Fermentation and Preserving

Wild Fermentation by Sandor Ellix Katz

One of personal favorites and highly recommended for getting started with fermentation.

“For thousands of years humans have enjoyed the taste and nutrition of fermented foods and drinks. We rely on the transformative, almost magical power of fermentation to preserve and improve all sorts of food, making them tastier, more digestible, and more appealing.”

Putting Food By

An excellent resource for the how-to of canning as well as some easy to follow recipes and techniques. This book has been key to my preservation education.

Gardening and Permaculture

Saving Seeds by Marc Rogers

A basic guide to savings seeds.

Seed to Seed by Suzanne Ashworth

A more in depth seed saving techniques book.

Garden Seed Inventory by Seed Savers Exchange

A listing of 8,500 non-hybrid fruit and vegetable varieties.

Food Not Lawns by HC Flores

“Gardening can be a political act. Creativity, fulfillment, connection, revolution–it all begins when we get our hands in the dirt. Food Not Lawns combines practical wisdom on ecological design and community-building with a fresh, green perspective on an age-old subject.”

Living on a Few Acres by US Department of Agriculture

An old book on small farming.

How to Grow More Vegetables by John Jeavons

“Using bio-intensive gardening techniques, this text shows how to raise enough organic vegetables for a family of four on a parcel of land as small as 800 square feet. It teaches how to produce high yields of food crops in very small spaces while nourishing the soil and reducing chemical usage.”

Lasagna Gardening by Patricia Lanza

Build soil up by not tilling.

New Organic Grower and Four Season Harvest by Eliot Coleman

Classic guides for small scale growers.

Carrots Love Tomatoes by Louise Riotte

A guide to companion planting.

Square Foot Gardening by Mel Bartholomew

“When he created the ’square foot gardening’ method, Mel Bartholomew, a retired engineer and efficiency expert, found the solution to the frustrations of most gardeners. His revolutionary system is simple: it’s an ingenious planting method based on using square foot blocks of garden space instead of rows. Gardeners build up, not down, so there’s no digging and no tilling after the first year. And the method requires less thinning, less weeding, and less watering.”

Keeping Bees by John Vivian

The book that got me really interested in the prospect of keeping bees even though I do not have any hives yet…

Gardening with Guineas by Jeannette Ferguson
I have read this book, but I have not put it into action yet. A detailed guide on living with guinea hens and using them in the garden.

Humanure Handbook by Joseph Jenkins

I bought this book six years ago and have been scheming for a way to put it into action since then. This book details how to turn humanure into a rich soil amendment and do so safely.

Food Discussions and Narratives

Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon

Great info on nutrition as well as great, basic recipes.

“A full-spectrum nutritional cookbook with a startling message–animal fats and cholesterol are vital factors in the human diet, necessary for reproduction and normal growth, proper function of the brain and nervous system, protection from disease and optimum energy levels. Includes information on how to prepare grains, health benefits of bone broths and enzyme-rich lacto-fermented foods.”

The Revolution Will Not Be Microwaved by Sandor Ellix Katz

A great look at what is wrong with our current food systems and how we can get it back on track in our own lives.

“An instant classic for a new generation of monkey-wrenching food activists. Food in America is cheap and abundant, yet the vast majority of it is diminished in terms of flavor and nutrition, anonymous and mysterious after being shipped thousands of miles and passing through inscrutable supply chains, and controlled by multinational corporations. In our system of globalized food commodities, convenience replaces quality and a connection to the source of our food. Most of us know almost nothing about how our food is grown or produced, where it comes from, and what health value it really has. It is food as pure corporate commodity. We all deserve much better than that.”

The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan

“True or false: One out of every four items for sale in the average American supermarket contains corn? (Think, think, think...) Believe it or not, it’s true. If this unsettles you — or just plain doesn’t make sense — pick up a copy of Michael Pollan’s latest, which will change the way you think about nutrition and health. Pollan starts out by identifying the three principal food chains that sustain contemporary Americans. Two of them, the organic and the hunter-gatherer, have been around for a long, long time. The third, however, the industrial food chain, suddenly accounts for the bulk of our diet. The ‘omnivore’s dilemma,’ we learn, refers to anxiety that accompanies an excess of options; specifically, when you can eat everything, what should you eat? One thing this book makes clear: if we are what we eat, it’s getting so we hardly know ourselves at all. ”

Plenty by Alisa Smith and J.B. MacKinnon

This is the book that I would say is the most responsible for the Cricket Bread project. It is a very personal account of a year of eating food from within a 100 mile radius. This book is honest about the possibilities as well as the drawbacks.

Living the Good Life by Helen and Scott Nearing

The reference book for back-to-the-landers of the 1960s and subsequent generations.

“Helen and Scott Nearing are the great-grandparents of the back-to-the-land movement, having abandoned the city in 1932 for a rural life based on self-reliance, good health, and a minimum of cash…Fascinating, timely, and wholly useful, a mix of the Nearings’ challenging philosophy and expert counsel on practical skills.”–Washington Post Book World

Meanwhile, Next Door to the Goodlife by Jean Hay Bright

An interesting counterpoint to the often too-optimistic “Living the Good Life”.

Coming Home to Eat by Gary Paul Nabhan

A book about eating from a 250 mile range in the desert of the southwest.

Field Guides, Botany, Foraging and Scavenging

Edible Wild Plants by Roger Tory Peterson

This book is perfect for carrying with you on a walk through the park or the forest. I am a fan of the Peterson’s field guides. I am on my third copy of Peterson’s Field Guide to Eastern Birds. Also check out the Field Guide to Medicinal Plants and Herbs.

Newcomb’s Wildflower Guide by Lawrence Newcomb

One of the first field guides I ever bought and the second guide I had to buy again after destroying the first copy. This guide details how to identify most east coast (USA) wildflowers quickly and easily using color and leaf guides.

Mushrooms Demystified by David Arora

I’ve seen this book, dogeared and worn, at Noel and Danielle’s house so I assume it is good. I am not a fan of mushrooms at the moment, but this seems to be the book to have on wild mushrooms.

Botany in a Day by Thomas Elpel

Use this book along with Plant Identification Terminology for help with learning the plant families and how to identify them.

Personal Favorites

Coming soon…

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