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Transform your garden into a wildlife haven busting with life by learning how to provide supplementary nesting sites to a host of creatures. Bird, Bee and Bug Houses explains all you need to know about how to create the perfect nesting place for a wide variety of species including birds, bats, butterflies, lacewings, ladybugs and rare solitary bees.

Essential pollinators, predators and seed-spreaders, the habitats of many of these species are under threat from intensive farming and the spraying of harmful chemicals. But we can help them by building these safe havens in our gardens. Only a few basic woodworking skills are needed to create these unique and quirky houses. A range of materials (some recycled or scavenged) and finishes are used in order to make sure they are as attractive as they are practical. All the basic techniques, tools and materials needed to create your bird, bee or bug house are explained and each project has a detailed exploded diagram with cutting list. Each section of the book has detailed information on choosing locations, maintenance, species habits and nesting requirements.

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Keeping chickens is a trend that just keeps on growing, even for city dwellers. With this book, today's modern farmer will find plans and construction techniques for making seven different coops, along with fun chicken facts and great recipes for all those eggs!

Farm-raised author Chris Gleason's hip eye for design, combined with sound woodworking techniques, make the coops both attractive and sturdy. Practical information such as how to properly size a coop and how to source reclaimed materials is included. Don't miss the authors "tour de coop," in which he visits coops from other backyard farmers to find out why they keep chickens and what lessons they have to share with others interested in doing so.

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A resurgence of interest in heritage poultry breeds has invigorated poultry raising on family farms and backyards across the country. These are the birds that can and should be producing for today’s marketplace — for consumers that have come to value locally bred and grown, historically significant agricultural food. This book offers valuable insight into rare, heritage and heirloom breed selection, chick raising, breeding and marketing so you can start your own fully sustainable heritage chicken flock and raise eggs or meat for your family or small farm business.

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In a day when beef is assailed by many environmental organizations and lauded by fast-food chains, a new paradigm to bring reason to this confusion is in order. With farmers leaving the land in droves and plows poised to "reclaim" set-aside acres, it is time to offer an alternative that is both land and farmer friendly.

Beyond that, the salad bar beef production model offers hope to rural communities, to struggling row-crop farmers, and to frustrated beef eaters who do not want to encourage desertification, air and water pollution, environmental degradation and inhumane animal treatment. Because this is a program weighted toward creativity, management, entrepreneurism and observation, it breather fresh air into farm economics.

About the Author Joel Salatin and his family own and operate Polyface Farm, arguably the nation's most famous farm since it was profiled in Michael Pollan's New York Times bestseller, The Omnivore's Dilemmaand two subsequent documentaries, Food, Inc., and Fresh. An accomplished author and public speaker, Salatin has authored seven books. Recognition for his ecological and local-based farming advocacy includes an honorary doctorate, the Heinz Award, and many leadership awards.

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In an era when "go local," "organic food" and "sustainability" are on the tip of everyone's tongues, Harriet Fasenfest's A Householder's Guide to the Universe takes up the banner of progressive homemaking and urban farming as a way to confront the political, social and environmental issues facing our world today. Offering grass-roots practical advice on how to shop, garden, run a household, preserve and cook food, and more, Fasenfest also discusses the philosophy of householding.

In A Householder's Guide to the Universe, which is organized according to season and presented in monthly installments, Fasenfest invites the reader into her home, garden and kitchen to consider concrete tools for change. Streetwise and poetic, fierce and romantic, the book provides not only a way out of our current economic and environmental logjam but also a readable and often funny analysis of how we got there.

About the author:
Harriet Fasenfest is an avid gardener, food preserver, homemaker and lover of the soil. At 56, Harriet officially fled Main Street (and her restaurants) for the greener pastures of the backyard, where she teaches classes on householding. Born and raised in the Bronx, she currently lives in Portland, Ore.

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The most comprehensive guide to date on raising all-natural poultry for the small-scale farmer, homesteader and professional grower, The Small-Scale Poultry Flock offers a practical and integrative model for working with chickens and other domestic fowl, based entirely on natural systems.

Readers will find information on growing (and sourcing) feed on a small scale, brooding (and breeding) at home, and using poultry as insect and weed managers in the garden and orchard. Harvey Ussery's model presents an entirely sustainable system that can be adapted and utilized in a variety of scales, and will prove invaluable for beginner homesteaders, growers looking to incorporate poultry into their farm, or poultry farmers seeking to close their loop. Ussery offers extensive information on:

