Can you be a homesteader if you live in a West Side walk-up, a suburban duplex or an inner city condo? The City Homesteader says yes; anyone, anywhere can acquire the skills to lead a “simpler, more sustainable and authentic” life.
BookPage is giving away a copy of my Top Pick for the June Lifestyle Column: The City Homesteader: Self Sufficiency on Any Square Footage. Author Scott Meyer, former editor-in-chief for Organic Gardening, includes chapters on foraging (yes, even in the city); growing, sharing and preserving food; making compost; capturing rainwater; raising small animals; cleaning the house and other crucial homesteading skills.
The author says:
“Homesteading today is a step out of the virtual world we live in most of the time and into an authentic experience. It’s a way to connect with the seasons, the weather and the natural world outside our windows while getting your hands dirty and producing something real and essential.”
What skill or experience might you be interested in to make your own life a bit more self-sufficient? Want to can your own pickles? Install a rain barrel? Pick a dandelion salad? Grow cherry tomatoes on the windowsill? Compost kitchen scraps? Hang a pulley clothesline? Build a bee house? Plant a garden?
TO ENTER: Leave a comment and tell what steps you’d like to take toward a more self-reliant way of living.
CONTEST DETAILS: The prize is one copy of The City Homesteader. Prize will be shipped within North America. Winner will be chosen by random.org from among entries received by 6 pm CST on June 24.
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ETA: Congrats to our winner! Mimi cares for her tomatoes and some herbs. Good luck with the composting, and thanks for reading The Book Case!
Contest is now closed.
Love this!! I’d love to can my own veggies and find a way to collect rainwater for our plants. Every little thing we can do to be a bit more sustainable helps. Great giveaway!!
I’d love to learn how to best use ALL of the foods we purchase. I often have a roast chicken but feel guilty because I don’t know how to use the whole bird efficiently – either in cooking or in leftovers
I presently have a small garden in the backyard where I grow peppers, tomatoes and herbs so this will be continuing since I enjoy the fruits of my labor and hope to expand it every year.
We already have our own vegetable garden and raise chickens for the eggs; however, I also really want to start a compost pile, but have no idea how. Lately, I’ve also been thinking it would be really neat to keep bees. We eat a lot of honey and I try to buy local when I can; it would be great to produce our own. What a great giveaway!
I would LOVE to have my own wind turbine!
I’d like to grow enough produce so I don’t have to buy any all summer, and still have enough to can for the winter, too.
It would be good to grow my own produce and learn to preserve it. Also
I would like to learn about solar energy or windpower. These things would save a lot of money in addition to being good for the environment.
I would live to collect rainwater for my vegtable garden, learn to use ALL of my food purchases to the fullest before it reaches the compost heap, plant my yard with edible plants that still have the beauty of traditional landscaping & learn how to do all of this & then more easily & effortlessly while still having fun so that my children will want to pitch in & eventually do the same.
I do all the canning/freezing,recycling but a few things like organic &tier gardening would be easier for me ,safe way to collect rainwater,and try a compost ,since I cook and can,that would be great,nothing goes to waste here…we did most things growing up,because we were poor…but didn’ know it.Yes,you can do all these things in small areas.
Sounds like a great way to start learning how to live better with less.
I started my vegetable garden (tomatoes and peppers) last year for the first time. This year I have 6 different tomato plants, cucumbers, peppers, potatoes in a storage bin, carrots and acorn squash. Next year I hope to plant an even bigger vegetable garden. I would love to have bee hives to produce honey and raise chickens for eggs but don’t know where to start. My husband and I even thought of raising alpacas for their wool.
This book looks awesome! I’m growing tomatoes and some herbs. Hopefully soon going to start composting.
i bike to work or take the bus now instead of driving, but i’m failing on the food front. i would like to start a garden but i’m not a foodie. would like to start small and work my way up. it’s a little intimidating but with the right book, i’m sure i could get started
Would really like to be self sufficient. Always had great idea, wind, solar, wood burning, chickens, veggies,goats. Be on my own and still have the time to create and sell to others, soaps and lotions and cheeses. I know of a couple who are doing that and are quite happy. Keeping busy all day, and loving it.
Like to have solar panels,learn how to dry foods naturally, and do compost heap…
I would love to get started in gardening.
I would love to make my own wine and all-natural, environmentally friendly cleaning products. What did our colonial forebears use to make whites even whiter? To be more self sustainable, I would omit meat for a month. I would donate my recyclable beverage containers to the scavengers. I may even have to try dumpster diving!
We recently hooked up our down spouts to a large holding tank. The tank holds enough water that we shouldn’t have to use the well to water the vegetables this summer. We are trying canning for the first time this year.
Trying. Instead of planting another flower I put in a veggie or herb but I need to compost and learn to “put up” or preserve more food. Hang laundry to dry, go to clothes swaps-cool but still need to be more energy efficient. Interesting ideas!
We have a small garden and I make a lot of freezer jam, but I’d like to learn how to do more canning and preserving (sorry I didn’t pay more attention, Mom)
We also recycle (and sometimes even reclaim items)
Sounds intriguing.
