The Urban Homestead (Expanded & Revised Edition): Your Guide to Self-Sufficient Living in the Heart of the City
The expanded, updated version of the best-selling classic, with a dozen new projects.

"A delightfully readable and very useful guide to front- and back-yard vegetable gardening, food foraging, food preserving, chicken keeping, and other useful skills for anyone interested in taking a more active role in growing and preparing the food they eat."—BoingBoing.net

"...the contemporary bible on the subject."—The New York Times

This celebrated, essential handbook shows how to grow and preserve your own food, clean your house without toxins, raise chickens, gain energy independence, and more. Step-by-step projects, tips, and anecdotes will help get you started homesteading immediately. The Urban Homestead is also a guidebook to the larger movement and will point you to the best books and Internet resources on self-sufficiency topics.

Written by city dwellers for city dwellers, this copiously illustrated, two-color instruction book proposes a paradigm shift that will improve our lives, our community, and our planet. By growing our own food and harnessing natural energy, we are planting seeds for the future of our cities.

Learn how to:

  • Grow food on a patio or balcony
  • Preserve or ferment food and make yogurt and cheese
  • Compost with worms
  • Keep city chickens
  • Divert your grey water to your garden
  • Clean your house without toxins
  • Guerilla garden in public spaces
  • Create the modern homestead of your dreams

1101061049
The Urban Homestead (Expanded & Revised Edition): Your Guide to Self-Sufficient Living in the Heart of the City
The expanded, updated version of the best-selling classic, with a dozen new projects.

"A delightfully readable and very useful guide to front- and back-yard vegetable gardening, food foraging, food preserving, chicken keeping, and other useful skills for anyone interested in taking a more active role in growing and preparing the food they eat."—BoingBoing.net

"...the contemporary bible on the subject."—The New York Times

This celebrated, essential handbook shows how to grow and preserve your own food, clean your house without toxins, raise chickens, gain energy independence, and more. Step-by-step projects, tips, and anecdotes will help get you started homesteading immediately. The Urban Homestead is also a guidebook to the larger movement and will point you to the best books and Internet resources on self-sufficiency topics.

Written by city dwellers for city dwellers, this copiously illustrated, two-color instruction book proposes a paradigm shift that will improve our lives, our community, and our planet. By growing our own food and harnessing natural energy, we are planting seeds for the future of our cities.

Learn how to:

  • Grow food on a patio or balcony
  • Preserve or ferment food and make yogurt and cheese
  • Compost with worms
  • Keep city chickens
  • Divert your grey water to your garden
  • Clean your house without toxins
  • Guerilla garden in public spaces
  • Create the modern homestead of your dreams

19.95 In Stock
The Urban Homestead (Expanded & Revised Edition): Your Guide to Self-Sufficient Living in the Heart of the City

The Urban Homestead (Expanded & Revised Edition): Your Guide to Self-Sufficient Living in the Heart of the City

The Urban Homestead (Expanded & Revised Edition): Your Guide to Self-Sufficient Living in the Heart of the City

The Urban Homestead (Expanded & Revised Edition): Your Guide to Self-Sufficient Living in the Heart of the City

Paperback(Revised Edition)

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Overview

The expanded, updated version of the best-selling classic, with a dozen new projects.

"A delightfully readable and very useful guide to front- and back-yard vegetable gardening, food foraging, food preserving, chicken keeping, and other useful skills for anyone interested in taking a more active role in growing and preparing the food they eat."—BoingBoing.net

"...the contemporary bible on the subject."—The New York Times

This celebrated, essential handbook shows how to grow and preserve your own food, clean your house without toxins, raise chickens, gain energy independence, and more. Step-by-step projects, tips, and anecdotes will help get you started homesteading immediately. The Urban Homestead is also a guidebook to the larger movement and will point you to the best books and Internet resources on self-sufficiency topics.

Written by city dwellers for city dwellers, this copiously illustrated, two-color instruction book proposes a paradigm shift that will improve our lives, our community, and our planet. By growing our own food and harnessing natural energy, we are planting seeds for the future of our cities.

Learn how to:

  • Grow food on a patio or balcony
  • Preserve or ferment food and make yogurt and cheese
  • Compost with worms
  • Keep city chickens
  • Divert your grey water to your garden
  • Clean your house without toxins
  • Guerilla garden in public spaces
  • Create the modern homestead of your dreams


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781934170106
Publisher: Process
Publication date: 06/01/2010
Series: Process Self-reliance Series
Edition description: Revised Edition
Pages: 360
Sales rank: 471,078
Product dimensions: 6.56(w) x 9.02(h) x 0.74(d)
Age Range: 14 Years

About the Author

Kelly Coyne and Erik Knutzen are creators of the blog homegrownrevolution.org, a green living and self-sufficiency resource for urbanites. They contribute regularly to Daniel Pinchbeck's new online magazine, realitysandwich.com. They live in Los Angeles. Kelly Coyne and Erik Knutzen are creators of the blog homegrownrevolution.org, a green living and self-sufficiency resource for urbanites. They contribute regularly to Daniel Pinchbeck's new online magazine, realitysandwich.com. They live in Los Angeles.

