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Rating: 
- Excellent introduction but you will need more detail
Well maybe not a complete book of self sufficiency but certainly a very good place to start.
Some people have criticised this for being more a book for dreamers than realists but as every ambition starts as a dream is that such a bad thing. Large sections of this book are really aimed at the smallholder so if you have five acres and a cow you are pretty much the target audience for this book but even if you have just a semi and an allotment you should find something of value in here. A lot of it is also an introduction rather than a complete manual. So, for example, covering how to keep chickens in just three pages is never going to be a complete guide but it does have a place, it let's me know that putting chickens in my back garden is a viable idea and that really is its value this is usually the first place to look for a start to my next downsizing project.
Of course that breadth of subject and shallowness with which each is treated is also it's problem; the range of subjects covered here is probably unrealistic for any one person to cover and if you do try any of them you will probably want more detail. So while it's inspiring and might encourage you to believe you can do more than you thought you could you it really is just the first step. Nonetheless it's an excellent place to start and for inspirational value alone I'd recommend this.
Rating:
- A "bible" on how to live self-suficiency
Well, this is a classic and still so updated.
Maybe you will have to buy some eco building books, and permaculture manuals, but this is a must for anyone on the eco, self-sufficient movement.
It is a must. A classic pointing to all old tradicional ways of living, going to nearly everything, such as food, growing, harvesting, storage, animals, energy, doing stuff with metal or wood, case-studies, etc...
Well worth the price and believe it will stand pretty well on your library!
Rating:
- One star is too much
If you want to daydream, okay, go ahead and buy it. For the realists however it holds nothing but superficial intros into this and that.
The problem is that it leads you to believe all of those chores are possible to do in a real life situation and it appears that the author has done so. Far from true. Imagine doing not even a quarter of what he describes and then to meet him and being told that it would be too much work for him... no imagination, it happened. Hands-on guides should leave you with a sound knowledge of the covered aspects. This one fails on the whole.
Rating: - 'Nothing should be wasted on the self-sufficient holding. The dustman should never need to call.'
`John Seymour is known and respected as the `Father of Self Sufficiency'.....His most influential contribution has been to live, teach and promote self sufficiency, first on five acres in Suffolk, and then on 62 acres in Pembrokeshire, and now in Ireland, where the `School of Self-Sufficiency' that he established with Angela Ashe attracts new recruits in increasing numbers.....
We had never had any real conscious drive to self-sufficiency. We had thought, like a lot of people, that it would be nice to grow our own vegetables.
But living here has altered our sense of values. We find that we no longer place the same importance on artefacts and gadgets as other people do.
Also - every time we buy some factory-made article we wonder what sort of people made it - if they enjoyed making it or if it was just a bore - what sort of life the maker, or makers, lead. I wonder where all this activity is leading. Is it really leading to a better or richer or simpler life for people? Or not? I wonder about the nature of progress. One can progress in so many different directions. Up a gum tree for example. I know that the modern factory worker is supposed to lead an `easier' life than, say, the peasant. But I wonder if this supposition is correct. And I wonder if, whether `easier' or not, it is a better life? Simpler? Healthier? More spiritually satisfying? Or not?
So far as we can, we import our needs from small and honest craftsman and tradesmen. We subscribe as little as we can to the tycoons, and the Ad-men, and the boys with their expense accounts.
If we could subscribe to nothing at all we would be the better pleased.......
Since I first wrote the first version of this book back in 1975 I now think there is a far more urgent reason for it. Very few people today can fail to see that the present course that man - and woman - kind is embarked upon is unsustainable.............
The purpose of this book is not to shape other people's lives but simply to help people to do things if they decide to.
This way of life suits me - it has kept me fighting fit and at least partly sane into my 88th year, and it has prevented me from doing too much harm to our poor planet.....'
An excellent overview but not quite the only book you will ever need. A chunky tome, on the surface it appears quite detailed but tends to be brief in some areas....other books will be required if and when the dreaming stage ends and realism does kick in!
Published by DK, this book is packed with typically charming illustrations and some subtle step-by-step methods - the odd one may not be not for the weak-hearted and could possibly convert the children to vegetarianism - `skinning a rabbit`, for example!
But this is a real book with a real aim!
312 high quality shiny pages, split over 11 chapters:-
The Meaning of Self-Sufficiency
Food from the Garden
Food from the Animals
Food from the Fields
Food from the Wild
In the Dairy
In the Kitchen
Brewing and Wine-Making
Energy & Waste
Crafts & Skills
Things You Need to Know
with an introduction, glossary and a full index.
Useful reference sections include:-
`Types of Soil`, `The Seasons`, `The Urban Garden` (from the smaller - `the allotment`, to the rather larger - `five-acre holding'), `Pests`, `Vegetables`, `Herbs`, `Tree Fruit', `The Living Farmyard' (with notes such as `a cow's teeth reveal her age), 'The Dry Toilet', 'Power from the Wind', 'Basketry' , `Hanging your Pig', `Beef Joints', `Sheep Shearing', `Bees and Honey', `Hedging and Fencing', Harvesting', `Grass and Hay`, 'The Working Horse', `The Cereals', 'Mushrooms', `Fish and Seafoods`, `Plants and Creatures of the Seashore', 'Brewing and Wine-Making' and `Making Cheese'.
Rating: - This is THE book on Self Sufficiency
This is the best book I have read on the subject of self sufficiency and I have read quite a number since I have been researching the subject, this shows you everything you need to know, laying out your land, how to heat your house with renewable energy sources, waste reduction, crop rotation, butchering your own meat, trussing, cheesemakeing, the layout of your workshop simply everything, a well researched, well thoughtout book.... it really makes you want to go and find a few acres and opt out of the rat race.
