The Urban Homestead: A Review

The Urban Homestead: Your Guide to Self-Sufficient Living in the Heart of the City by Kelly Coyne and Erik Knutzen is 318 pages packed full of wonderfully inspiring information. The book started out with a section on home gardening, and honestly, I was a little bored. Not that it was bad, but I have just read several books on a similar topic and I already do quite a bit of gardening at home. So reading about it wasn't thrilling, and although there were a couple of snippets of new information (like that families of plants use up different nutrients at different rates), but mostly, it was a lot of information that I am already living and breathing.
However, towards the middle of the book there was a section entitled "Revolutionary Home Economics" that I found chock full of great ideas. Some of their preservation techniques that I really want to try include lacto-fermentation, pickling, making vinegars, making ricotta cheese, homemade butters, and country wines (like dandelion wine). There is also an entire section on water and power, both how to reduce your consumption and how to get your own. I thought it was pretty inspiring.
As an overall package, this is probably the best intro to homesteading book that I have read, especially because it is for urbanites (like myself, at least until we can move to a farm!). The ideas in this book are really practical for someone living on a small plot of land. I think that anyone trying to start their own mini-homestead in the middle of a city should get their hands on this one and give it a read. I know that I will be putting it to some use this summer! Pin It Now!