The The New Complete Book of Self-Sufficiency: The Classic Guide for Realists and Dreamers

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Winemaking can be just as technical as home brew beer, and depends even more on the quality of the ingredients. Here in the UK, the average citizen consumes more than they produce, and some goods and services are seen as essential and impossible for us to create ourselves. The Home Winemakers Companion by Ed Halloran ~ The best all around manual I’ve found for making fruit wines. He covers techniques for grape wines as well as country wine with other fruits, and many of my winemaking recipes are adapted from this book (including this recipe for blueberry wine).

Be aware that dehydrating is a bit different than freeze drying food, which requires a different freeze drying appliance. Sadly, there aren’t any good books on freeze drying, but the machines come with good home manuals. The Lives of Bees: The Untold Story of the Honeybee in the Wild by Thomas Seeley ~ This is not a beekeeping manual, but rather a natural history book that discusses how bees live in the wild. None the less, it’s been by far the most useful beekeeping book on my shelf. It has allowed me to understand what bees really want/need and how to tend them in a natural, treatment free way that’s closest to their wild habitat.

Books for Self Reliance

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First Edition. By subscription only, arriving in 4 consecutive shipments, mimeographed on Fibertint; 875 copies finished about March 1, 1974. What do you get when you cross a New York City journalist with a purist organic farmer? Disaster in the most delicious ways! The Jam and Marmalade Bible ~ Written using the European school of preservation. Less a “canning” book, and more a really detailed technique book for making spectacular preserves. They’re a good way to find new plants, and with recipes, they really inspire you to get out there and find the wild foods.

I’ll be honest, I’ve found very few good preparedness books. If you really want a “preparedness book” then what you actually need is more or less this whole library. Wild Fermentation by Sandor Ellix Katz ~ The initial guide that started the modern fermented food revolution. There’s a lot of discussion covering the benefits of fermented food, as they were still uncommon on modern tables when this was written. Solar energy is a renewable source of energy that can be used to power homes, businesses and even entire countries. What I really love about this book though is that Sepp Holzer is a guy who tells it like it is. He doesn’t try to over-complicate his ideas. He makes permaculture real and simple in a way that more complicated manuals sometimes miss. If you have any inkling of an interest in permaculture-style homesteading, this book will win you over with its beauty, simplicity, and common sense approach.

Preserving with Pomona’s Pectin ~ A specific guide to working with pomonas “low sugar or no sugar” pectin. A great resource if you’re avoiding processed sugar.Rye from the Water's Edge (1996). Rye: Academic Inn Books. (with illustrations by Connie Lindquist) Believe it or not, charcuterie is another form of lacto-fermentation and with a little dedication you can craft your own prosciutto, pancetta and salami at home. The Joy of Home Winemakingby Terry Garey ~ A bit more conversational and less technical than The Home Winemakers Companion, this one might be more accessible to the casual winemaker. It has hundreds of recipes, far more than any other winemaking book I’ve seen. It also has some of the most creative recipes by far. Updated Tenth Edition. Coinciding with the fortieth anniversary of the book’s beginning, all resource information has been brought up to date. The relationship between self-sufficiency and sustainable living is clear; by becoming more self-sufficient, individuals can reduce their dependence on external sources, consequently reducing their environmental impact.