Book club
Homesteaders
Join Our Book Club!
The Homesteaders of Michigan Book Club hosts relaxed, quarterly discussions on Instagram. Join us at anytime! To participate in the discussions, read the books by the date indicated below. Discussions will begin the 1st of each month listed. In order to join the book club, you must have an Instagram account and follow @hom_book_club.
Homesteaders of Michigan 2020-2021 Book Club Line-Up!
Saving our seeds: The Practice & Philosophy
by Bevin Cohen founder of Baker Creek Heirloom Seed Company
OCTOBER 2020
A seed saving guide unlike any other available! Seed activist Bevin Cohen takes a deep dive into the hows and whys of the modern seed saving movement.
A great how-to guide, leading the reader step by step through the process of saving their seeds from 43 different crops; from adzuki beans to wheat and everything in between.
Seed savers of all levels will benefit from Bevin’s easy to follow explanations on important techniques such as hand pollination, isolation, vernalization and even basic flower structure.
A book like this would not be complete without stories that honor the many gardeners, farmers and seed keepers that have dedicated their lives to stewarding these heritage varieties.
Within these pages, the seed keepers themselves share their stories and help the reader to understand the importance of SAVING OUR SEEDS.
The New Organic Grower
by Eliot Coleman
January 2021
With more than 45,000 sold since 1989, The New Organic Grower has become a modern classic. In this newly revised and expanded edition, master grower Eliot Coleman continues to present the simplest and most sustainable ways of growing top-quality organic vegetables. Coleman updates practical information on marketing the harvest, on small-scale equipment, and on farming and gardening for the long-term health of the soil. The new book is thoroughly updated, and includes all-new chapters such as:
- Farm-Generated Fertility―how to meet your soil-fertility needs from the resources of your own land, even if manure is not available.
- The Moveable Feast―how to construct home-garden and commercial-scale greenhouses that can be easily moved to benefit plants and avoid insect and disease build-up.
- The Winter Garden―how to plant, harvest, and sell hardy salad crops all winter long from unheated or minimally heated greenhouses.
- Pests―how to find “plant-positive” rather than “pest-negative” solutions by growing healthy, naturally resistant plants.
- The Information Resource―how and where to learn what you need to know to grow delicious organic vegetables, no matter where you live.
The Market Gardener
by Jean-Martin Fortier
April 2021
Making a living wage farming without big capital outlay or acreages may be closer than you think. Growing on just 1.5 acres, Jean-Martin and Maude-Helene feed more than 200 families through their thriving CSA and seasonal market stands.
The Market Gardener is a compendium of proven horticultural techniques and innovative growing methods. This complete guide is packed with practical information on:
- Setting-up a micro-farm by designing biologically intensive cropping systems, all with negligible capital outlay;
- Farming without a tractor and minimizing fossil fuel inputs through the use of the best hand tools, appropriate machinery and minimum tillage practices;
- Growing mixed vegetables systematically with attention to weed and pest management, crop yields, harvest periods and pricing approaches.
Sustainable Home
by Christine Liu
July 2021
Sustainable Home is a stylish, inspirational and practical guidebook to maintaining a more environmentally friendly household.
Sustainable lifestyle blogger and professional Christine Liu takes you on a tour through the rooms of your home – the living area, kitchen, bedroom and bathroom – offering tips, tricks and 18 step-by-step projects designed to help you lead a more low-impact lifestyle. Whether its by making your own toothpaste, converting to renewable energy sources, reducing your consumption of plastic, growing your own herb garden or upcycling old pieces of furniture, there are numerous ways – both big and small – to make a difference.
With environmental issues at the forefront of global politics, the desire to make small changes on an individual level is on the rise; this book will guide anyone hoping to make a difference, but who perhaps don’t know where to begin.
In Defense Of Food
by Michael Pollan
OCTOBER 2021
Food. There’s plenty of it around, and we all love to eat it. So why should anyone need to defend it?
Because in the so-called Western diet, food has been replaced by nutrients, and common sense by confusion–most of what we’re consuming today is longer the product of nature but of food science. The result is what Michael Pollan calls the American Paradox: The more we worry about nutrition, the less healthy we see to become.
With In Defense of Food, Pollan proposes a new (and very old) answer to the question of what we should eat that comes down to seven simple but liberating words: “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.” Pollan’s bracing and eloquent manifesto shows us how we can start making thoughtful food choices that will enrich our lives, enlarge our sense of what it means to be healthy, and bring pleasure back to eating.
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