Books on Self Sustainable Living

[johnboyncsu]

Can anyone recommend a book on self sustainable living?  I would like to have a good refrence book on how peope in rural areas did things around the farm prior to all of the modern conviences of today.  How did they preserve different types of food, cure meat, etc.  A few books that I have come across are listed below but I am interested in suggestions prior to ordering one of these.

Country Wisdom & Know How
Basic Country Skills: A Practical Guide to Self-Reliance
When Technology Fails

[Badnews Bob]

Foxfire sieres of books and Mother earth news magazine are good sources.

[Cornbelt]

"Mortons Home Meat Curing Guide". "Home Canning and Cooking" put out by Wisconsin Aluminum Foundry Co., Inc. (Tells different canning methods; tin cans, jars, water bath, pressure cooking, etc.) Kerr and Ball also have booklets.

[zeke08]

Look at backwoodsman mag they have awesome articles and backwoods lore and they sell some very good books on self sustainable living through backwoods mercantile. Hope this helps

[Winter Hawk]

Look for some of Bradford Angier's books.  The libraries all seem to have gotten rid of them, but there is a wealth of information in his books if you can find them.  Check the library also for books on canning and food preservation.  We are redoing the floor in our spare room which also has the book shelves, so our books are piled hither and yon and I can't look up titles for you at this time.  I'll do so later, though.

-Winter Hawk-

[vacek]

THe USDA puts out an ag book every year or so.  Back in the 70's or 80's they put out a great book called "Living on a Few Acres".  A lot of good information, it gets into the advantages and disadvantages.

The key to self sustainable living is to start now doing what you can and increase your sustainability while you learn more and get better skills. 

In my mind the first step is not buying a lot of prepared food.  Learn to eat about 80% of your calories on basic commodity foodstuffs.  Example, instead of buying chicken cut up for you, you can buy it at 1/2 or 1/3 the price as a whole hen.  Cut it up yourself.  Boil and mash your own potatoes.  Make your own pot of beans.  Try gardening and if you are able learn to make meat with fishing, small game hunting, and then hunting large game.

[don heath]

Shifts and Expedients of camp life and Travel - By W. Lord and T. Baines

The two were great explorers of the mid 1850's- Africa, the Arctic, India, Australia...Thier book is still the standard reference in the old 'empire'  on 'how to get by' in the wilderness- see reprints are available.

[deadrabbit]

Boy those are some great suggestions. 

Try to find the older Mother Earth News Mags cuz they are a lot better than the newer ones.  Ebay is about the only place to find the old ones.

Backwoods Home is another good magazine.  Their website and forum are pretty good too.

[Yankee1]

Go to this URL copy it and bookmark the URL the articles are free.
http://www.backwoodshome.com/article_index.html