With the way things have been going it’s difficult to know whether we will be forced into becoming more self-sustainable or if we will form regional groups on our own and just instinctively begin taking matters into our own hands. In either event I still think it’s a good idea to start making the shift our of consumer driven ways and getting more into functioning as small communities. I was watching PBS Explorer channel the other night and was quite impressed with the work many had done to make spaces in urban and suburban places more community oriented. You can buy the DVD of the four-part series, “Designing Healthy Communities”, and get some good ideas.
Here is a list of resources to help you get started on thinking, living and working towards making your life more rich and remarkable:
Magazines
Gardening Books
Four Season Harvest and The Winter Harvest Handbook by Eliot Coleman
Year-Round Vegetable Gardener by Niki Jabour
Gaia’s Garden: a guide to home-scale permaculture by Toby Hemenway
Introduction to Permaculture by Bill Mollison
Seed to Seed: seed saving and growing techniques for vegetable gardeners by Suzanne Ashworth
Homegrown Whole Grains: grow, harvest, and cook wheat, barley, oats, rice, corn and more by Sara Pitzer
The Earth Sheltered Solar Greenhouse Book by Mike Oehler
Chicken and Goat Raising Books
Free-Range Chicken Gardens: how to create a beautiful, chicken-friendly yard by Jessi Bloom
Storey’s Guide to Raising Chickens by Gail Damerow
Storey’s Guide to Raising Dairy Goats: breed, care, dairying, marketing by Jerry Belanger
Food Storage Books
Root Cellaring: natural cold storage of fruits & vegetables by Mike Bubel
A Guide to Canning, Freezing, Curing & Smoking Meat, Fish & Game by Wilbur F. Eastman
Food Drying Techniques by Carol W. Costenbader
Water Conservation Books
The Toilet Papers: recycling waste and conserving water by Sim Van der Ryn
Water Storage: tanks, cisterns, aquifers and ponds for domestic supply, fire and emergency use by Art Ludwig
Builder’s Greywater Guide: Installation of Greywater Systems in New Construction & Remodeling by Art Ludwig
Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands (vol.1): guiding principles to welcome rain into your life and landscape by Brad Lancaster
Alternative House Building Books & DVD
The Fifty Dollar and Up Underground House Book by Mike Oehler
Earthbag Building: the tools, tricks and techniques (natural building series) by Kaki Hunter
Basic Earthbag Building DVD by Owen Geiger
Building with Cob: a step-by-step guide by Adam Weismann
The Cob Builders Handbook: you can hand-sculpt your own home by Becky Bee
Rocket Mass Heaters: super-efficient woodstoves YOU can build by Ianto Evans
The Hand-sculpted House: a practical and philosophical guide to building a cob cottage by Ianto Evans
Earthship: how to build your own (vol.1) by Michael Reynolds
Homesteading for Beginner’s DVD
Earth Oven Books
Build Your Own Earth Oven: a low-cost wood-fired mud oven by Kiko Denzer
The Bread Builders: hearth loaves and masonry ovens by Daniel Wing
Creating Community Books and DVD
Designing Healthy Communities DVD
Creating Cohousing: building sustainable communities by Kathryn McCamant
Pocket Neighborhoods: creating small-scale community in a large-scale world by Ross Chapin
Finding Community: how to join an ecovillage or intentional community by Diana Leafe Christian
Creating a Life Together: practical tools to grow ecovillages and intentional communities by Diana leave Christian
EcoVillage at Ithaca: pioneering a sustainable culture by Liz Walker
Herbal Remedy Books
Homegrown Herbs: a complete guide to growing, using, and enjoying more than 100 herbs by Tammi Hartung
Rosemary Gladstar’s Medicinal Herbs: a beginner’s guide of 33 healing herbs to know, grow and use by Rosemary Gladstar
Herbal Recipes for Vibrant Health: 175 teas, oils, salves, tinctures, and other natural remedies for the entire family by Rosemary Gladstar
The Herbal Medicine-Maker’s Handbook: a home manual by James Green
Herbal Antibiotcs: natural alternatives for treating drug-resistant bacteria by Stephen Harrod Buhner
Medicinal Herbalism: the science principles and practices of herbal medicine by David Hoffmann
Edible and Medicinal Plants Field Guides
A Field Guide to Medicinal Plants and Herbs: of Eastern and Central North America by Steven Foster
The Forager’s Harvest: a guide to identifying, harvesting, and preparing edible wild plants by Samuel Thayer
The Forager’s Harvest DVD set includes all of the plants discussed in The Forager’s Harvest book (above)
Nature’s Garden: a guide to identifying, harvesting, and preparing edible wild plants by Samuel Thayer
Edible Wild Plants: wild foods from dirt to plate by John Kallas
Botany in a Day: the patterns and method of plant identification by Thomas J. Elpel
Identifying and Harvesting Edible and Medicinal Plants in the Wild by Steve Brill
Wilderness and Survival Books
When All Hell Breaks Loose: stuff you need to survive when disaster strikes by Cody Lundin
Field Guide to Living with the Earth by Tom Brown Jr.
