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How to navigate by the stars, attract butterflies to a garden, build the perfect bonfire, and bake one's own bread — an indispensable guide to everything people knew and loved before we went inside and turned on the TV.

In a world of traffic congestion, supermarket shopping, and 24-hour internet access, it is easy to feel disconnected from the beauty and rhythms of the natural world. This is the book for anyone who has ever gazed in awe at stars in the night's sky, tried to catch a perfect snowflake, or longed for the comfort of a roaring log fire. Readers will learn how to predict the weather just by looking at the sky, how to forage for food, and how to make cider. From differentiating types of owls to gardening by the phases of the moon, and from curing a cold to brewing ale, this lovely guide is packed with instructions and lists, ancient customs, and old wives tales, making it an indispensable guide to countryside lore.

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Whether as a way to manage challenging economic times or retain a garden's bounty, root cellars are making a big comeback.

This book takes a fresh look at the art, science and romance of building and stocking a root cellar. There are detailed, illustrated construction guides for making four different kinds of root cellars that are functional and attractive. These include never-before-seen models for apartment and condo dwellers and home owners without a basement.

The Complete Root Cellar Book provides technical information on using photovoltaics (solar cells) and other energy technologies to enhance a root cellar's performance and ecological sustainability. It also includes must-know information on how to choose, store and manage a supply of fruits, vegetables, nuts and preserves.

The book features 100 recipes that call for stored produce, many of which also make use of the root cellar's specific environment, such as sauerkraut and barrel-fermented dill pickles. These classic dishes, many with new twists, include:

• Classic leek and potato soup
• Golden puffed potato puddings
• Maple pecan crumble apple pie
• Classic carrot cake
• Spiced pear butter
• Three-onion relish

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Anyone can learn to store fruits and vegetables safely and naturally in a cool, dark space with the step-by-step advice in this book. Root cellaring is a way of using the earth's naturally cool, stable temperature to store perishable fruits and vegetables and preserve them for months to come. This book will show you a no-cost, simple, low-technology, energy-saving way to keep your harvest fresh all year long.

Recommended Product for Wiser Living: Today, more than ever before, our society is seeking ways to live more conscientiously. To help bring you the very best inspiration and information about greener, more sustainable lifestyles, Mother Earth News is recommending books and products to readers. For 40 years, Mother Earth News has been North America’s “Original Guide to Living Wisely,” creating books and magazines for people with a passion for self-reliance and a desire to live in harmony with nature.

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Mother Earth News Guide To Living on Less, 3rd Edition

Are you looking for simple ideas to save money? The Mother Earth News Guide to Living on Less, 3rd Edition has dozens of ideas to help you save money on food, housing and energy, while also living a greener life.

The articles featured are fun and will help you save a few dollars. Some tips and advice included in these articles include:

• Cut Your Food Bills in Half
• Backyard Chicken Basics
• Adding Insulation Can Save You Money!
• Brew Your Own Beer
• Start Your Own Tool-Sharing Program
• And more!

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Learn how to get more from your garden from the Mother Earth News How to Grow and Preserve Your Own Food E-book.

This issue is packed with tips, advice, success stories and information on growing and preserving the food you grow and make yourself. You'll experience everything from canning those extra vegetables to the process and benefit of raising chickens for eggs and meat.

Inside this special issue you'll find articles such as:

• Gardening on a Budget: Six Tips for Success
• Easy Ways to Preserve Fresh Food
• Expert Advice for Greenhouse Growing
• Build a Basement Root Cellar
• Install the Best Garden Fences
• Dry and Freeze Tomatoes
• Grow Great Salads Year-Around
• Want Milk? Get Goats

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Ball Home Canning Products are the gold standard in home preserving supplies, the trademark jars on display in stores every summer from coast to coast. Now the experts at Ball have written a book destined to become the bible of home preserving.