• The definition of an integrated poultry flock (imitation of natural systems, integrating patterns, and closing the circle)
• Everything you need to know about your basic chicken (including distinctive points about anatomy and behavior that are critical to management)
• Extended information on poultry health and holistic health care, with a focus on prevention
• Planning your flock (flock size, choosing breeds, fowl useful for egg vs. meat production, sourcing stock)
• How to breed and brood the flock (including breeding for genetic conservation), including the most complete guide to working with broody hens available anywhere
• Making and mixing your own feed (with tips on equipment, storage, basic ingredients, technique, grinding and mixing)
• Providing more of the flock’s feed from sources grown or self-foraged on the homestead or farm, including production of live protein feeds using earthworms and soldier grubs
• Using poultry to increase soil fertility, control crop-damaging insects, and make compost — including systems for pasturing and for tillage of cover crops and weeds
• Recipes for great egg and poultry dishes (including Ussery's famous chicken stock!)
• And one of the best step-by-step poultry butchering guides available, complete with extensive illustrative photos

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A quiet revolution is taking place: People across the United States are turning toward local food. Some are doing it because they want more nutritious, less-processed food; some want to preserve the farmland and rural character of their regions; some fear interruptions to the supply of non-local food; some want to support their local economy; and some want safer food with less threat of contamination. But this revolution comes with challenges.

Reclaiming Our Food tells the stories of people across America who are finding new ways to grow, process, and distribute food for their own communities. Their successes offer both inspiration and practical advice.

The projects described in this book are cropping up everywhere, from urban lots to rural communities and everywhere in between. In Portland, Oregon, an organization called Growing Gardens installs home gardens for low-income families and hosts follow-up workshops for the owners. Lynchburg Grows, in Lynchburg, Virginia, bought an abandoned 6.5-acre urban greenhouse business and turned it into an organic farm that offers jobs to people with disabilities and sells its food through a local farmers' market and a CSA. Sunburst Trout Farm, a small family business in rural North Carolina, is showing that it’s possible to raise fish sustainably and sell to a local market. And in Asheville, North Carolina, Growing Minds is finding ways to help bring fresh foods into schools. Author Tanya Denckla Cobb offers behind-the-scenes profiles of more than 50 food projects across the United States, with lessons and advice straight from their founders and staff. Photographic essays of 11 community food projects, by acclaimed photographer Jason Houston, detail the unusual work of these projects, bringing it to life in unforgettable images.

Reclaiming Our Food is a practical guide for building a local food system. Where others have made the case for the local food movement, Reclaiming Our Food shows how communities are actually making it happen. This book offers a wealth of information on how to make local food a practical and affordable part of everyone's daily fare.

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What do you do when you love your farm . . . but it doesn’t love you? After 15 years of farming, Catherine Friend is tired. After all, while shepherding is one of the oldest professions, it’s not getting any easier. The number of sheep in America has fallen by 90 percent in the last 90 years. But just as Friend thinks it’s time to hang up her shepherd’s crook, she discovers that sheep might be too valuable to give up. What ensues is a funny, thoughtful romp through the history of our woolly friends, why small farms are important, and how each one of us — and the planet — would benefit from being very sheepish, indeed.

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Milking your family cow and experiencing the simple joys that comes with it are explained in this guidebook by veteran dairy farmer and cheesemaker Phil Hasheider. This book leads you through all the steps needed to make your dream a reality and the processes involved to make your own dairy products. You will learn the practical do’s and don’ts of buying a cow, milking, feeding, and assisting her when she gives birth to a calf. You may not have the experience yet, but time will take care of that as you learn. Your adventure starts here and this book will guide you along your journey with your family cow.

About the Authors:

Philip Hasheider helped to manage his family’s 65-cow dairy for 20 years. He has a dairy science degree from the University of Wisconsin and seven years' experience as a cheesemaker’s assistant. He is the author of several livestock books, including How to Raise Cattle. He lives in Sauk City, Wis.

Photographer Daniel Johnson is a professional photographer specializing in farm imagery. He helps run Fox Hill Farm, a family-owned horse farm. He is the author of the 4-H Guide to Digital Photography. He lives in Phelps, Wis.

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The homesteading adventures of Jenna Woginrich have caught the imagination of thousands who dream of a more self-sufficient lifestyle. As she learns to farm by trial and error, she records her offbeat observations and poignant moments with honesty, humility, and humor. In BarnHeart, she tells the story of her quest to find a permanent home for herself and her livestock -- a herd of sheep, a flock of chickens, some geese and ducks, rabbits, a goat, and a turkey. Even when taking on cranky neighbors, small-town politics, and the difficulties of running a farm alone on a shoestring budget, she never loses her sense of humor. You'll find inspiration in this entertaining tale of longing and striving for a more authentic life.

About the Author
Jenna Woginrich is a 20-something homesteader and the author of Chick Days and Made from Scratch. She blogs at Cold Antler Farm, as well as Mother Earth News and The Huffington Post. A Pennsylvania native, she has made her home in the mountains of Tennessee, in northern Idaho, in rural Vermont, and most recently in upstate New York, where she lives with a flock of Scottish Blackface sheep, a border collie in training, chickens and geese, a hive of bees, and several amiable rabbits.