The Encyclopedia of Country Living

by Carla Emery

Book Overview

OVER 1 MILLION COPIES SOLD: The 50th anniversary edition of the classic manual for sustainable living--with 1,000+ pages covering basic country skills and wisdom for living off the land Whether you're... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1570615535
• ISBN13: 9781570615535
• Release Date: July 2008
• Publisher: Sasquatch Books
• Length: 922 Pages
• Weight: 3.27 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.8" x 9.1" x 10.3"

Customer Reviews

Must Have!

If you are looking to start homesteading this book is definitely a must have! The detailed information is well worth its weight! Get this OUT of your wish list & purchase it already you won't regret it

Great general resource for all things homesteading

Lots of references for further education on any subject. Enough basic information on each subject to get you started. My older version of this reference was so well used that it was missing many pages, so I got this updated edition. I still have the old one for nostalgia. I have referenced it so many times in 30 years.

Good for many generations.

My parents had a copy of this book, when I was growing up. During a major recession, through its instruction, my parents kept all five of their children fed. I bought a copy of the book and used it for gardening and food preservation instructions, as well as recipes for things that my wife, kids and I loved to eat in large quantities, but hated paying for. As time progressed, I learned a great deal from the book, including identification of gaps in my skill set that would be required for subsistence and long term survival, such as butchering an animal and making soap. Finally, as my children grew up and left home, my wife & I bought copies for our children. No matter where life takes them, this book will become useful. One of my children just finished a master's degree in chemistry, another is in law school, while the third decided to forgo student loans and work for a mega-corporation that will remain nameless. If there is anything one wishes to do, to know how it's done, to save money or just to fill in the time during quarantine, this is a fantastic book.

The Encyclopedia Of Country Living

We owned this book back when Y-2K was a worry. After moving and donating our books, we returned to the land. This book was a must have. There are more modern ways to do things, but this book gives ways to do just about everything on the farm. The author was poor, so no expensive high tech solutions to be found here. You will love her stories and the valuable information she had collected over the years while visiting successful country folk. She stayed in our home overnight, when in town for a presentation and book signing. This book is very readable in terms of just sitting a spell...

ignore the negative criticism

This is a charming and useful book. I am a newcomer to Carla Emery's work and indeed have read many of the other more concise, straightforward and professional books out there about farming and country living. Not only is there a TON of useful information in this book, people who enjoy the meandering, prolific style are not at fault for liking the book. Carla Emery, who has been living this way and writing long before other resources appeared, is still a respected source of wisdom. There are tidbits and tips that you might never see in a "professional" book, and the "Oddments" section alone was worth buying this book. The list of resources from native skills to homesteading to renewable energy sources to emergency preparedness is amazing. If you want to live closer to the land and be radically more self-sufficient doing so, you probably will not find more information on a wide range of topics in one place. In Carla's book, you get detailed information PLUS recommendations about other sources of information, classes, organizations, magazines, and more. I didn't know so much was out there! Together with a stock of standard, concise, and more professional books on raising livestock, organic gardening, energy, or whatever else you choose to incorporate into your lifestyle, this book is invaluable and passionate -- because passionate is what we SHOULD be about the agrarian movement. [To add to this review...] The scope and detail of this book is amazing. It has TONS of recipes, stories, and ideas for back-to-basics traditional living that come from years and years of collected wisdom and experience that you probably couldn't get anywhere else. What if you lived in a rural area for, say, a month, and couldn't go to a grocery store and wanted to know how to survive? It is truly an encyclopedia of folk knowledge and so much more. Want to know how to use garlic and onion for medicinal purposes? Want to learn about different types of diets? Want to use up scraps and throw away very little, or eat more vegetables, or be entertained by tidbits and tales from the country? Here is a compendium of information, in all its glory.

Please understand the purpose of this book.

I have the first, home-printed edition of this book, as well as the latest edition.When I read the various comments, I see some misunderstanding of the nature of this book.Carla's book is not just a reference (there are better ones in specific areas)but an autobiography as well. We learn about a lifestyle many of us will never know, but find facinating. We learn of the struggles and successes of one family. And along the way, we learn a great deal about small subsistance farms (not hobby farms). Use Carla's book for reference, but also entertainment and education. It's a fun read, and need not be done in one sitting or in any order. Just enjoy!

This is a one-book country library.

Carla Emery was a national treasure and this book ensures her legacy. This is simply the most informative book ever written on country living, the next best thing to having a live-in grandmother who knows everything there is to getting homegrown food from dreams to dinner plates plus nearly anything else you need to know. Begun as a 12-page table of contents for a recipe book in 1969, the present ninth edition has 858 pages of far more than recipes. Veggies, vines, trees, grains, poultry, goats, cows, bees, rabbits, sheep, pigs. Planning, nurturing, harvesting, preserving, preparing. Flipping pages at random finds starting transplants, breads leavened with eggs and beating, speeding up tomato sauce-making, harvesting herbs, making cider, managing an existing stand of trees, root cellar storage, soap making, brooding chicks, secrets to safe cattle handling, cultured buttermilk, cooking on a wood stove, jams and jellies, making a wool quilt. I use my "Carla book" constantly. If your budget or bookshelf has room for only one book, this is the book to buy. Yes, even before you buy mine.