The Backyard Homestead

This book has been a terrific read. The illustrations are very nice. It's packed full of advice and ideas for a beginning homesteader.

My dream is to one day own my own home and make the land produce enough to supply most of what we need. I'm starting very small. One new crop and project a year. This year I added corn and vermiculture.

This book is very good at helping you lay out your homestead in whatever space you have available. Then the book divides off into topics: growing crops, raising animals, and wild food. It gives a lot of detail on each subject and is very easy to understand.

I've still found that I need more specialized books for some topics. For instance, I am looking for a really good book on growing tomatoes. The Backyard Homestead has a great section, but very little about the dos and don'ts of tomato growing.

I do love this book and have read it through several times. I feel empowered to raise much of my own produce and have big plans for my future garden.