Grow more organic produce from home?
I’d like to grow and can my own vegetables. I’d also like to raise chickens for fresh eggs. We tried a vegetable garden last year and failed miserably, but maybe with some advice we could try again and succeed.
Would love to grow more food in containers, and yes, canning and preserving too.
I would like to be a beekeeper. There are so many delicious foods that use honey in the recipes.
Of course, if I were successful, my friends would receive honey from my hive also!
This is such valuable information – everyone needs to read this! I do everything I can to live a sustainable life – growing veggies in an Earth Box, preserving anything I can as well as sharing information with others. We need to work together!
Always interested in tips on housecleaning and how to have the energy to do it. I recycle, even it means going through my family’s garbage, as long as the garbage is not TOO disgusting!
I would like to be more self-reliant in heating, by either installing a fireplace or solar panels.
I would love to grow and preserve my own veggies, and have a rainbarrel to water everything from.
Our town has so many laws and regulations, if it is a positive thing to do it gets blown away. I would love to read this book to see if there is any small thing that isn’t going to blasted if I do it.
I would like to collect the rain water. I think in the future water will become very precious. Thanks.
I would like to have a small container garden where I could grow a few things for myself. As a widow I don’t need a huge garden but it’s rewarding to be able to eat something you grew yourself.
I would love to have my own garden of fruits and vegetables..also grow the herbs I need. Herbs are so expensive to buy at the grocery store.
Twenty years ago I watched a BBC progran called “Good Neighbors.” They were city homesteaders in a suburb of London. Ever since then I have wished for a “how to” guide so that I could have their life, transported to La Mesa, CA. This just might do it!
We’re in our fourth year of gardening.The excess tomatoes and onions are used for chili.Such fun to have a really hot day and find yourself making chili to freeze for later in the winter. We have a composter, and my husband made rain barrels .Haven’t used “city water” in two years with what we collect from a rainfall.
The book sounds interseting. Perhaps I find can more to do in my backyard.
I would love to learn how to sew–my own clothes, aprons, curtains, Christmas stockings, etc.
It amazes me that these things mentioned are considered “new”. My grandparents/parents lived this way and that was their normal. I grow my own veggies,compost,conserve light,water and energy as a lifestyle,just doing what was taught to me.
I would like to build a wind generator and make my own electricity.
I’d like a better way to store recycling…i also would like someone to help my family get more organized…a place for everything and everything in it’s place so we can eliminate the “piles” we tend to make instead of putting things where they belong…
thanks!
angie
We have a potted vegetable garden of sorts. We live in Florida so the soil is poor. Right now, we can grow green peppers, tomatoes and an assortment of herbs on our townhouse porch. We would love to grow more vegetables in raised beds if we had more space. We already participate in regular daily recycling and compost coffee grounds and egg shells.
I already recycle glass, plastic and cans. Paper I use in my worm composter along with kitchen scraps. What they can’t consume goes into one of my outdoor composters. They are a challenge as it is so dry here. I got horse manure from a neighbor for fertilizer for my garden of tomatoes, peppers, beans, spinach, various lettuces & greens, dill, green onions, rhubarb and various herbs. I catch rainwater when possible but we are a high desert area and rain fall is low. I agree with Joan, above – I would love to have a wind turbine and/or solar panels as it is always windy and predominantly sunny. It appears I am at no loss for words either! Windy
We are growing our own tomatoes, bell peppers, zuchini, and cayenne peppers. These vegetables are so high in the grocery stores. Plus the ones you grow taste so much better.
One of my goals is to start composting. I would love to keep chickens, but unfortunately, the homeowners association won’t allow it.
I would love to have a rain barrel and to compost. Then I would love to grow a perennial garden of lupines, daisies, and wildflowers around the cabin.
I already have a veggie garden and an herb garden. My neighbor has some chickens and I’m going to start raising them. My son is going to help me install rain barrels at my gutter down spots. I can’t afford solar pannels yet, but would love to have them.
I am growing my first herb garden to utilize during the summer months. Now if only the rains would stop before our growing season turns into a flood….
We compost, grow vegetables, recycle old clothing into rag rugs. I even taught myself to sew! I wish our recycling center was closer so I wouldn’t have to drive to get there.
I’d love to run my house on solar power and end my personal reliance on foreign oil to power and heat/cool it!
To be honest I have not read this book but I have read the description and some of the other comments. If my husband had his way we would be living out in the middle of nowhere Homesteading which in all honesty would be fine with me. Anyway, we have our second garden in right now and plant what we like for the time of year..so far so good..and our dryer died over a year ago and rather than buying a new one we hang our clothes on a line outside and our “danties” in the bathroom which has saved us alot of money on the electric bill.
I’d love to have a few chickens !
I would love to collect rainwater and raise vegetables.
I would like to learn how to water my square foot garden more efficiently.
i would love to have a garden but all i seem to do is feed the deer and squirrels
I would like to have animals to eat the grass instead of using a lawn mower.