- Excellent introduction but you will need more detailWell maybe not a complete book of self sufficiency but certainly a very good place to start.
Some people have criticised this for being more a book for dreamers than realists but as every ambition starts as a dream is that such a bad thing. Large sections of this book are really aimed at the smallholder so if you have five acres and a cow you are pretty much the target audience for this book but even if you have just a semi and an allotment you should find something of value in here. A lot of it is also an introduction rather than a complete manual. So, for example, covering how to keep chickens in just three pages is never going to be a complete guide but it does have a place, it let's me know that putting chickens in my back garden is a viable idea and that really is its value this is usually the first place to look for a start to my next downsizing project.
Of course that breadth of subject and shallowness with which each is treated is also it's problem; the range of subjects covered here is probably unrealistic for any one person to cover and if you do try any of them you will probably want more detail. So while it's inspiring and might encourage you to believe you can do more than you thought you could you it really is just the first step. Nonetheless it's an excellent place to start and for inspirational value alone I'd recommend this.
Rating:
- A "bible" on how to live self-suficiencyWell, this is a classic and still so updated.
Maybe you will have to buy some eco building books, and permaculture manuals, but this is a must for anyone on the eco, self-sufficient movement.
It is a must. A classic pointing to all old tradicional ways of living, going to nearly everything, such as food, growing, harvesting, storage, animals, energy, doing stuff with metal or wood, case-studies, etc...
Well worth the price and believe it will stand pretty well on your library!
Rating:
- One star is too muchIf you want to daydream, okay, go ahead and buy it. For the realists however it holds nothing but superficial intros into this and that.
The problem is that it leads you to believe all of those chores are possible to do in a real life situation and it appears that the author has done so. Far from true. Imagine doing not even a quarter of what he describes and then to meet him and being told that it would be too much work for him... no imagination, it happened. Hands-on guides should leave you with a sound knowledge of the covered aspects. This one fails on the whole.
Rating:
- 'Nothing should be wasted on the self-sufficient holding. The dustman should never need to call.'`John Seymour is known and respected as the `Father of Self Sufficiency'.....His most influential contribution has been to live, teach and promote self sufficiency, first on five acres in Suffolk, and then on 62 acres in Pembrokeshire, and now in Ireland, where the `School of Self-Sufficiency' that he established with Angela Ashe attracts new recruits in increasing numbers.....
We had never had any real conscious drive to self-sufficiency. We had thought, like a lot of people, that it would be nice to grow our own vegetables.
But living here has altered our sense of values. We find that we no longer place the same importance on artefacts and gadgets as other people do.
Also - every time we buy some factory-made article we wonder what sort of people made it - if they enjoyed making it or if it was just a bore - what sort of life the maker, or makers, lead. I wonder where all this activity is leading. Is it really leading to a better or richer or simpler life for people? Or not? I wonder about the nature of progress. One can progress in so many different directions. Up a gum tree for example. I know that the modern factory worker is supposed to lead an `easier' life than, say, the peasant. But I wonder if this supposition is correct. And I wonder if, whether `easier' or not, it is a better life? Simpler? Healthier? More spiritually satisfying? Or not?
So far as we can, we import our needs from small and honest craftsman and tradesmen. We subscribe as little as we can to the tycoons, and the Ad-men, and the boys with their expense accounts.
If we could subscribe to nothing at all we would be the better pleased.......
Since I first wrote the first version of this book back in 1975 I now think there is a far more urgent reason for it. Very few people today can fail to see that the present course that man - and woman - kind is embarked upon is unsustainable.............
The purpose of this book is not to shape other people's lives but simply to help people to do things if they decide to.
This way of life suits me - it has kept me fighting fit and at least partly sane into my 88th year, and it has prevented me from doing too much harm to our poor planet.....'
An excellent overview but not quite the only book you will ever need. A chunky tome, on the surface it appears quite detailed but tends to be brief in some areas....other books will be required if and when the dreaming stage ends and realism does kick in!
Published by DK, this book is packed with typically charming illustrations and some subtle step-by-step methods - the odd one may not be not for the weak-hearted and could possibly convert the children to vegetarianism - `skinning a rabbit`, for example!
But this is a real book with a real aim!
312 high quality shiny pages, split over 11 chapters:-
The Meaning of Self-Sufficiency
Food from the Garden
Food from the Animals
Food from the Fields
Food from the Wild
In the Dairy
In the Kitchen
Brewing and Wine-Making
Energy & Waste
Crafts & Skills
Things You Need to Know
with an introduction, glossary and a full index.
Useful reference sections include:-
`Types of Soil`, `The Seasons`, `The Urban Garden` (from the smaller - `the allotment`, to the rather larger - `five-acre holding'), `Pests`, `Vegetables`, `Herbs`, `Tree Fruit', `The Living Farmyard' (with notes such as `a cow's teeth reveal her age), 'The Dry Toilet', 'Power from the Wind', 'Basketry' , `Hanging your Pig', `Beef Joints', `Sheep Shearing', `Bees and Honey', `Hedging and Fencing', Harvesting', `Grass and Hay`, 'The Working Horse', `The Cereals', 'Mushrooms', `Fish and Seafoods`, `Plants and Creatures of the Seashore', 'Brewing and Wine-Making' and `Making Cheese'.
Rating:
- This is THE book on Self SufficiencyThis is the best book I have read on the subject of self sufficiency and I have read quite a number since I have been researching the subject, this shows you everything you need to know, laying out your land, how to heat your house with renewable energy sources, waste reduction, crop rotation, butchering your own meat, trussing, cheesemakeing, the layout of your workshop simply everything, a well researched, well thoughtout book.... it really makes you want to go and find a few acres and opt out of the rat race.
