Root Cellaring by Mike and Nancy Bubel ~ Thought its specifically about root cellaring, whether in an actual root cellar or just creating a root cellar like space in your home or apartment, this is an excellent guide for how to store produce in general. They’re quite a bit longer, and at 12+ volumes each, they’ll take up a lot more space on your bookshelf. They’re none the less incredibly informative and engaging reads, and the perfect thing to casually read each morning with your coffee. The Joy of Home Winemakingby Terry Garey ~ A bit more conversational and less technical than The Home Winemakers Companion, this one might be more accessible to the casual winemaker. It has hundreds of recipes, far more than any other winemaking book I’ve seen. It also has some of the most creative recipes by far.

These are the books he recommends for beginners, and they were incredibly helpful to him when he was starting out. King Arthur Flour Baker’s Companion ~ Nearly as long as they Joy of Cooking, but focusing on just foods made from scratch with flour. Literally any type of bread, baked good, tortillas, whatever you can think of. Flour keeps almost forever, and learning to craft diverse meals from your long term storage food is a great way to rely on your pantry (rather than always running to the grocery store). Preserving Food without Freezing or Canning~ A truly incredible resource with historical food preservation techniques that are still practiced in Europe today. I’ve made many of their recipes, including preserving cheese in wood ash, and they always turn out well. The HAM Radio License Manual ~ A study guide with questions that’s specifically designed to help you study for the HAM radio test. It doesn’t do the best job of explaining what’s going on, see the book series above for that, but it does go through all the possible questions to help you learn the right answers (like an SAT study guide). Most food preservation books cover a single topic in depth, rather than the subject of food preservation in general. It’s easy enough to find canning books, or fermenting books, or dehydrator books…but general manuals that cover all manner of food preservation techniques are much less common.

Tree Crops: A Permanent Agriculture by J. Russell Smith ~ Written in 1928, this is one of the very first “Permaculture” books, long before permaculture was even a word. It really takes you through the process of investing in tree crops rather than annuals, as well as how to incorporate animals into a silviculture setup. As the cold sets in and some parts of homesteading slow down for the season, I like to take mental vacations to other homesteads and farms through reading. Here are a few of my favorite inspirational reads for cold-weather that I hope will inspire you too!

Wind turbines capture the kinetic energy from wind and convert it into usable electricity that can be stored in batteries or fed directly into an electrical grid. They’re a good way to find new plants, and with recipes, they really inspire you to get out there and find the wild foods. My favorite bread machine cookbook is The Bread Lovers Bread Machine Cookbook, which has every recipe you could ever want for your machine.

These are not for the casual reader, and I’d really only recommend them if you’re going to get really into making cured meats. None the less, they are incredible manuals for doing just that.

Rye from the Water's Edge (1996). Rye: Academic Inn Books. (with illustrations by Connie Lindquist) The LDS Preparedness Manual ~ A curated compilation of preparedness articles on just about every topic, this is by far the best book on general practical preparedness I’ve found to date. Though it’s put out with a Later Day Saints bias, it’s still the best manual, regardless of whether you’re religious or secular. Just consider the device you are reading this article on, there is no way you could build it yourself, and the cost of the internet (either data or WiFi) is an ongoing cost that will need to be paid for and, in most cases, can’t be bartered for. Self-Sufficiency The Homesteading Way For many people living in poverty, being able to provide basic necessities like food, clothing and shelter can be difficult without external support. Foxfire Books ~ For over 40 years students interviewed homesteaders in Appalachia and learned their way of life. These books include everything from how to slaughter a hog to glazing homemade pottery with wood ash, and thousands of other things. They also include a lot of heritage, old stories, superstition, music and folklore.That said, there are a few that are pretty darn decent overall, but they’re the exception, and most are not worth the paper they’re printed on. Many of these countries are located in areas of the world that produce and export large quantities of raw materials and have healthy populations. Mead is similar, but it’s a honey wine that uses honey to feed the yeast. Honey gives the drink incredible body, and unbelievable flavor. I’d take homemade mead over wine any day.