As nutrition and food quality has become more important, home canning and preserving have increased in popularity for the benefits they offer:

• Cooks gain control of the ingredients, including organic fruits and vegetables
• Preserving foods at their freshest point locks in nutrition
• The final product is free of chemical additives and preservatives
• Store-bought brands cannot match the wonderful flavor of homemade
• Only a few hours are needed to put up a batch of jam or relish
• Home preserves make a great personal gift any time of year

These 400 innovative and enticing recipes include everything from salsas and savory sauces to pickling, chutneys, relishes and, of course, jams, jellies, and fruit spreads, such as:

• Mango-Raspberry Jam, Damson Plum Jam
• Crab Apple Jelly, Green Pepper Jelly
• Spiced Red Cabbage, Pickled Asparagus
• Roasted Red Pepper Spread, Tomatillo Salsa
• Brandied Apple Rings, Apricot-Date Chutney

The book includes comprehensive directions on safe canning and preserving methods plus lists of required equipment and utensils. Specific instructions for first-timers and handy tips for the experienced make the Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving a valuable addition to any kitchen library.

About the authors: Judi Kingry and Lauren Devine have between them 20 years of experience in the preserving industry. They are both employed by Jarden Home Brands.

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CLEARANCE ITEM. PREVIOUS RETAIL PRICE WAS $18.95 AVAILABLE ONLY WHILE SUPPLIES LAST!

How to save money, time, and the environment-on the urban frontier.

With The Complete Idiot's Guide to Urban Homesteading anyone can learn how to live sustainably and responsibly-and save money and time-in any urban environment. Expert urban homesteader Sundari Elizabeth Kraft shares her hands-on knowledge of: growing organic foods and preserving them; composting; raising small livestock and chickens; generating electricity and biofuels; and other ways to cut costs and live green. This book has all the information required to become a successful urban homesteader in any city.

• Practical advice on everything from composting to clean energy.
• Sundari Elizabeth Kraft is an expert in urban homesteading.

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Home Canning and Preserving instructs readers how to make small-batch preserves, pickles, and more, whether in the summer or winter months, even when fresh produce is not as readily available. Janet Cooper, who has spent a lifetime finessing the art of small-batch preserving, provides you with step-by-step instructions on how to put by some of your favorite canned and jarred goods. With color photographs and 100 recipes, including orange marmalade, fig jam, six fruit chutney, apple sauce, green tomato relish, and hot mustard, this is the definitive guide—and the perfect gift—for gardeners and home cooks.

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"When I was growing up, canning was for old folks and cranks and separatists,” writes Liana Krissoff in her introduction to Canning for a New Generation. But not anymore. With soaring food prices and the increasing popularity of all things domestic and DIY, there’s never been a better time to revisit the centuries-old techniques of preserving food at home.

This hip, modern handbook is filled with fresh and new ways to preserve nature’s bounty throughout the year. Organized by season and illustrated with beautiful photographs, it offers detailed instructions and recipes for making more than 150 canned, pickled, dried, and frozen foods, as well as 50 inventive recipes for dishes using these foods. Basic information on canning techniques and lively sidebars round out this refreshing take on a classic cooking tradition.

About the author
Liana Krissoff, a freelance recipe tester, editor, and writer, is the author of STC’s Secrets of Slow Cooking and Hot Drinks for Cold Nights. Krissoff lives with her husband and daughter in rural Carlton, Georgia.

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The spiced peaches and icebox pickles, dilly beans and tomatoes in every shape and form, the blackberry jam and hot pepper jelly--it’s summer, and a whole world of summers past, in a jar. Pack the pantry the way Grandma did, and put away the sweetest fruits and preserves, the most tender savory vegetables, the taste of the sunny day and the scent of the crisp harvest air, with more than 250 blue-ribbon canning and preserving recipes culled from The Farmer’s Wife magazine. A reliable resource for the farm wife, the new mother, the suburban transplant, the magazine shared recipes that made the kitchen sing and the family sigh with contentment. Along with instructions for canning and preserving fruits and vegetables from your garden or the farmer’s market, this wonderful cookbook, like an old family friend, offers recipes for using the tomato sauce, raspberry jam, peaches, and other tasty fruits and vegetables that you’ve “put by.”