Epic Homesteading is the ultimate guide to starting a modern, high-tech homestead with advice on growing and preserving food, raising chickens and bees, utilizing solar power, harvesting rainwater, and so much more.
For readers who want to shrink their carbon footprint, save money, and eat homegrown food whenever possible, this large, fully-illustrated guide--and companion to the bestseller "Back to Basics"--provides the basics of living a good, clean life.
Followed by millions @epicgardening, Author Kevin Espiritu has built a modern, high-tech homestead on a modest urban lot. In Epic Homesteading, he teaches you how to do the same, wherever you live. As Kevin has proven—thanks to his enthusiasm and willingness to experiment—there’s no need to go “back to the land,” live off-grid, and leave behind modern conveniences to improve your self-sufficiency and autonomy. Anyone can do it. Follow in Kevin’s footsteps with this accessible, beginner-friendly guide to embracing today’s technology to grow and preserve food, raise mini livestock like bees and chickens, set up automated systems like irrigation and greywater recycling, and so much more. The high-tech homesteading concepts and projects introduced in Epic Homesteading show you that, wherever you are in the world—city, country, or suburbia—homesteading is for YOU! Learn how to: Use solar power Automate rainwater catchment and distribution Set up your food-growing spaces, outdoors and in Plant and care for a small orchard, including pest management Cultivate microgreens and sprouts Keep bees, chickens, and quail Use laundry and shower greywater in the garden Preserve food Seek out and utilize free resources Maximize energy efficiency through a mini-split system, smart lighting, and timers Plus, you’ll find large and small step-by-step DIY projects to power-up your homestead quickly. As an added bonus, Kevin also shares advice on more complex subjects, such as investigating local zoning regulations and permitting requirements, staying organized, understanding your limitations, and designing your homestead for efficiency and beauty. Learn how to make an epic homestead of your own and, as Kevin likes to say, “Keep on Growing!”
A stylish, beautifully photographed guide to artfully incorporating organic vegetables, fruits, and herbs into an attractive modern garden design. We’ve all seen the vegetable garden overflowing with corn, tomatoes, and zucchini that looks good for a short time, but then quickly turns straggly and unattractive (usually right before friends show up for a backyard barbecue). If you want to grow food but you don’t want your yard to look like a farm, what can you do? The Beautiful Edible Garden shares how to not only grow organic fruits and vegetables, but also make your garden a place of year-round beauty that is appealing, enjoyable, and fits your personal style. Written by a landscape design team that specializes in artfully blending edibles and ornamentals together, The Beautiful Edible Garden shows that it’s possible for gardeners of all levels to reap the best of both worlds. Featuring a fresh approach to garden design, glorious photographs, and ideas for a range of spaces—from large yards to tiny patios—this guide is perfect for anyone who wants a gorgeous and productive garden.
Grow oodles of fruits, vegetables, herbs, and flowers with no heavy lifting or digging required! Grow bag gardening utilizes lightweight, eco-friendly, fabric planter bags to grow great plants with minimal space and care. Get all the know-how you need to successfully grow a hearty homegrown harvest in Grow Bag Gardening. Grow bags are perfect for urban, container, rooftop, balcony, and patio gardeners—but those with lots of property will find them useful, too. Grow bags fold flat for easy storage and are 100% frost-proof, so there’s no lugging heavy pots indoors for the winter. They can be used for many seasons and their mobility means you can easily move these pots around to maximize sunlight. Fabric grow bags offer gardeners a great way to grow that's cost effective, simple, and beneficial to plants. In the pages of Grow Bag Gardening you’ll learn: Why gardening in these special fabric planter bags results in big yields How this no-weed, no-mess method of gardening is a real game changer What makes this method so good for your plants (hint: no root circling!) Where and how to set up your grow bag garden to reap the biggest rewards Step-by-step instructions for continual harvests, sewing your own grow bags, building a specialized trellising system, caring for your grow bag garden, and more. Who can use grow bag gardening? Everyone! From school gardens to urban homesteads, everyone has room to grow their own veggies in a grow bag garden. Kevin Espiritu, author of Field Guide to Urban Gardening and the mastermind behind the popular website EpicGardening.com, offers an in-depth look at this revolutionary gardening method and how it can help feed the world, one grow bag at a time.
Jill Winger, creator of the award-winning blog The Prairie Homestead, introduces her debut The Prairie Homestead Cookbook, including 100+ delicious, wholesome recipes made with fresh ingredients to bring the flavors and spirit of homestead cooking to any kitchen table. With a foreword by bestselling author Joel Salatin The Pioneer Woman Cooks meets 100 Days of Real Food, on the Wyoming prairie. While Jill produces much of her own food on her Wyoming ranch, you don’t have to grow all—or even any—of your own food to cook and eat like a homesteader. Jill teaches people how to make delicious traditional American comfort food recipes with whole ingredients and shows that you don’t have to use obscure items to enjoy this lifestyle. And as a busy mother of three, Jill knows how to make recipes easy and delicious for all ages. "Jill takes you on an insightful and delicious journey of becoming a homesteader. This book is packed with so much easy to follow, practical, hands-on information about steps you can take towards integrating homesteading into your life. It is packed full of exciting and mouth-watering recipes and heartwarming stories of her unique adventure into homesteading. These recipes are ones I know I will be using regularly in my kitchen." - Eve Kilcher These 109 recipes include her family’s favorites, with maple-glazed pork chops, butternut Alfredo pasta, and browned butter skillet corn. Jill also shares 17 bonus recipes for homemade sauces, salt rubs, sour cream, and the like—staples that many people are surprised to learn you can make yourself. Beyond these recipes, The Prairie Homestead Cookbook shares the tools and tips Jill has learned from life on the homestead, like how to churn your own butter, feed a family on a budget, and experience all the fulfilling satisfaction of a DIY lifestyle.
Discover how to create an even more productive, beautiful, and enjoyable garden across the seasons, and provide a steady stream of fresh food from early spring through late fall
A narrative of pioneer hardship and heroism on the boundless Dakota prairie, as a Norwegian-American immigrant family passed through Ellis Island and worked to eke out a living in America's midwest.