Add the best homesteading books to your home resource library. These books are invaluable for learning lost homesteading skills.
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Why you should collect homesteading books
With the age of the internet upon us, you may be wondering why anyone would even want to have a home library. For the homesteader, having a physical resource library is just a part of the lifestyle. Once you know what homesteading is, it is time to dive deep in building homesteading skills! In the event of power outage or inability to access the web for any reason, having a place that can provide valuable insight into how to do the next thing is priceless.
With so many great books, it is hard to narrow down which ones are right for you. This article is broken down into categories based on interest. We recommend you start with the area you are interested in learning about first. Check out the table of contents and click on a topic that interests you most to start building your home library!
Jump to the homesteading books you are most interested in (or keep scrolling)
- Beginner Homesteading
- Urban Homesteading
- Gardening
- Orchard Care
- Canning
- From Scratch Cookbooks
- Bread Baking
- Permaculture
- Animal Care
- Beekeeping
- General Food Preservation
- Fermenting
- Meat Preservation
- Cheesemaking
- Dehydrating
- Home brewing
- Winemaking
- Herbalism
- Foraging and Wild Foods
- Off-Grid Living
- Alternative Energy
- Hunting, Fishing, and Survival Skills
- Firearms and Ammunition
- HAM Radio
- Preparedness
Beginner Homesteading Books
1. Attainable Sustainable: The Lost Art of Self-Reliant Living by Kris Bordessa
This book offers DIY lovers an indispensable home reference for homesteading in the 21st century, with 50 yummy recipes, and step-by-step directions for creating easy, cost-efficient projects that will bring out your inner pioneer, including: making a sourdough baguette, from scratch hot sauce, and home preserving. It also includes handmade crafts like dyeing fabric, dipping candles, making your own natural home remedies, foraging for wild edibles, beekeeping, and cooking in cast iron! Essential gardening tips are also covered from growing an herb box to cultivating a fruit orchard and natural weed control.
2. Welcome to the Farm by Shaye Elliot
From her experience running The Elliott Homestead, Shaye provides all the how-to wisdom you need to know about: the benefits of a home garden, the basics of seed starting, building your own greenhouse, what belongs in the winter garden, canning, freezing, and dehydrating techniques, the pros and cons of caged vs. free-range chickens, keeping a dairy cow and what to do with all the milk, raising animals for meat, making your own cider and wine, and so much more!
3. The Encyclopedia of Country Living by Carla Emery
This is a best selling book for a reason! Carla Emery’s landmark book has grown into a comprehensive guide to living a self-sustaining lifestyle. Learn how to live independently in book, including how to: can, dry, and preserve food, plan your garden, grow your own food, make 20-minute cheese, make your own natural skincare products, bake bread, cook on a wood stove, learn beekeeping, raise chickens, goats, and pigs, create natural skincare products, make organic bug spray, treat your family with homemade remedies, make fruit leather, forage for wild food, spin wool into yarn, mill your own flour, tap a maple tree.
Urban homesteading books
4. Mini Farming: Self-Sufficiency on 1/4 Acre
Mini Farming describes a holistic approach to small-area farming that will show you how to produce 85 percent of an average family’s food on just a quarter acre—and earn $10,000 in cash annually while spending less than half the time that an ordinary job would require.
5. The Suburban Micro-Farm by Amy Stross
You’ll learn gardening tricks that are essential to success, like how to deal with a ‘brown thumb’, how to develop and nurture healthy soil, and how to manage garden pests.
6. Fresh Food from Small Spaces by R.J. Ruppenthal
Readers will learn how to transform their balconies and windowsills into productive vegetable gardens, their countertops and storage lockers into commercial-quality sprout and mushroom farms, and their outside nooks and crannies into whatever they can imagine, including sustainable nurseries for honeybees and chickens. Free space for the city gardener might be no more than a cramped patio, balcony, rooftop, windowsill, hanging rafter, dark cabinet, garage, or storage area, but no space is too small or too dark to raise food.
