The Encyclopedia Of Country Living

Disclaimer: Grandma Bonnie's Closet was not compensated for the review of this book. I received a free copy of the book in exchange for an honest opinion. The opinions in this post are all my own.

Being on a mission to turn our family into a sustainable homestead that is earth friendly and  Eco-conscious I have been looking for suitable educational resources to help us on our journey. When I came across a description of the book "The Encyclopedia Of Country Living" I knew it would be a wonderful resource to learn from. 

Thanks to Sasquatch books for allowing Grandma Bonnie's Closet to review "The Encyclopedia Of Country Living" By  Carla Emery. 

I have been reading and reading and did not want to put this book down. I can hardly describe my fascination with this book. The day I received the copy in the mail I sat down with the intention to flip through a few pages and get a feel for the organization of the book. That was a mistake because I could not put the book down. I forgot to make dinner. My husband, (poor dear) came home to no dinner. I scarcely looked up from my book to apologize for not fixing dinner. I did eventually pull myself away from the magnetic pages of the book and fixed us a fresh green salad for our late dinner. I then promised my husband I would limit my reading to one section at a time while I finish this book. 

Here is just a little about "The Encyclopedia Of Country Living" to give you an idea of the contents included in this book. 

The book contains over 1 million words and is 928 pages long. It is divided into 11 chapters, organized into 125 sections, with over 500 topics covered. It contains over 2000 recipes and 1,500 mail-order sources. 

There are so many interesting topics in this book it is hard to choose which information I want to share with you. I will share with you just a few of the many topics I want to study and learn more about from this book. From the first chapter Oddments, I am very fascinated in "Making an Ice Cave". I think it would be very useful to be able to keep ice in the case of a grid down situation. Another skill I would like to try my hand at is "Building a Mud Oven", It starts out by saying, "If you have clay soil this is a natural. Start by building a dome-shaped frame of willow branches and sticks about 2 feet wide and 3 feet long. Cover your branch canopy..." (You will have to read the book to get the rest of the directions on this DIY project.)

The Mud Oven is a project that I am going to start working on as I have an entire back yard of clay! I will share it with you when I am finished. 

Chapter 2, Introduction to Plants is fairly comprehensive. If its about plants, made of plants or useful for plants you can find it in this section. From DIY cleaning products, planning a garden, seed saving, seed storage, vegetable propagation, root cutting , resources for seed catalogs, greenhouse design and so much more I can't possibly list every topic in this chapter. So, let us just skip to Chapter 7 Food Preservation. From drying, canning, root cellars and making vinegar this is a very interesting look into food preservation. Probably the most important section to read in this chapter is the Twelve Life-Saving Canning Rules. Keep in mind I am a canning enthusiast so the canning rules are very important to me. 

I will have to skip the sections on animals, livestock, building a barn, growing your own coffee and more, but I do believe you have got a good idea on the contents of this book. 

What I like about this book is that the instructions and explanations are clearly written. The illustrations, charts, and resources are clear and easy to understand. 

 The Encyclopedia Of Country living is definitely a book I think everyone should own. No matter where you live you will find some very useful information that may just come in handy someday. Well, off I go with a glass of lemonade to enjoy another chapter in this fascinating book.