Table Of ContentAdvance Praise for
Homegrown and Handmade
Homegrown & Handmade a smart book for today’s modern homesteader. In this
book, Deborah Niemann promises practical guidance for a more sustainable and
inspirational lifestyle. From growing and using your own vegetable and fruit
crops to creating and managing your own dairy, raising backyard poultry, and
harvesting your own fiber, Homegrown & Handmade more than delivers!
Niemann offers compelling reasons for becoming active in understanding the
foods (and chemicals) that families are consuming unchecked everyday.
Homegrown & Handmade puts you in the control seat of what is considered
fresh and healthy food by offering detailed explanations on providing food and
fiber in their purest form for yourself.
Homegrown & Handmade is simply the right book at the right time — a book
after my own heart.
— CHRIS MCLAUGHLIN, micro-farmer and author of
The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Heirloom Vegetables and
The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Small-Space Gardening.
Deborah Niemann has penned the book that will turn homesteading dreamers
into doers. From sustainable gardening to animal husbandry, she’s got the farm
covered. Homegrown & Handmade explores, illuminates, excites, and inspires.
— ASHLEY ENGLISH, author of the Homemade Living book series
and the voice behind small-measure.blogspot.com
Deborah and her family were a great inspiration on my own journey from
urbanite to homesteader, and over the years I’ve turned to her often for guidance.
Homegrown and Handmade is a wonderful collection of her wisdom, and when
it’s not propped next to the stove or the milk stand, this approachable reference
belongs on the shelf with the homesteading classics.
— MARGARET HATHAWAY, author of
The Year of the Goat and Living with Goats
Deborah Niemann has written a straight-forward, down-to-earth book to get us
back to our nation’s independent, self-reliant roots. It covers all the bases —
from the soil to the supper table, and from birth (or hatch) to butchering. This is
the perfect book for the conscientious omnivore, or for anyone seeking a
practical map to a sustainable, delicious future.
— TERRA BROCKMAN, Founder and Board President of
The Land Connection, Author of The Seasons on Henry’s Farm,
speaker, food and farm advocate.
There’s never been a more practical guide written for making the “simple” life
simple.
— DR. BRENT RIDGE AND JOSH KILMER-PURCELL, founders of
Beekman1802.com
Deborah Niemann
homegrown
& handmade
A PRACTICAL GUIDE TO
More
Self-Reliant
Living
Copyright © 2011 by Deborah Niemann.
All rights reserved.
Cover design by Diane McIntosh.
Eggs, © iStock (Mona Makela); Poultry, Strawberries, © iStock
( Johnnysoriv); Wool, Lamb, Preserves, Katherine Boehle.
Printed in Canada.
Paperback ISBN: 978-0-86571-702-2
eISBN: 978-1-55092-490-9
Inquiries regarding requests to reprint all or part of Homegrown & Handmade
should be addressed to New Society Publishers at the address below.
To order directly from the publishers, please call toll-free (North America) 1-800-
567-6772, or order online at www.newsociety.com
Any other inquiries can be directed by mail to:
New Society Publishers
P.O. Box 189, Gabriola Island, BC V0R 1X0, Canada (250) 247-9737
Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
Niemann, Deborah
Homegrown & handmade : a practical guide to more self-reliant living / Deborah Niemann.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 978-0-86571-702-2
1. Self-reliant living. 2. Sustainable living. I. Title.
II. Title: Homegrown and handmade.
GF78.N54 2011 640 C2011-904935-X
New Society Publishers’ mission is to publish books that contribute in fundamental ways to building an ecologically sustainable and just society, and to do so with the least possible impact
on the environment, in a manner that models this vision. We are committed to doing this not just through education, but through action. Our printed, bound books are printed on Forest
Stewardship Council-certified acid-free paper that is 100% post-consumer recycled (100% old growth forest-free), processed chlorine free, and printed with vegetable-based, low-VOC
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Contents
Acknowledgments
Foreword
Introduction
Part one: The Sustainable Garden
Chapter 1: Planning the Sustainable Garden
Chapter 2: Growing the Sustainable Garden
Chapter 3: Cooking from the Sustainable Garden
Part two: The Backyard Orchard
Chapter 4: Planning the Backyard Orchard
Chapter 5: Growing the Backyard Orchard
Chapter 6: Cooking from the Backyard Orchard
Part three: The Backyard Poultry Flock
Chapter 7: Planning the Backyard Poultry Flock
Chapter 8: Raising the Backyard Poultry Flock
Chapter 9: Raising the Backyard Poultry Flock for Meat
Chapter 10: Cooking from the Backyard Poultry Flock
Part four: The Home Dairy
Chapter 11: Planning the Home Dairy
Chapter 12: Managing the Home Dairy
Chapter 13: Producing from the Home Dairy
Part five: The Home Fiber Flock
Chapter 14: Planning and Managing the Home Fiber Flock
Chapter 15: Producing from the Home Fiber Flock
Afterword
Bibliography
Notes
About the author
To Mike –
Thanks for twenty-five years
of supporting your favorite writer.