7. The Women’s Heritage Sourcebook by Ashley Moore
This book is great for go-to for tips on sustainable living, recipes, DIY products and more. The perfect book for incorporating the homesteading lifestyle into the urban environment or apartment living. This book is divided into three sections: food (from sourdough bread baking to pickling vegetables to fermenting kefir), herbalism (from growing an herbal garden to making skin and hair care products to foraging), and animal husbandry (from beekeeping to buying, raising, and owning chickens, cows, and pigs).
8. Simply Living Well: A Guide to Creating a Natural, Low-Waste Home by Julia Watkins
Julia shows you how to eliminate wasteful packaging, harmful ingredients, and disposable items. Practical checklists outline easy swaps and sustainable upgrades for common household tools and products. Some projects the book, include scrap apple cider vinegar, wool dryer balls, kitchen bowl covers and cloth produce bags, non-toxic dryer sheets, all-purpose citrus cleaner, herbal tinctures and balms. Plus recipes for package-free essentials like homemade nut milk, hummus, ketchup, salad dressings, and veggie stock.
Gardening Books
9. The Vegetable Gardener’s Bible by Edward C. Smith
This book is a classic and has been a favorite for years! Smith’s legendary high-yield gardening method emphasizes wide rows, organic methods, raised beds, and deep soil. This method transformed our gardening style. Succeed with fussy plants, try new and unusual varieties, and learn how to extend your growing season. The Vegetable Gardener’s Bible provides expert information and an inspiring roadmap for gardeners of all skill levels to enjoy abundant homegrown vegetables.
10. Epic Tomatoes by Craig LeHoullier
Craig LeHoullier provides everything a tomato enthusiast needs to know about growing more than 200 varieties of tomatoes, from planting to cultivating and collecting seeds at the end of the season. With beautiful photographs and intriguing tomato profiles throughout, Epic Tomatoes celebrates one of the most versatile and delicious crops in your garden.
11. The Family Garden Plan: Grow a Year’s Worth of Sustainable and Healthy Food by Melissa K. Norris
The Family garden plan will walk you through each step of the process, from planning your food crops and garden space to harvesting and preserving the food you grow. Even intermediate to experienced gardeners will discover dozens of new ideas.
12. The New Seed-Starters Handbook by Nancy Bubel
For the most complete, up-to-date information on starting plants from seed, turn to The New Seed-Starter’s Handbook. Written by a gardener with 30 years of experience, this updated, easy-to-use reference explains everything you need to know to start seeds and raise healthy seedlings successfully.
13. The Resilient Gardener by Carol Deppe
The Resilient Gardener is both a conceptual and a hands-on organic gardening book, and is suitable for vegetable gardeners at all levels of experience. It is a supremely optimistic as well as realistic book about how resilient gardeners and their vegetable gardens can flourish even in challenging times and help their communities to survive and thrive through everything that comes their way.
14. Gardening When It Counts by Steve Solomon
In hard times, the family can be greatly helped by growing a highly productive food garden, requiring little cash outlay or watering. This book shows that any family with access to 3-5,000 sq. ft. of garden land can halve their food costs using a growing system requiring just the odd bucketful of household waste water, perhaps two hundred dollars’ worth of hand tools.
15. Will Bonsall’s Essential Guide to Radical, Self-Reliant Gardening by Will Bonsall
Bonsall draws upon the fertility of on-farm plant materials: compost, green manures, perennial grasses, and forest products like leaves and ramial wood chips. And he grows and harvests a diversity of crops from both cultivated and perennial plants: vegetables, grains, pulses, oilseeds, fruits and nuts―even uncommon but useful permaculture plants like groundnut. Inside you will find information on milling, baking and sprouting, freezing and vermentation, best practices to handle plant disease and animal pests, collecting and storing seeds.
16. The Seed Garden: The Art and Practice of Seed Saving by Lee Buttala
Whether interested in simply saving seeds for home use or working to conserve rare varieties of beloved squashes and tomatoes, this book provides a deeper understanding of the art, the science, and the joy of saving seeds.
Orchard Care Books
17. The Fruit Gardener’s Bible by Lewis Hill
Enjoy bushels of crispy apples and baskets of juicy blueberries from your own backyard. Authors Lewis Hill and Leonard Perry provide everything you need to know to successfully grow delicious organic fruit at home, from choosing the best varieties for your area to planting, pruning, and harvesting a bountiful crop. With tips on cultivating strawberries, raspberries, grapes, pears, peaches, and more, this essential reference guide will inspire year after year of abundantly fruitful gardening.