Table of Contents

Unleashing The Homesteader Within 14

Chapter 1 Start Your Own Farm 20

Strategies for Growing Food in the Urban Setting 20

How to Make Seedballs 30

Permaculture 32

The Practicalities of Growing Food 34

Chapter 2 Essential Projects 46

Five Essential Projects 46

Start a Compost Pile 46

Vermiculture or Composting with Worms 51

Mulch Your Yard 55

Build a Raised Bed 60

How to Build a Self-Watering Container 65

A Treasure Chest of Gardening Projects and Advice 71

How to Start Seeds 71

How to Transplant 74

Fertilizer Tea 77

Trash Talkin' Tire Project #1: Tire Hose Caddy 78

Trash Talkin' Tire Project #2: Stacking Composter 79

Grow Some Lettuce 80

Tips & Tricks for Gardening in Containers 83

The Dirt on Potting Soll 85

Installing Drip Irrigation 86

How to Make a Bean Teepee 89

How to Design a Polycultural Vegetable Bed 91

How to Make Tater Tires 96

Controlling Insect Pests 99

Rotating Crops 104

Animal Pests 107

Why You Might Test Your Soil 110

Not Digging It 112

Chapter 3 Urban Foraging 116

Feral Edibles 116

Invasive Edibles 122

Fruit Foraging 124

Tools for the Fruit Harvester 125

How to Eat Acorns 126

Dumpster Diving 128

Revive Day-Old Bread 130

4 Livestock In The City 134

The Chicken is the New Pug 135

How to Set Up a Brooder 150

Ducks 154

Rabbits 156

Pigeons: A Modest Proposal 157

Quail 158

Bees 159

Chapter 5 Revolutionary Home Economics 166

Preserving the Harvest 166

How to Can 170

Pickling via Lacto-Fermentation 173

Daikon Radish Pickles 174

L'hamd Markad or Preserved Salted Lemons 175

Euell Gibbons' Crock 177

Dehydration: Why Save it for Hangovers? 179

Three Methods for Drying Food 180

Preserving With Vinegar 182

Preserving Fruit in Alcohol: Le Cherry Bounce 184

Preserving Root Vegetables 184

How to Culture Milk 186

Making Yogurt 187

Making Labaneh, or Yogurt Cheese 188

Fil, Piima and Viila 189

Cheesemaking 190

Whole Milk Ricotta 190

Making Butter 191

How to Make Fruit Butter 193

Jams and Jellies 196

Making Stock 196

Five Ways to Preserve a Tomato 197

The Homemade Speakeasy: From Mead to Moonshine 202

Baking on the Homestead 204

Baking with Sourdough 204

Cleaning the Urban Homestead 214

Our Cleaning Cupboard 216

Less Toxic Ways to Deal with Unwelcome Critters 228

A Homestead of Your Own 229

Location Location Location 231

Chapter 6 Be Your Own Utility: Water and Power for the Homestead 238

Harvesting Water 238

Conserving Water 240

Six Ways to Harvest Rainwater 243

Become a Radical Depaver 244

Smart Gutters and Downspouts 245

Earthworks 246

Mulch Basins 247

Terracing 249

Rain Barrels and Cisterns 250

How Much Water Can I Harvest From My Roof? 252

Non-Invasive Greywater Methodologies 257

Highly Invasive Greywater Strategies 257

Greywater Plumbing 101 257

Showers to Flowers 260

Recycling Your Suds 261

Arranging a Twosome or Threesome-Using Diverters 264

Making a Greywater Wetland 266

The Composting Toilet: How to Poop in a Bucket 267

Power to the People 270

Energy Principles 270

Heating 272

Insulation 272

Gathering Solar Heat 273

The High Mass Rocket Heater 275

Cooling 275

How to Make a Living Awning or Shade 276

We're Fans of Fans 278

Water Heater 279

Alternatives to the Gas-Heated Shower 281

Solar Water Heaters for General Household Hot Water 282

Lighting 284

Stoves and Small Appliances 285

Solar Cookers 285

Build a Rocket Stove 288

Tomato Can Stove 290

Heat on the Cheap: Buddy Burners 292

Electronics 294

Washer & Dryer 295

Refrigerator 296

Dishwashers 296

Generating Your Own Power 297

Electricity From Solar Power-The Components 297

Solar Systems: Small, Medium and Large 299

Wind Power 302

Chapter 7 Transportation 306

Transportation Principles 306

The Transportation Triangle: Walking, Biking, Mass Transit 307

Walking 307

Cycling 308

How to Ride in Traffic 309

Finding a Bike 311

Route Choice 313

Cargo Bikes 313

Make Your Own Bike Light 316

Conclusion: The Future 320

Resources 324

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