The Encyclopedia of Country Living By Mrs Vera West

The Encyclopedia of Country Living (2012), by Carla Emery, is one of those classic books, that one should get to have a copy and pass on, because nobody today is going to put in the body and soul effort to write such a book again. The book is the female mind’s complement to  John Seymour The New Complete Book of Self-Sufficiency, (2009),  and it begun its life at roughly the same time, going through numerous versions. It started as a series of sheets at the beginning of the US back to the land movement, and grew over the decades from there. Emery put her life into the book, and by the time of her death the book consisted of a large format three columns of 922 pages in print a bit hard for old timers like me to read, but I use a magnifying glass. The back story and life is fascinating including her marriage, and sad divorce, it is all in there. It is the story of a life of an extraordinary, ordinary lady.

We are presented with a comprehensive guide to all aspects of food production on a self-reliant farm. But there is much more in this towering narrative. There are fascinating discussions of giving birth by oneself, caring for the dead, making quilts and candlesticks and thousands of other things that women used to know about, but in the age of so-called liberation, do not.

This is definitely a woman’s approach to sustainable living, focussing on the home and living there rather than the more dramatic material John Steele has written about, such as bugging out, hunting, and self-protection. Cala left that for the men folk, and I am glad. This is one of my most read books, even using a magnifying glass, but really there is no other way to cram all of that information in there. Get this book please, for future generations, in paper. Preserve this heritage!