Canning books
18. Better Homes and Gardens You Can Can
All the basics are covered, from hot water baths and freezing techniques to food safety information and clever ideas for making gifts from your preserves. With a wide variety of recipes and step-by-step instruction, this book is clear and straightforward enough for any inspired do-it-yourselfer.
19. Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving by Judi Kingry
Ball Home Canning Products are the gold standard in home preserving supplies, the trademark jars on display in stores every summer from coast to coast. This companion to their products is this bible of home preserving from the experts on the practice which has sold more than a million copies!
20. Ball Canning Back to Basics
Learn to capture the sweet, ripe flavors of your favorite fruits and vegetables with 100 approachable, versatile recipes for the modern pantry. Packed with simple variation ideas for low-sugar and flavor change-ups, and time-tested tips from the most trusted authority in home canning, this handy guide delivers everything you need to successfully master home canning safely and deliciously.
21.Canning for a New Generation by Liana Krissoff
Krissoff addresses special diet concerns with recipes for low-sugar or sugar-free preserves, as well as methods for canning jams and preserves without pectin. In addition to canning recipes, there are old-style fermenting recipes, new freezing techniques, and recipes on how to use your canned goods to make delicious meals once you’ve put them up.
22. So Easy To Preserve by The Georgia University Extension
A comprehensive guide to all the nationally tested canning recipes, including some that are just not available anywhere else! More comprehensive than the “complete” guide listed above. Hard to find online, but sometimes it’s available used.
23. Pressure Canning for Beginners and Beyond by Angi Schneider
This trusty, all-in-one handbook, packed with information and recipes, is one you will return to again and again as you create your very own self-sufficient pantry.
24. Food in Jars: Preserving in Small Batches Year-Round
Sample any of the 100 seasonal recipes: In the spring, apricot jam and rhubarb syrup. Summer, blueberry butter and peach salsa. Fall, dilly beans and spicy pickled cauliflower. Winter, three-citrus marmalade and cranberry ketchup.
25. The Jam and Marmalade Bible by Jan Hedh
Delight and inspire your loved ones with homemade gifts at the holidays and fill your home with delicious preserves all year round with the help of this photographed guide. Great for both beginners and expert jam makers looking for fresh, exciting ideas, The Jam and Marmalade Bible deserves a place in every kitchen.
26. Naturally Sweet Food in Jars by Marisa McClellan
After years of addressing questions reducing sugar, substituting sugar, and leaving it out altogether, author Marisa McClellan began to rejigger her recipes, helping her home canners enjoy the flavors of the season without the refined sugars.
From Scratch Cookbooks
27. Joy of Cooking
This new edition of Joy is the perfect combination of classic recipes, new dishes, and indispensable reference information for today’s home cooks. Whether it is the only cookbook on your shelf or one of many, Joy is and has been the essential and trusted guide for home cooks for almost a century. This new edition continues that legacy.
28. Cook’s Illustrated Cookbook
The Cook’s Illustrated Cookbook is also an authoritative cooking reference with clear hand-drawn illustrations for preparing the perfect omelet, carving a turkey, removing meat from lobsters, frosting a layer cake, shaping sandwich bread, and more.
29. Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book
Clear directions and how-to photos teach techniques; identification photos clarify the broad range of today’s ingredients; charts for meat and poultry give at-a-glance cooking times; and “cheat sheets” throughout present information in easy-to-access bites.
Bread Baking Cookbooks
30. The King Arthur Baking Company’s All-Purpose Baker’s Companion
Comprehensive in scope, authoritative in style, and offering clear, practical, and encouraging instruction, The King Arthur Baking Company’s All-Purpose Baker’s Companion is the one book you’ll turn to every time you bake.
31. Flour Water Salt Yeast by Ken Forkish
Flour Water Salt Yeast is an indispensable resource for bakers who want to make their daily bread exceptional bread.
32. The Bread Baker’s Apprentice by Peter Reinhart
For the professional as well as the home cook, this book is one of the essentials for a bread baker’s collection!
