Books › The encyclopedia of country living
The encyclopedia of country living
an old fashioned recipe book
First published 1994 · 928 pages
A warm, encyclopedic embrace of self-reliance that feels like sitting at the kitchen table with a master homesteader.
What it feels like
Reading this monumental guide feels less like consulting a reference manual and more like inheriting a lifetime of hard-won wisdom from a beloved, chatty neighbor. The pace is inherently meandering, inviting you to dip into sections on churning butter or building chicken coops whenever the homesteading urge strikes. Its tone is fiercely practical yet deeply personal, infused with earnest anecdotes and a folksy warmth that grounds the staggering amount of information. The mood is earthy and industrious, wrapping the reader in a cozy, sun-warmed atmosphere of self-sufficiency and rural dreams. It delights both active farmers and armchair homesteaders who crave a tangible connection to the land, offering an empowering, encyclopedic journey into the lost arts of country living.
- Mood
- cozy
- grounded
- industrious
- nostalgic
- earthy
- Tone
- earnest
- practical
- folksy
- encouraging
- personal
- Pace
- meandering
- Themes
- self-sufficiency · connection to the land · the value of hard work · homesteading dreams · generational knowledge
- The writing
- Conversational, dense with practical detail, and warmly anecdotal, reading like a letter from a knowledgeable neighbor.
- The arc
- Moves from a sense of overwhelming possibility to a grounded, comforting feeling of capable empowerment.
- Who it's for
- Dreamers and doers who crave a tangible connection to their food, land, and the lost arts of self-reliance.
Content notes
- animal slaughter
- butchering
About the book
No home, whether in the country, the city, or somewhere in between, should be without this one-of-a-kind encyclopedia — the most complete source of information available about growing, processing, cooking, and preserving homegrown foods from the garden, orchard, field, or barnyard. For more than 30 years, people have relied on its practical, step-by-step advice on basic self-sufficiency skills such as how to cultivate a garden, buy land, bake bread, raise farm animals, make sausage, milk a goat, grow herbs, churn butter, build a chicken coop, cook on a wood stove, and much, much more.
First written at the height of the 1960s back-to-the-land movement, the book has been continually revised, updated, and expanded, and has grown from a self-published, mimeographed document to an exhaustive reference of more than one million words, 2,000+ recipes, and over 1,500 mail order sources. Emery’s personal advice, reflections, and anecdotes ensure that this incredibly detailed, diverse reference is as enjoyable as it is useful.
Description from Open Library.
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