The Encyclopedia of Country Living: An Old Fashioned Recipe Book

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Summary: My country bible!
Review: For anyone interested in being self-sufficient in any way - either by raising animals for fun or food, gardening, bee keeping, fencing - this is the book for you. We have lived as self sufficient as we could for the last 10 years, and this book is the one book we use continuously. I refer to it often. If you are a serious "back-to-the-lander", this may seem like an expensive buy - but it is definitely worth it! It has helped us out in so many ways!

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Summary: The single most usefull book I've ever read.
Review: For anyone who lives in, or longs to live in the country, this book is a must have. Even "clueless" city folk could survive and thrive in a self-sufficient setting as long as this book is on their bookshelf. Anecdotal writing style combined with a dry wit make this book a pleasure to read, with so many practical and usefull facts I couldn't begin to start listing them. More information crammed into it's 800 plus pages for the price than one would expect.

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Summary: Good even if you only have a little garden.
Review: We bought this book on a whim and it's become our most-referenced reference book. We may never own a farm or butcher our own hog, but those sections make great bathroom reading. When to harvest the coriander that's going to seed? Got it. How to make yogurt for half the cost of store-bought? Got it. How to clean and cook garden snails? Why not? Highly recommended!

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Summary: A must have to survive post-Bush America! :)
Review: If any single book could help you survive a complete collapse of out economy, this would be the one. With a massive amount of just the sort of tips you need to make it through the year on a handful of acres and a lot of sweat. This book helped us transform our little one acre suburban hideaway into something we know will make our family healthier, safer, and happier. Thanks for writing it!!! :)

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Summary: A home-making book like no other
Review: I was fortunate enough to come across a 1976 version of this exquisite tome a couple years ago. This book is over 1-1/2 inches thick. It has a simple, hand-drawn and hand-lettered cover - something you might have put together for a high school book report. But the minute I opened its pages, I knew I had a real winner. Carla is so personable. She makes you laugh and she makes you cry. (My mom always said that's what makes a good movie.) The very first chapter is titled "Oddments," which covers "Getting the Land;" "Firewood (And Making Fenceposts);" "365 Independence Days;" "Fresh Vegetable Storage;" and "Preserving Food by Sugaring, Salting, and Alcoholing." Helpful, curious and absolutely charming. Other chapters are "Grains;" "Vegetables, Nuts, and Seeds;" "Sweets;" "Sours;" "Beverages;" "Dairy;" "Poultry;" "Meat;" "Herbs and Flavorings;" "Home Industries;" and "Definitions and Measures." Carla, thank you for all your hard work (not to mentions sweat and tears). You are courageous beyond words.

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Summary: Just as it says, an encyclopedia.
Review: It's a bit difficult to rate an entire encyclopedia, but after a partial reading of 8 hours I found this book to be all I hoped and much more. It easily replaces many books on many topics. I'm a 'wanna be' cottage farmer looking for 10 acres but I need to learn just about everything there is to know about farming and livestock, etc and this book will serve as my encyclopedia. If you plan to always have petro fuel (bad times ahead ?) then you may not enjoy the valuable references to hand harvesting. But for a cottage farm, I am most grateful that the author provided that information. I may grow wheat, but only an acre of it and I can't afford a $200,000 combine, however I can now hand harvest it. If you already own a combine, I doubt you will need this book. :) After buying a dozen farming books, I rate this book at the top of the list along with 'The Contrary Farmer'. In my 8 hours of reading I did not detect any self indulgences by the author as others may have suggested but to be fair I would have to read another 50 hours to finish the book. This book is a must for anyone looking for all the answers in a single place.

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Summary: Useful, but Slightly Anarchist
Review: This book is long on recipes, husbandry and certain land fundamentalist ideals, but it lacks a cogence that would suggest the author has a higher purpose than writing a information collection for financial gain woven with a certain set of quirky peccadillos and some fairly primitivist philosophies. It is undoubtedly useful to anyone who is going to forgo civilization in favor of marginal living on 12 acres. These off-gridniks are real and they ought to own this book. It is also useful for the less zealous but self-reliant hobbiest who likes to dabble in the ways of the past and present that are low cost and low impact. I wish it were less quasi-religious and radical philosophy oriented. I wish she stuck to the how-to task and delivered it with scientific precision. It would then have been a classic. As it is, it is a curious and useful text that the rural devotee ought to own. But be prepared for a preachiness and moral overtone that pervades too much the central task of advising the do-it-yourselfer, just how to do it.

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Summary: One of the best how-to books ever written
Review: In terms of content, excellent -- the only thing is Carla's tendancy to give you info on her personal life that I felt had no bearing on the how-to info being shared.

Rating:
Summary: More than you'll probably need to know
Review: This book has everything. It's one of the most useful and practical books I have read as well as extremely inclusive. Written in an easy to read format rather than factual and boring, it seems to flow. It also has a handy reference section which is useful for more information. Well worth adding to your home.

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful information
Review: I cannot say enough good things about this book. It is packed full of great information on "getting back to basics" and just plain ole common sense living. Well worth every cent I spent on it.