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Reviews
The Backyard Homestead: Produce All the Food You Need on Just a Quarter Acre! by Carleen Madigan
dobbsthedog's review
5.0
I really enjoyed this book! Lots of practical and easy to follow advice that has totally inspired me to grow more and maybe even get a goat!
honniker's review
4.0
This is a great book. It's a good overview of the basics of starting a homestead beginning with gardening and moving all the way through keeping animals. If you're looking for a book on complete self sufficiency, this isn't it but as a good overview with interesting information and recipes it's excellent. A great place to start when researching homesteading.
lauriereadslohf's review
4.0
This book contains a really nice overview of many topics for anyone starting out on the path of self-sufficiency. It doesn't go into great detail about any of them but gives a newbie a starting point to begin a more self-sufficient lifestyle and has a decent source of website and book recommendations for further research. It is inspirational for those thinking self-sufficiency is a nice little dream and nothing more.
The author includes diagrams in the very beginning which clearly illustrate how those with even 1/10th of an acre can grow a fair amount of food for a small family. There are also diagrams for 1/4 acre, 1/2 an acre and so on. Unfortunately for me, I can't use the diagrams as written because my house and land are plotted out differently and aren't fully usable but with some tinkering I hope to figure things out. At the very least I will know what should items should be planted next to each other.
With a little more land you can keep chickens, rabbits, hogs, even more veggies and some fruit trees. Once you decide what you want to do with your land you'll want to do further research into topics such as animal husbandry, canning, husking grains, sanitizing your tools, etc. This isn't a keeper for me because it doesn't give enough information about anything to justify me purchasing a copy but it's a great intro. to homesteading.
The author includes diagrams in the very beginning which clearly illustrate how those with even 1/10th of an acre can grow a fair amount of food for a small family. There are also diagrams for 1/4 acre, 1/2 an acre and so on. Unfortunately for me, I can't use the diagrams as written because my house and land are plotted out differently and aren't fully usable but with some tinkering I hope to figure things out. At the very least I will know what should items should be planted next to each other.
With a little more land you can keep chickens, rabbits, hogs, even more veggies and some fruit trees. Once you decide what you want to do with your land you'll want to do further research into topics such as animal husbandry, canning, husking grains, sanitizing your tools, etc. This isn't a keeper for me because it doesn't give enough information about anything to justify me purchasing a copy but it's a great intro. to homesteading.
colbowk's review
5.0
This is a great reference book for growing and storing your own food. I'm adding it to my Amazon wish list right now.
imperfectcj's review
3.0
I picked this one up at a church book sale. My nine-year-old and I have looked through it, and while it's unlikely we're going to put livestock in our suburban yard (except maybe chickens), I can see us using some of Madigan's suggestions. It certainly has been interesting reading about how, with careful management, a fairly small piece of land can yield one heck of a lot of food.
jenenglish's review
3.0
The audience for this book is someone who is interested in learning more about homesteading and self-sufficiency skills, such as gardening, food preservation, and raising animals. The book provides good overviews of each topic accompanied by clear and understandable drawings. The content is reliable and well-written, coming from a longtime publisher of homesteading books (much of the content is pulled from other Storey titles, and this book is partly a chance for them to capitalize on the homesteading trend by promoting their books). However, if you are interested in taking up one of the skills in the book, you will need more than this book. I would not recommend trying most of the projects in the book without first gaining more knowledge. And, if you already know you are looking for information about a specific topic (such as raising chickens, beekeeping, preserving food, brewing beer), you will be much better off getting an in-depth book on the specific topic than reading this one.
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