33. Whole Grain Breads by Peter Reinhart
Introductory chapters provide a tutorial, with step-by-step photographs, of the delayed fermentation method that is at the heart of these recipes, as well as a crash course in baking science, discussions of grains other than wheat, and more.
34. The Sourdough School by Vanessa Kimbell
From creating your own starter from scratch, you’ll then move on to basic breadmaking techniques, before progressing to using sprouted grains and experimenting with flavors to produce Fig and Earl Grey and Cherry Plum loaves.
Permaculture Books
35. Farming the Woods by Kevin Mudge
This book is a must-read for farmers and gardeners interested in incorporating aspects of agroforestry, permaculture, forest gardening, and sustainable woodlot management into the concept of a whole-farm organism.
36. Edible Forest Gardens Vol. 1 & 2
Edible Forest Gardens is a groundbreaking two-volume work that spells out and explores the key concepts of forest ecology and applies them to the needs of natural gardeners in temperate climates.
37. Perennial Vegetables by Eric Toensmeier
Profiling more than 100 species, illustrated with dozens of color photographs and illustrations, and filled with valuable growing tips, recipes, and resources, Perennial Vegetables is a groundbreaking and ground-healing book that will open the eyes of gardeners everywhere to the exciting world of edible perennials.
38. The Permaculture Handbook by Peter Bane
The Permaculture Handbook is the definitive, practical North American guide to this revolutionary practice, and is a must-read for anyone concerned about creating food security, resilience and a legacy of abundance rather than depletion.
Animal Care Books
39. The Homesteader’s Natural Chicken Keeping Handbook
This is heritage chicken keeping skills 101, with a modern twist. Not only will you gain knowledge about naturally keeping chickens through every stage of their lives, but you’ll fully embrace the joy and ease of raising all-natural chickens on your homestead.
40. Storey’s Guide to Raising Chickens by Gail Damerow
You’ll get the most up-to-date details on shelter, food, health care, eggs, chicks, and meat, and recent research into chicken behavior and communication makes the sections on flock management truly authoritative.
41. Storey’s Guide to Raising Ducks by Dave Holderread
Whether you’re about to acquire your first ducks or are interested in experimenting with rare breeds, Storey’s Guide to Raising Ducks will help you achieve your duck-raising goals.
42. Storey’s Guide to Raising Pigs by Kelly Klober
Both beginners and experienced farmers will find all the information they need to select, house, care for, breed, and butcher pigs, along with marketing advice.
43. Storey’s Guide to Raising Sheep by Paula Simmons
Detailed instructions and graphics lead readers through every essential procedure, including shearing, building a lambing shed, breeding and lambing, butchering, and marketing.
44. Storey’s Guide to Raising Dairy Goats by Jerry Belanger
In-depth sections explain every aspect of milking, including necessary equipment, proper hand-milking techniques, and handling and storing the milk.
45. Storey’s Guide to Raising Meat Goats by Maggie Sayer
Discover how raising your own meat goats can be a fun and profitable endeavor. Offering plenty of tips for creating an economically viable operation and identifying niche markets for your products, Storey’s Guide to Raising Meat Goats shows you how to care for a thriving and productive herd full of healthy and happy animals.
46. Storey’s Guide to Raising Beef Cattle by Heather Smith Thomas
Whether a farmer is raising one cow or a herd, Storey’s Guide to Raising Beef Cattle is the most reliable reference for ensuring a successful, healthy cattle operation.
47. Storey’s Guide to Raising Rabbits by Bob Bennett
Whether you’re interested in raising rabbits for show, meat, fur, or as pets, this comprehensive guide offers expert advice on breed selection, housing, feeding, humane handling, and more. In addition, author Bob Bennett includes the most up-to-date information on preventive health care, treating diseases, marketing, and showing.
Beekeeping Books
48. Natural Beekeeping by Ross Conrad
Ross Conrad brings together the best “do no harm” strategies for keeping honeybees healthy and productive with nontoxic methods of controlling mites; eliminating American foulbrood disease without the use of antibiotics; selective breeding for naturally resistant bees; and many other detailed management techniques, which are covered in a thoughtful, matter-of-fact way.
49. The Lives of Bees by Thomas D. Seeley
The Lives of Bees reveals how we can become better custodians of honey bees and make use of their resources in ways that enrich their lives as well as our own.
