The homesteading handbook A back to basics guide to growing your own food, canning, keeping chickens, generating your own energy, crafting, herbal medicine, and more

Whether people are motivated by economic or social sensibility, self-sufficiency has growing appeal. This revised handbook (originally published in 2009) appears to cover it all but falls short. Group activities such as community gardening and selling handicrafts have been removed from this edition, and the sections that remain have not been updated. There are a lot of ideas offered but no practical instruction. The clip art-like illustrations are simplistic, and the photographs lack useful detail. Carleen Madigan's The Backyard Homestead offers more practical advice with nods toward community regulations and being a good neighbor. (c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.