The Concise Guide to Self-Sufficiency [Hardcover]

This beautifully bounded book has to take pride of place on anyone's book shelf. The fantastic illustrated pictures bring the ideas to life and inspire the reader to dig up their back garden and replace their lawns with carrots and onions. Not only does the book focus on the gardening side, it has a fantastic section on animals, with clear guides on how to look after chickens, pigs, ducks and even bees!

The contacts were fantastic and helped to develop the ideas portrayed throughout the book, and the easy to understand wood section shows clearly how to cut down a tree, and turn the wood into something fantastic, with a wonderful diagram of making a bowl on a lathe, and two pages on basketry. The recipies are fantastic, with simple instructions on making bread, and a wonderfulo recipie on making elderberry wine.

Furthermore, John Seymour has provided stunning information on converting your home from a CO2 producing monster, to an environmentaly friendly establishment, using clear ideas and beautiful diagrams anyone could give it a go.

This is a must for anyone that is interested in self-sufficiency, and even those that just want to start a vegtable patch should definitely give this book a read. What a fantasic book!

This is the concise version of the late John Seymour's reference The New Complete Book of Self-Sufficiency: The classic guide for realists and dreamers

'Make your dream of a self sufficient life a practical reality with this concise version of Seymour's classic guide. Featuring a comprehensive guide to planting and harvesting, it shows how to gather food from the wild and from the garden, and includes chapters on traditional crafts and skills, cutting waste and generating power.'

A neat little book with smart dark green board covers holding 256 high quality pages, spilt over main chapters:

(1) The Meaning of Self Sufficiency
(2) Food from the Garden
(3) Food from Nature
(4) In the kitchen
(5) Energy and Waste
(6) Crafts and Skills
(7) Things You Need to Know

with sections:

* 'Why a Concise Guide',
* 'The Self-Supporting Life'
* 'Foreword from 2002 edition'

an introduction and an index.

Charming illustrations throughout along with clearly illustrated step-by-step guides, e.g.:

* Making Jams & Syrups
* Building Foundations and a Wall
* Digging a Deep Bed
* Sowing and Planting
* Scything
* Storing Potatoes
* Stringing Onions
* Making Bread
* Bottling Tomatoes
* Making Tomato Chutney
* Beer Making
* Making Rose Hip Wine

Useful reference sections include:

* Vegetables
* Herbs
* Soft Fruit
* Tree Fruit
* Poultry
* Wild Fruits
* Mushrooms
* Brewing Basics
* Managing Waste
* Saving Energy
* Essential Knots
* Heat from the Sun

Recipes include:

* Farmhouse Carrot Cake
* Cheese Scones
* Flapjacks
* Baked Cauliflower
* Elderberry Wine

From the introduction from Will Sutherland:

'....this concise version of The New Complete Book of Self-Sufficiency: The classic guide for realists and dreamers, with its emphasis on practical things which busy people in cities, towns and villages - and those who don't have the wherewithal to take the whole plunge - can do to change the way they live. For most of us the prospect of keeping a cow or even managing one acre, let alone five, of rural smallholding is quite simply not realistic - but there are still many other ways of doing ordinary things differently....We hope this book will inspire you to do just this.....
Most important is the realization of the truth in the old adage that the longest journeys begin with the first step.... So even if you are only able to do just one of the things which are covered in this book, you can count this as success.'

This book does cover a great deal of what I wanted to know but did not give as much detail as I expected.