Raising dairy goats

by Jerry Belanger

This very thorough guide describes different breeds and talks about housing, care, breeding, and milking and includes a few recipes.

The Lost Art of Real Cooking

Rediscovering the pleasures of traditional food one recipe at a time

by Ken Albala & Rosanna Nafziger

An old-fashioned cookery book with recipes written in paragraph form (no list of ingredients at the beginning) for many foods including pickles, jam, soup, bread, cheese, pie and more. Several medieval recipes are also reproduced in the book.

This is interesting just to read if you're interested in cooking; the writing style is entertaining and there's a great deal of historical information. The only error I noticed was that it says in one place that the recipe was reduced by one fifth because the original made a huge amount, but must mean the recipe was reduced to one fifth.

The Ultimate Guide to Homesteading

An Encyclopedia of Independent Living

by Nicole Faires

Instructions for how to do almost everything yourself; building houses and animal shelters, digging a well, growing and preserving food, raising and slaughtering animals, health care, waste disposal and even homeschooling.

This is a really nice book; lots of pictures and diagrams and very thorough information. Although very few people would use all of this knowledge, almost everyone would find some of it useful.

homegrown & handmade

a practical guide to more self-reliant living

by Deborah Niemann

Do you know where your food is coming from? Do you know how it was grown or produced, what drugs or pesticides were used? In this book, Deborah Niemann talks about things like ethics and sustainability and why she chose to produce many of the things her family uses every day. She explains the basics of gardening and raising your own poultry and dairy products as well as fiber for knitting or weaving. A number of recipes for foods and soaps are included.

I liked her writing style and found it interesting as well as easy to read and understand. A great resource for anyone interested in starting to produce their own food. I borrowed this book from the library, but would definitely consider buying my own copy.

The backyard homestead guide to raising farm animals

by Gail Damerow

This book contains detailed information on raising many different kinds of farm animals from fowl and bees to pigs and cattle. Very thorough.

Home Dairy

All you need to know to make cheese, yogurt, butter and more


with Ashley English

History, methods and recipes for making all kinds of dairy products including cheese, kefir, buttermilk and ice cream as well as a few recipes that incorporate the finished products. This book seems very thorough and I noted several recipes that I want to try.

Visit the author's blog at Small Measure.
Also read my reviews of Ashley's books, Keeping Chickens and Canning & Preserving.