and profits
Livestock in Mixed Farming Systems of the Hindu Kush-Himalayas
A manual for the primary animal health care worker
The rabbit husbandry, health and production
Management of Waste from Animal Product Processing
Compendium on Post-harvest Operations
The technology of traditional milk products in developing countries
http://tinyfarmblog.com/
How can micro-farming possibly be as productive as claimed?
Food Security for the Future: individual prosperity, ecological salvation, endangered species rescue, conservation biology ~ they are all related.
Realities of Micro Farming
Lion Kuntz Step Pyramid farm city city idea
The First Book of Farming
Black Soldier Fly, White Magic
http://www.humanurehandbook.com/
Engineering, Separation and Recycling LLC On how to recycle food waste, manure and even human waste
Soap for the long run?
Moringa oleifera
http://www.backyardaquaponics.com/
Plastic Sheeting - A guide to the specification and use of plastic sheeting in humanitarian relief
PHILIPPINESBAYAWAN FISH SEED BANK
SEED MANAGEMENT BY SMALL-SCALE FARMERSIN GHANA AND ZAMBIA
Join The Hunt for Bees! grow some sunflowers, count bees, report
USDA Complete Guide to Home Canning, 2009 revision
NCHFP FAQ


this stuff my grandparents didn't even dream off (all dreams are about peppers, tomatos , melons *rimshot* and cheese :D)
Khan Academy 1400+ videos on YouTube covering everything from basic arithmetic and algebra to differential equations, physics, chemistry, biology and finance
http://www.bioenergylists.org/ for all kinds burning inventions

I dream of casting a giant pressure canner from soda cans, and powering it using an institutional rocket stove, and housing it sandbag shelter ...
sweet high pressure pyro dreams

I have a Readers Digiest Back To Basics - How to learn and enjoy traditional American Skills- that seems to cover what you were looking for. I am hanging onto it for the sheer fact that if you could only take one book with you to start a permanent dwelling from very little this covers alot of what you asked for and more. Googled HERE mine is the yellow edition.

It isn't technically what you want, but Carla Emery's book, The Encyclopedia of Country Living (928 pages) can help you with the growing, skinning, butchering, smoking, cooking and preserving part of it.

Sue

That's great! Thanks!

Sue, T_Co and EMPnotImplyNuclear,

Thanks so much. I am purchasing both the Readers Digest and Carla Emery's books. Will wade through the on line stuff and print out what is relevant.

Thanks and please add more if you know of another source.

Cameron

Not a book, but this website is a good source:


http://autonopedia.org/

+1 on Back to Basics. It's part of my bug in library.

Also, the government publishes a book about living on one acre of land. Seen it, tho not recently, at BAM (former employee, no financial ties, place sucks to work at). Search the web and you should find it. Will look after din-din.

+1 encyclopedia of country living. I'm reading that right now

1+ Yeah, that's what I was trying to think of, and couldn't recall!

A fine collection that even old hands can learn from is the Foxfire series:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foxfire_books

Many libraries have the series and it would be wise to check them out before investing in the complete set. As the wiki entry says it is a mix of DIY, folklore, narrative and history. I found the non-instructive material to be both entertaining and valuable background to the instructive text but others may find it tiresome.

More details and buy here:
http://www.foxfire.org/thefoxfirebooks.aspx

A nice overview, breakdown of subjects, and an alternative location to buy from:
http://www.backwoodshome.com/store/files/ssfoxfire.html

I second the Foxfire books, I know they have soapmaking and a bunch of old, lost arts that were recorded, with lots of pictures. I found the old fashioned gun-making section fascinating in the simplicity of the tooling that simple mountain people managed to make for themselves.
I found the books very inspirational.

"Dick's Encyclopedia of Practical Receipts and Processes or How They Did It in the 1870's"

[Yes, that's "Receipts" and not "Recipes"]

Great book. Buy from Amazon OR download free/legal PDF version (and other formats) from Internet Archive American Libraries here.

That's a great little booklet, but not the first title I think of as "a good living off the land book".

You didn't specifically mention it, but for a good medical reference for the realities of "living off the land", you might be interested in "Where There is No Doctor". I believe this was a 60s or 70s publication for Peace Corp workers working with people who were essentially forced to "live off the land". I think there is a dental version also ("Where There is No Dentist").

Anyway, as I said, the book deals with the realities of subsistence living: malnutrition (eat a variety of food), exposure (stay warm and dry), dysentery (wash your food with clean water), dehydration (drink lots of clean water), etc etc. A great deal of the book is specifically dedicated to maintaining health in children who cannot easily fend for themselves under these living conditions.

Reader's Digest's "Back To Basics" is a good basic source for homestead living off of the land.

I don't personally believe you'll find one single book that is the repository of all knowledge on living off the land, although FoxFire Series does come close.

A subscription to The Mother Earth News is a good idea if homesteading and provides a lot of info on edible wild plants, as well.

Am glad this thread has reemerged -- I just now ordered the Reader's Digest "Back to Basics" book from Amazon.

If I'd had awareness of preparedness when my grandparents were alive, I would have learned a lot more from them (such as Nana's canned pickles recipe - yum!).

"My Side of the Mountain" by Jean George.
It won the Newberry Award!

Oh, uh, yea thats for fiction.

I'll go along with those who second the Back to Basics book by Readers Digest.

Just got the back to basics book, thanks, now to find some land