Food preservation books
50. The Home Preserving Bible Carol Cancler
The Home Preserving Bible thoroughly details every type of preserving-for both small and large batches-with clear, step-by-step instructions. An explanation of all the necessary equipment and safety precautions is covered as well.
51. Stocking Up by Carol Hupping
With more than 300 recipes for preservable foods—from old standards like casseroles, fruit leather, and ice cream to new favorites such as sun-dried tomatoes, herb vinegars, and salt- and sugar-free versions of basic fare, Stocking Up covers everything for the home cook. Hundreds of charts and illustrations simplify preserving chores and choices for everyone interested in stocking up on wholesome, natural foods.
52. Preserving Food without Freezing or Canning
Inside, you’ll learn how to: preserve without nutrient loss, preserve by drying, preserve with oil, vinegar, salt, and sugar, make sweet-and-sour preserves, preserve with alcohol.
53. Root Cellaring Mike and Nancy Bubel
This informative and inspiring guide shows you not only how to construct your own root cellar, but how to best use the earth’s naturally cool, stable temperature as an energy-saving way to store nearly 100 varieties of perishable fruits and vegetables.
54. Pickled, Potted, and Canned by Sue Shephard
From the primitive techniques of drying and salting to the latest methods that have allowed us to feed men in space, Pickled, Potted, and Canned gives us fascinating insights into the histories, cultures, and ingenuity of people inventing new ways to “cheat the seasons.”
Fermenting books
55. Mastering Fermentation by Mary Karlin
Mastering Fermentation is a beautifully illustrated and authoritative guide to the art and science of fermented foods, featuring more than seventy recipes that allow you to progress from simple fermented condiments like vinegars and mustards to more advanced techniques for using wild yeast starters, fermenting meats, and curing fish.
56. Wild Fermentation by Sandor Ellix Katz
Wild Fermentation has inspired people to turn their kitchens into food labs: fermenting vegetables into sauerkraut, milk into cheese or yogurt, grains into sourdough bread, and much more!
57. The Art of Fermentation by Sandor Ellix Katz
The original guide to kraut, kombucha, kimchi, kefir, and kvass; mead, wine, and cider; pickles and relishes; tempeh, koji, miso, sourdough and so much more…!
58. Fermented Vegetables by Christopher Shockey
Master the techniques for making sauerkraut, kimchi, pickles, and other savory, probiotic-rich foods in your own kitchen.This easy-to-follow, comprehensive guide presents more than 120 recipes for fermenting 64 different vegetables and herbs.
59. The Noma Guide to Fermentation by René Redzepi
The Noma Guide to Fermentation takes readers far beyond the typical kimchi and sauerkraut to include koji, kombuchas, shoyus, misos, lacto-ferments, vinegars, garums, and black fruits and vegetables. And—perhaps even more important—it shows how to use these game-changing pantry ingredients in more than 100 original recipes.
60. Wildcrafted Fermentation by Pascal Baudar
Adventurous and creative, this cookbook will help you rewild your probiotic palate and “create a cuisine unique to you and your environment.”
61. The Art of Making Fermented Sausages by Stanley and Adam Marianski
The majority of books written on making sausages do not tackle the subject of fermented sausages at all. The topic is limited to a statement that this is an advanced field of sausage making which is not recommended for an amateur sausage maker.
Meat Preservation books
62. Buck, Buck, Moose by Hank Shaw
This book is the first comprehensive, lushly photographed, full-color guide to working with and cooking all forms of venison, including deer, elk, moose, antelope and caribou. Buck, Buck, Moose will take you around the world, from nose to tail. The book features more than 100 recipes ranging from traditional dishes from six continents to original recipes never before seen.
63. The MeatEater Fish and Game Cookbook by Steven Rinella
When Steven Rinella hears from fans of his MeatEater show and podcast, it’s often requests for more recipes. One of the most respected and beloved hunters in America, Rinella is also an accomplished wild game cook, and he offers recipes here that range from his takes on favorite staples to more surprising and exotic meals. This cookbook features unique recipes for: big game, small game, waterfowl, upland birds, freshwater fish, and salt water fish.
