The Encyclopedia of Country Living: An Old Fashioned Recipe Book

Amazon.com
For twenty years people have relied on these hundreds of recipes, instructions, and morsels of invaluable practical advice on all aspects of growing and preparing food. This definitive classic on food, gardening, and self-sufficient living is a complete resource for living off the land with over 800 pages of collected wisdom from country maven, Carla Emery--how to cultivate a garden, buy land, bake bread, raise farm animals, make sausage, milk a goat, grow herbs, churn butter, catch a pig, make soap, work with bees and more. Encyclopedia of Country Living is so basic, so thorough, so reliable, it deserves a place in every home--whether in the country, the city, or somewhere in between.


From Publishers Weekly
The updated ninth edition of this compendium of food production information is the hefty result of over three decades of intelligence-gathering by Emery, whose initial encyclopedia project was designed to help newbies in the "back to the land" movement of the early 70s learn self-sufficiency. Tasks Emery covers run the gamut from the simple to the complex, and from the common to the strange, and include how to: bake bread, make seed milk, sew a cornhusk bed, dry flowers, prune kiwi vines, culture yogurt, plant beans, keep bees, build a fish pond, artificially inseminate a turkey and help a cow who's eaten nails. In chapters such as "Grasses, Grains & Canes," "Food Preservation" and "Goats, Cows & Home Dairying," Emery offers advice, recipes (including many that are vegan), folk wisdom and plenty of hard facts. Though it's definitely not aimed at them, urbanites will find the recipes and resources lists (of herb periodicals, nurseries, organizations dedicated to simple living, etc.) useful, the trivia interesting ("catsup" was originally a thick sauce made from any fruit or vegetable), and Emery's personal reflections ("Once upon a time, in the bad old ways when the Communists and the Western countries were poised on the brink of mutual nuclear annihilation...") compelling. Even readers with no plans to raise sheep, sell homemade cheese or plant millet will find this a fascinating cultural document. Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.


Mother Earth News
Carla Emery is certifiably one of the craziest, warmest, (sometimes unintentionally) funniest, wisest, most lovable, and idealistic zanies now walking the face of the earth and we think this old world would be a lot better off if we had a few more people like her.


Organic Gardening
If you're dreaming about moving "back to the land" someday, or if you're already there and want to live more self-sufficiently (wherever you may be) you'll want a copy of the ninth edition of The Encyclopedia of Country Living...We think you're pretty swell, Carla.


Midwest Book Review
No library is complete without this one-of-a-kind encyclopedia. There isn't a more complete source of step-by-step information about food production, from the garden or barnyard, all the way to the kitchen table. Filled with hundreds of recipes , detailed instructions, and wisdom gleaned from a multitude of readers, The Encyclopedia of Country Living is so basic, thorough, and reliable it deserves a place in every country life collection. With a wealth of practical information, anecdotes, recipes, and personal advice, readers will quickly become devoted fans of growing and processing every kind of food!


Book Description
Initially self-published 20 years ago, The Encyclopedia of Country Living has become the trusted guidebook to sustainable, self-sufficient living. Filled with memorable anecdotes, crucial advice, and a generous helping of good humor, this compendium provides detailed information about food production — growing, processing, cooking, and preserving — together with hundreds of illustrations and recipes. With updates of over 1,100 mail order sources, including websites and email addresses, this revised edition is the definitive classic text for living off the land.


From The WomanSource Catalog & Review: Tools for Connecting the Community for Women; review by Tara Springer
Carla Emery started this ambitious reference project in 1969 as a complete guide to family food production and now, in its ninth edition, it has grown into an all-encompassing encyclopedia spanning everything from buying land to family farming to raising livestock to barn building to beekeeping to bread baking to making your own yogurt, plus a generous helping of suppliers, catalogers, books and magazines, and organizations. Hundreds of unique down-home recipes fill these pages, along with advice and instructions on all manner of food growing and preparation and a wealth of folk wisdom collected over the years from homesteaders that Carla has met or corresponded with. This book is an absolute gold mine of how-to, where-to information, whether you want to head for the hills or you just want to learn to live more self-sufficiently.


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Inspired by the "back to the land" movement and written in the spirit of the "Whole Earth" catalogs and "Foxfire" series, this encyclopedia helps preserve an earlier generation's knowledge of homesteading. Beginning with a mimeographed, self-published version in 1974, its contents have evolved into this professionally published and extensively updated ninth edition. Not to say that there aren't still some rough edges-as might be expected in a volume that celebrates the pioneer spirit. Emery, a country-living instructor who authored the original edition, mixes the earthy with the electronic by combining lengthy discussions on agriculture with references to hundreds of web sites that offer more specialized information on thousands of topics. Although mainly a modern individualist's resource on how to grow and prepare food, this work is much more. Suburbanites will benefit from its gardening tips, which range from buying seeds and when to plant what to designing a vegetable garden and preserving food. There is a large section on herbs and flavoring and lists of items that anyone could use to prepare for emergencies and natural disasters. Those on hard times will appreciate the advice in "How To Pinch a Penny," while those seeking a more challenging lifestyle will want to read up on living in a tipi year round in Alaska or how to give birth by yourself. This straightforward and apolitical resource will find varying degrees of utility among library clientele. As one astonished browser acclaimed, "Is there anything this book doesn't tell you how to do?" Recommended for public libraries.-Stanley P. Hodge, formerly with Ball State Univ. Lib., Muncie, IN Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.


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