Homesteading Books and Preparedness Guides

Homesteading books and preparedness guides are such a help to learning how to homestead and be more self-reliant.

Today I’m sharing some of our favorite homesteading books (and some other guides that we find useful).

This list includes books on starting a homestead, chicken keeping books, natural health, foraging, growing and using herbs, and other practical skills.

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Homesteading Books and Dreams

Ever since we married in 1998, we’ve been interested in “living off the land” and being more self-sufficient.

I believe it was exposure to a book called The Plain Reader: Essays on Making a Simple Life that really inspired us. After reading that book, we couldn’t wait to buy some land and start a homestead.

For the first few years of our marriage, we bought every book we could find on homesteading, gardening, and natural living.

Since we lived in the suburbs, we couldn’t do very much, but we did as much as we could. We planted a garden, enjoyed our first harvest, and read books.

Pretty much everything we know how to do came from books, especially in those early years.

Eventually, we moved near an Amish community and lived on 10 acres surrounded by horses and cows, and planted a huge garden.

We learned so much during those years!

Now we have one acre, 16 chickens, and an ever-expanding garden.

Best Homesteading Books

There are so many homesteading books out there, but these are the ones we’ve referred to through the years.

Also, I’m including books about every area of self-sufficiency on this list.

We try to do as many things as possible ourselves, so I’ve included books about all aspects of self-sufficiency.

I haven’t included many animal-specific books (other than books about chicken keeping) because we currently only have chickens. There are so many other books that could be added to this list!

Our homestead is still growing and expanding, and we hope to add goats and bees to our small homestead someday.

Books About Homesteading and Country Living

There are so many good homesteading and country living books out there, but here are a few of our favorites.

The Encyclopedia of Country Living

I grew up with The Encyclopedia of Country Living! My parents also had a dream of “living off the land,” (see their beautiful homestead here), and this book was one of their guides.

I remember flipping through this book for hours as a child. Definitely a classic.

Storey’s Basic Country Skills

Storey’s Basic Country Skills has also been on our shelf for years. It’s another great classic on how to do many different things on a homestead.

Doable Off-Grid Homestead

The Doable Off-Grid Homestead is a new book to me, but it’s a great guide for setting up an off-grid homestead.

Not all of the projects are ones we would tackle immediately, but we have learned a lot just by studying the ideas this book contains.

Gardening Books

Growing your own food is an essential part of every homestead. I’ve already shared an extensive list of our favorite gardening books here, but here are a few of my must-haves.

Joy of Gardening

GardenWay’s Joy of Gardening is my favorite gardening book, loaded with photos and information!

The Family Garden Plan

The Family Garden Plan is a great beginner’s guide to gardening.

Great Garden Companions

Great Garden Companions is a beautiful book with a great companion-planting system.

Food Preservation

Once you’ve got your garden growing, you also need to know how to preserve your harvest so you can have food to eat through the winter.

There are so many food preservation books to choose from, but these are tried-and-true classics.

Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving

The Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving book is the classic guide on preserving food.

Fermented Vegetables

Fermented Vegetables will teach you the art of fermenting. Learning how to ferment vegetables is another great food preservation method.

Chicken Keeping

Before getting chickens we read everything we could find about how to keep chickens successfully. These books were the most helpful to us as new chicken keepers.

The Small-Scale Poultry Flock

The Small-Scale Poultry Flock is a helpful reference book to learn about keeping chickens.

The Chicken Health Handbook

The Chicken Health Handbook is another must-have chicken care book, especially when something isn’t right with your chickens.

Fresh Eggs Daily

Fresh Eggs Daily was one of the first chicken keeping books I read, and it’s lovely! Highly recommend this quick read.

The Homesteader’s Natural Chicken Keeping Handbook

The Homesteader’s Natural Chicken Keeping Handbook is another favorite chicken book. I love the beautiful photos, natural approach, and helpful recipes.

Foraging Books

Knowing how to forage for wild edibles is a great skill to have! Here are a couple of our favorite foraging books.

Edible Wild Plants

Learn the art of foraging with Edible Wild Plants.

Edible Wild Plants: A North American Field Guide

Edible Wild Plants: A North American Field Guide is another great foraging resource.

Books About Natural Living

Being able to take care of basic healthcare needs saves so much money and may be a necessity if medical help were not available for some reason.

These are our most-used reference books.

Prescription for Nutritional Healing

Prescription for Nutritional Healing has been on our shelves for many years.

First Aid Manual

It’s always good to have a basic First Aid Manual on hand for emergencies.

The Survival Medicine Handbook

The Survival Medicine Handbook covers so many topics that would be useful in an emergency situation.

Rosemary Gladstar’s Herbal Recipes

Rosemary Gladstar’s Herbal Recipes contains so many simple recipes using herbs.

Homegrown Herbs

Homegrown Herbs is a complete guide to growing, using, and enjoying herbs. This is my favorite herb book.

The Healing Power of Essential Oils

The Healing Power of Essential Oils is a great reference book for using essential oils.

Be Your Own “Doctor”

Be Your Own Doctor has been on my shelves for years, and it’s one of the main books we’ve referred to whenever a health situation has arisen. Written by a Master Herbalist, midwife, and homeschool mom, I love so much about this book.

Be Your Own Doctor II

Be Your Own Doctor II is the second book of the Be Your Own Doctor series.

Back Yard Pharmacy

Back Yard Pharmacy is another book by Rachel Weaver that will teach you how to grow your own herbs and make herbal preparations.

The Big Book of Backyard Medicine

The Big Book of Backyard Medicine is “The Ultimate Guide to Home-Grown Herbal Remedies.” This lovely book is filled with photos and information.

2 Comments

Carol L says:

March 1, 2024 at 3:04 pm

I would add books about soap making, seed saving, food storage for lean times, making meals from stored ingredients, freeze drying (yes, the freeze dryer is expensive, but a worthwhile expenditure that can be mitigated by selling FD products or renting out to relatives or like-minded people), canning, butchering livestock.
I also have several books on medical care:Herbal Antivirals, Herbal Antibiotics, dental care and treatment books, a medical field surgery book from the army, backyard buildings (barns, root cellars, etc.).
Clothes making, sewing, making shoes, repairing clothing and other fabrics (sofa covers, curtains, etc.)
On gardening, books on the different styles of gardens, Permaculture, square foot, raised, food forests, etc.
Also cook books for personal diet issues (I’m diabetic, some people have gluten issues, dairy issues, etc.)
Sorry I don’t have titles for many of these as my books are scattered at the moment. But these are some I have and keep.
Just having all around books for everything that might be needed if the grid goes down, if society crashes, etc.

1. Joy Kincaid says:
  
  March 2, 2024 at 5:52 pm
  
  Great suggestions! Thanks for sharing!