64. Venison: The Slay to Gourmet Field to Kitchen Cookbook by Jon Wipfli
Wipfli describes and illustrates the breakdown of a deer, focusing on the fronts, middles, and rears before proceeding to more specific cuts like sirloins, shanks, ribs, loins, roasts, sausage scraps, and more. Whether the reader has been hunting for two years or for thirty, there’s a good chance they’ve never approached processing by muscle groups.
65. The River Cottage Curing and Smoking Handbook
In true River Cottage form, this accessible, compact guide is bursting with essential information for sourcing, butchering, smoking, and curing the whole hog, cow, chicken, fish, and vegetable.
66. Charcuterie: The Craft of Salting, Smoking, and Curing by Michael Ruhlman
Thoroughly instructive and fully illustrated, this updated edition includes seventy-five detailed line drawings that guide the reader through all the techniques. With new recipes and revised sections to reflect the best equipment available today, Charcuterie: Revised and Updated remains the undisputed authority on charcuterie.
67. A Guide to Canning, Freezing, Curing & Smoking Meat, Fish & Game Wilbur F. Eastman
This no-nonsense reference book covers all the major meat preserving techniques and how to best implement them. You’ll learn how to corn beef, pickle tripe, smoke sausage, cure turkey, and much more, all without using harsh chemicals.
68. The River Cottage Meat Book by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall
Two parts guide to choosing and storing meats and fowl; and three parts techniques and recipes for roasting, cooking, barbecuing, preserving, and processing meats and getting the most out of leftovers.
Cheesemaking books
69. Home Cheese Making by Ricki Carroll
Companion recipes are included for cheese plate condiments and classic cheese dishes. For cheese lovers wanting to make their own, Ricki Carroll’s expert advice is the key to success.
70. Artisan Cheese Making at Home by Mary Karlin
Artisan Cheese Making at Home is the most ambitious and comprehensive guide to home cheese making, filled with easy-to-follow instructions for making mouthwatering cheese and dairy items.
71. The Art of Natural Cheesemaking by David Asher
The Art of Natural Cheesemaking is the first cheesemaking book to take a political stance against Big Dairy and to criticize both standard industrial and artisanal cheesemaking practices.
72. Mastering Artisan Cheesemaking by Gianaclis Caldwell
Let Gianaclis Caldwell be your mentor, guide, and cheering section as you follow the pathway to a mastery of cheesemaking. For the avid home hobbyist to the serious commercial artisan, Mastering Artisan Cheesemaking is an irreplaceable resource.
Dehydrating books
73. Preserve It Naturally: A Complete Guide to Food Dehydration by Gianaclis Caldwell
Everything you wanted to know about dehydration and more can be found in this informative book. Chapters on fruits, vegetables, meats, fish, herbs, nuts, grains, dairy products, crafts, cake decorating, potpourri, sachets, macrame beads, dough art, wreaths, raw and living foods and much more.
74. Complete Dehydrator Cookbook by Carole Cancler
The Complete Dehydrator Cookbook is your all-in-one guide to easy, affordable home drying, pairing delicious dehydrated foods with easy-to-navigate guidance to get you drying in no time.
75. Pantry Stuffers Rehydration Calculations Made Easy by Wanda Bailey Clark
Tables for U.S. and metric measurements take the guesswork out of how much water and how much product to add when substituting dehydrated, freeze-dried, and powdered products in your favorite recipes.
Homebrewing books
76. The Complete Joy of Homebrewing by Charlie Papazian
Everything to get started is here: the basics of building a home brewery, world-class proven recipes, easy-to-follow instructions, and the latest advancements in brewing.
77. How to Brew by John Palmer
Everything needed to brew beer right the first time. Presented in a light-hearted style without frivolous interruptions, this authoritative text introduces brewing in a easy step-by-step review.
Winemaking books
78. The Home Winemaker’s Companion by Ed Halloran
This informative guide provides an overview the entire home winemaking process, from the vine (or the boxed kit) to your glass. With more than 100 recipes for a wide range of delicious wines, ports, and champagnes, you’re sure to find a wine to suit your taste.
79. The Joy of Home Wine Making by Terry Garey
Whether you prefer your wine dry of slightly sweet, The Joy of Home Winemaking has all the information you need to go from casual connoisseur to expert home vintner in no time.
