Homesteading: Back to Basics By Mrs Vera West

Here are two excellent back to basics books put together by a woman on homesteading: Abigail Gehring, The Homesteading Handbook, (Skyhorse, 2011), and her edited work, Back to Basics, (Skyhorse, 2014).  The beauty of these books, unlike many others in the genre, is that it does not presuppose that one necessarily has a rural property to retreat to, for many things can be done in one’s quarter acre block, if one is still lucky enough to have this. Thus, The Homesteading Handbook plunges right in to establishing a home garden, even if it is just plants in pots, but ideally there should be more space. Covered are basic plant requirements, what makes suitable soil, soil quality indicators, and how such soil quality can be improved, especially by composting and organic fertilisers, which are easy enough to get going. Vermicomposting uses worms to compost, and can be done even in one’s garage, or basement.

Covered is mulching, getting started in organic gardening, and terracing for hilly areas, so no land goes to waste. Terracing produces more surface area, and also limits erosion by breaking up steep surfaces where water gains erosive momentum. It is widely practiced in Asia, and can be done in Australian hills areas too.

The basics on starting a vegetable garden and establishing trees are covered too, even rooftop gardens for city dwellers. Pests and disease management will always be a problem, and the book discusses Integrated Pest Management, to keep pest levels manageable, without excessive, or any use of chemical pesticides. This involves careful monitoring of pests, and often in smaller gardens, insects can be removed by hand. Diatomaceous earth, a dust made of marine diatoms, can be used to treat slugs. As well, shallow dishes of beer attract slugs, where they die, drunk, but happy. Insects can even be washed off plants using organic soapy water.

Once one has food from the garden it can be preserved by various methods including drying and freezing, and canning. The basics of this are covered.

That discussed, Gehring moves onto animals in the backyard farm, such as chickens, ducks, turkeys, bees, goats, sheep and even llamas. I note that ducks are good for keeping insects under control, which is one aspect of permaculture, where the farm is an organic integrated holistic system.

Finally, the book covers crafts such as making candles, pottery and knitting, standard material, but modern women are probably lacking in these skills.

The much larger, Back to Basics book covers all of these topics and more, this time being more geared to having a larger expands of land. Part one discusses the nature of a suitable property and building dwellings on it, including a log cabin, or making a dwelling out of stones in the area. The efficient use of fuels to keep these houses warm is discussed in part two, not just solar and the more technical solutions, but using wood efficiently too.

The middle section of the book deals with growing food, and keeping animals. Part four has a good coverage of methods of preserving produce.

Finally, as is common in these types of books, there is a large section devoted to skills and crafts, including spinning, weaving, rug making, quilting, and stuff for the menfolk, such as tanning and leatherwork, metalworking and woodworking. 

This would be a very good book to have in hardcover, as it is packed with details and would be an excellent, no nonsense reference book. It is 528 pages, with an excellent index, something many books in this genre lack, and has meaningful and beautiful photographs and illustrations. I imagine that someone who has retreated to their rural bug out location, or Sustainable Autonomous Base, to use John Steele’s terminology, could spend many a winter night by a wood fire, wrapped in a homemade quilt, pouring through this great book, maybe by oil light. It is certainly in my top five of alternative living books people should acquire, now before the lights go out, so to speak.