Field Guide to Wilderness Survival by Tom Brown Jr.
Field Guide to the Forgotten Wilderness by Tom Brown Jr.
Field Guide to Nature Observation and Tracking by Tom Brown Jr.
Green Beret Survival Manuel: essential strategies for shelter, water, food and fire, told and medicine, navigation and signa by Mykel Hawke
Special Forces Survival Handbook: the portable guide to getting out alive by Mykel Hawke
Survive! Essential Skills and Tactics to Get You Out of Anywhere by Les Stroud
Deerskin into Buckskins: how to tan with natural materials a field guide for hunters and gathers by Matt Richards
Some Online Resources
CoGenra Solar – they sell solar panels that combine hot water. This is brilliant because solar panels lose efficiency when the temperature of them gets too hot in the sun. By having water flowing through them helps to keep them cooler and much more efficient! This is brilliant!!!
Cornell University Online Courses – for Aspiring, New, & Experienced Farmers {Northeast Beginning Farmers Project}
Peak Moment TV – Janaia has some wonderful interviews and video’s from which to glean a lot of great ideas on living more lightly.
Episode 301: Winter Gardening with Joe Gardener interviewing Eliot Coleman – wonderful video and be sure to explore their website Growing a greener World for many useful ideas and tips.
Eliot Coleman Keynote at VABF 2011 – an excellent 90 minute video of Eliot Coleman discussing winter gardening and harvesting, followed with a Q&A. The first 10 minutes is difficult to hear but afterwards they’ve gotten the mic fixed and the sound is fine.
Landscape and Human Health Laboratory University of Illinois – terrific site discusses how landscape 9or lack thereof) impacts human health physically and emotionally.
Shoals Creek Village - a newly planned ecovillage in western NC opens its arms to Farmers and Artisans.
New Earth Living – a blog about the Aurora Pocket Neighborhood in Ithaca, NY, an EPA Climate Showcase Community.
“I AM” via GaiamTV.com – I AM is an engaging documentary about Tom Shadyac, a Hollywood director with fame and fortune, and a serious bike accident that turned his world upside down. Seeking answers, Shadyac talks with some of today’s most revolutionary minds, asking them two essential questions: What’s wrong with the world? And what can we do to fix it? Start a 10-day Free Trial and watch this excellent documentary!
Green Bronx Machine: Growing Our Way Into A New Economy – this is the best video out there! So moving and inspirational!!! Watch South Bronx teacher Stephen Ritz give his standing ovation talk at TEDxManhattan. His students have gone from 40% attendance to over 90% – all from his edible food walls.
Sustainable Gardening Ideas for A Better Community – an excellent video by Shawna Coronado of www.shawnacoronad… she and a panel of organic gardeners speaking at Google Chicago on her dramatic and life-changing experience in the natural environment and the sustainable personal health and economically viable community benefits of gardening. Watch to learn some great ideas and get tips on how a garden can change lives.
America’s First Public Food Forest – an article of what I believe we need more of.
Desert Harvesters - is a non-profit, volunteer-run, grassroots effort based in Tucson, Arizona striving to promote, celebrate, and enhance local food security and production by encouraging the planting of indigenous, food-bearing shade trees (such as the Velvet mesquite or Prosopis velutina) in water-harvesting earthworks, and then educating the public on how to harvest and process the bounty.
Maine Primitive Skills School – another school that teaches the things we should already know.
Cody Lundin’s YouTube Channel – a variety of video’s on topics relating to survival and simplifying. Cody Lundin’s website has courses and more information.
Alderleaf Wilderness College: a center for traditional ecological knowledge – their site has a lot of information on a variety of topics as well as classes.
Survival Topics – some interesting information on various topics involving survival techniques many of which could and would be used if the grid goes down.
Evelyn Vincent
Native Plant Landscaper, Gardener, Labyrinth Design, Feng Shui Practitioner, Aromatherapy / Essential Oils, Big Fan of Nature and Living Simply.
"There is nothing in a caterpillar that tells you it's going to be a butterfly."
~ R. Buckminster Fuller
Populations around the world that eat fish regularly live longer and have less chronic disease than populations that do not. Whether this is because fish displaces meat or because it has positive attributes of its own is not clear. Certainly, fish provides high-quality protein without the saturated fat present in commercially raised (feedlot) meat and poultry. It is the fatty fish from cold northern waters – also provide omega-3 fatty acids, the special, unsaturated fats our bodies need for optimum health. The cold water fish are; wild salmon, mackerel, herring, sardines and bluefish.
The FDA has been considering approval of a genetically engineered (GE) salmon (and soon other popularly eaten fish to follow) for human consumption that grows at twice the rate of normal salmon. The GM salmon is a mere starter in the culinary revolution of GE animals for human consumption. The approval of GM salmon will pave the way for an ever-growing number of animals to be genetically engineered for human consumption.
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