Herbalism books
80. Herbal Antibiotics by Stephen Harrod Buhner
With antibiotic-resistant infections on the rise, herbal remedies present a naturally effective alternative to standard antibiotics. Herbal expert Stephen Harrod Buhner explains the roots of antibiotic resistance, explores the value of herbal treatments, and provides in-depth profiles of 30 valuable plants, noting the proper dosages, potential side effects, and contraindications of each.
81. The Comprehensive Guide to Herbalism for Beginners by Ava Green
Written for beginners and experts alike, this comprehensive bundle from herbal mentor Ava Green, you’ll learn: how to grow your own herbs in all 13 climate zones, how to make your emergency herbal first aid kit, how to identify over 40 different herbs in the wild and extract their essence, a complete chronological breakdown of herbal medicine, taking you from seed to medicine, a list of herbs that lets you find your herbs alphabetically, a what to use for that’ section which lets you look up illnesses fast, simple explanations of gardening, herbal, and medical terms, beautiful black and white illustrations to maximize visual learning, how to make safe, trusted tinctures, poultices, ointments, creams and more that will heal and strengthen YOU and YOUR family.
82. The Big Book of Herbal Medicine by Tina Sams
What sets this herbal medicine book apart: Survey of herbal medicine—Whether you’re new to herbalism or a dedicated practitioner, enjoy a comprehensive overview that covers all important aspects of medicinal herbs such as energetics, dosage, and must-have tools. 90 herb profiles—Explore the healing properties, safety considerations, and preparations of 90 herbs that are simple to source, from aloe to yarrow. 300 natural remedies—Address a wide range of physical, emotional, and skin-related issues with hundreds of easy-to-follow recipes for salves, balms, syrups, teas, and more.
Foraging and Wild Food Books
83. Identifying and Harvesting Edible and Medicinal Plants in Wild
There are literally hundreds of plants readily available underfoot waiting to be harvested and used either as food or as a potential therapeutic. This book is both a field guide to nature’s bounty and a source of intriguing information about the plants that surround us.
84. The Forager’s Guide to Wild Foods by Claude Davis
This is an essential book for learning to forage wild mushrooms, seaweed, lichens, and, plants. A reference book with pictures which helps with plant identification. This guide has lots of detailed information and is easy to understand for the beginning forager.
85. Southwest Foraging by John Slattery
The plant profiles in Southwest Foraging include clear, color photographs, identification tips, guidance on how to ethically harvest, and suggestions for eating and preserving. A handy seasonal planner details which plants are available during every season. Thorough, comprehensive, and safe, this is a must-have for foragers in Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, southern Utah, and southern Nevada.
86. Mushrooms: How to Identify and Gather Wild Mushrooms and Other Fungi by DK
This beautifully illustrated guide contains everything you need to help you on your next foraging adventure. Here’s what you can expect: Insightful information you need to identify over 450 species of fungi from all around the world, clear photographs of each kind of mushroom and its cross-sections are accompanied by annotations and descriptions, along with scale illustrations and identification charts , learn about the different anatomical sections and features of fungi, then categorize and identify your own foraging finds through extensive, but easy-to-use, visual ID guides , key information on habitat, fruiting, and which types of mushrooms are poisonous and which are edible.
87. Medicinal Plants of the Western Mountain States by Charles W. Kane
Inhabitants of the greater Rocky Mountain Corridor (Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, Wyoming, Idaho, and Montana) along with readers whom live in proximity to the Basin and Range/higher outlier mountains of Arizona, Nevada, California, Oregon, and Washington will derive the most from this guide. Essentially, if there is snow accumulation in the winter, and mountains, conifers, and Aspen are in the area, then this book will be of value.
Off-Grid Living Books
88. The Doable Off-Grid Homestead by Shannon Stonger
You’ll learn how to build inexpensive infrastructure, harness energy from the sun, manage an off-grid home, grow vegetables in tough conditions, preserve the harvest, build an earthbag root cellar, raise beginner’s livestock and so much more.
89. Creating Your Off-Grid Homestead by Teri Page
It contains equal parts practical information, encouragement, and radical homesteading inspiration. I will share with you how our family created an off-grid homestead from scratch, working in phases, and adding projects and infrastructure as we had time and money.
