The First-Time Homesteader
A complete beginner's guide to starting and loving your new homestead
-
- $12.99
-
- $12.99
Publisher Description
Are you striving for improved self-reliance and self-sufficiency for yourself and your family? Author Jessica Sowards of YouTube’s Roots & Refuge Farm is the warm and welcoming guide you’ve been waiting for.
Homesteading is a mindset and a lifestyle aimed at living lightly on the land, being more resourceful, appreciating the value of hard work, and understanding the diverse and amazing connections between humans and the planet we live on. Homesteaders constantly strive for a more sustainable life and a greater connection to the cycles of nature and the foods and goods we consume. Starting your very first homestead is a journey of discovery and passion that’s also likely filled with questions and what-ifs. In The First-Time Homesteader, Jessica fills in all the blanks with honesty, humor, and charm.
Now you can take those first and most valuable steps toward establishing your own homestead with a seasoned homesteader at your side. Jessica warmly guides you through the process of setting up your property (no matter how small or large), establishing a garden, welcoming animals into the fold, living more resourcefully, and expanding your homestead kitchen tools and skills with grace and confidence.
Start your first homestead with lessons on:
Raising chickens for meat and eggs Starting and operating a home dairy Housing, fencing, and processing advice for meat animals Planning and planting your homestead vegetable garden Keeping bees for honey, pollination, and beeswax Stocking your medicine cabinet with useful herbs and home remedies Living a resourceful existence by reusing and repurposing Stocking the kitchen with all the tools and techniques you need for success You don’t have to live off-grid or give up contemporary conveniences to homestead. You just have to have the desire to live a more thoughtful and fulfilling life. Take your very first step today, hand in hand with an experienced and enthusiastic guide in The First-Time Homesteader.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Roots and Refuge blogger Sowards (The First-Time Gardener) dispatches a "love letter" to homesteading and a fine guide to getting started doing it in this thoughtful account. While Sowards doesn't sugarcoat the lifestyle, her fond reflections ("There is a beauty and a harmony to having animals on a homestead") go a long way toward making it seem idyllic. Sowards starts with advice for land shopping, laying out a farm, and identifying one's purpose for going the homesteading route. She then covers best practices for raising yard birds, describing different chicken breeds and how to build one's flock ("The folks at the post office will never forget you once you've picked up a box of peeping chicks"). Next up is "Meat in the Freezer," an up-close look at raising animals to be butchered ("the most contested part of our lifestyle"). Readers will also find notes on dairy production, keeping bees, and stocking a kitchen, plus a deep dive into gardening that covers succession planting, healthy soil, and compost. The simple but stunning photography—done by the author herself—is a treat. Sowards is realistic about the fact that becoming a homesteader is a long process often full of mistakes, but readers ready to go down that path would be hard pressed to find a better guide. Budding homesteaders, take note.