Alternative Energy books
90. Alternative Energy Secrets by Stephen D. Chastain
Alternative Energy Secrets focuses on overlooked fuels. A must have for alternative energy users.
91. Generators and Inverters by Stephen D. Chastain
The most complete small generator book reference and how-to; book available. Not only does Steve answer your questions, he converts an auto engine into a powerplant that runs his whole house and heats his pool!
92. Wood Gasifier Builder’s Bible by Ben Peterson
The Wood Gasifier Builder’s Bible is a complete set of construction plans to build a wood gasifier with step by step schematics and hundreds of pictures, part lists, budgets, material selection and much more.
Hunting, Fishing and Survival Skills Books
93. Tracking and the Art of Seeing by Paul Rezendes
Tracking & the Art of Seeing provides complete information on the behavior and habitat of over 50 animal species and shows you how to identify animals by their tracks, tail patterns, droppings, dens, scratches and other signs.
Firearms and Ammunition books
94. Practical Shooting : Beyond Fundamentals by Tom McHale
In this book, you’ll learn how to recognize and break down the barriers that are limiting your performance—you may begin to look at shooting in an entirely different way. You’ll learn to pressure-proof your match performance, how different types of shooting require different focal points, and you’ll see how to develop an attitude that will let you reach beyond what you thought was your potential.
95. Long Range Shooting Handbook
The author has a series of online instructional videos known for their ability to take seemingly complex areas of long range shooting and breaking them down so that they’re easy to understand. This book was motivated by the feedback from those videos.
96. The Practical Guide to Reloading Ammunition
The Practical Guide to Reloading Ammunition will help readers understand the gear they need – and what can wait. Chapter by chapter, the book explains the entire process from brass cleaning to final inspection. Loaded with pictures and illustrations, the process is made simple and clear. With this book, readers will be reloading their own cost-effective ammunition quickly and safely.
HAM Radio Books
97. ARRL Handbook
This handbook for Radio Communications is your complete guide to radio experimentation, discovery, and innovation. It is the Handbook — written by radio amateurs for everyone with a desire to advance the pursuit of wireless technology.
98. The ARRL Ham Radio License Manual
Use this book with ARRL’s Online Exam Review for Ham Radio to review the study material chapter by chapter. Take randomly generated practice exams using questions from the actual examination pool. You won’t have any surprises on exam day!
Preparedness & Survival Books
99. Emergency War Surgery by Department of the Army
This handbook provides much of the information needed to tackle these issues and features state-of-the-art principles and practices of forward trauma surgery as used by military physicians in far flung locations around the globe. Subjects include: hemorrhage control, shock and resuscitation, vascular, access, anesthesia, face and neck injuries, thoracic injuries, wounds and injuries of the spinal column and cord, amputation, radiological Injuries, biological warfare agent, chemical injuries.
100. Bushcraft 101: A Field Guide to the Art of Wilderness Survival by Dave Canterbury
Written by survivalist expert Dave Canterbury, Bushcraft 101 gets you ready for your next backcountry trip with advice on making the most of your time outdoors. Based on the 5Cs of Survivability–cutting tools, covering, combustion devices, containers, and cordages–this valuable guide offers only the most important survival skills to help you craft resources from your surroundings and truly experience the beauty and thrill of the wilderness. Inside, you’ll also discover detailed information on: choosing the right items for your kit, manufacturing needed tools and supplies, collecting and cooking food, protecting yourself from the elements.
101. 100 Deadly Skills: The SEAL Operative’s Guide to Eluding Pursuers, Evading Capture, and Surviving Any Dangerous Situation by Clint Emerson
100 Deadly Skills contains proven self-defense skills, evasion tactics, and immobilizing maneuvers—modified from the world of black ops—to help you take action in numerous “worst case” scenarios from escaping a locked trunk, to making an improvised Taser, to tricking facial recognition software.
If liked this homesteading books article, you may also like:
Homesteading for Beginners (What you Actually Need to Know)
Homeschooling for Homesteaders
30 Ways to Lead a Slow Living Lifestyle
How to Be More Self Sufficient
How to Stay Motivated on the Homestead
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