The Best Homesteading Articles and Books of 2015

Modern homesteaders face many of the same challenges that our ancestors faced. In many ways we are worse off than they were. One of the biggest reasons being, for the most part, the newest generation of homesteaders were not taught by their parents or grandparents the skills and traditions needed to be successful freeholders. Many come from the suburbs or the city, hoping to learn the skills and build a good life. Our only saving grace is the internet! Homesteading bloggers from all over the world share their trials, challenges, failures, and successes in hopes of helping each other make a successful new life from the land. As this year comes to a close I thought I would share what I thought were some of the best homesteading articles of 2015, as well as my picks for the best homesteading books of 2015.

Here are my favorite homesteading articles from the past year…

Make Your Own Apple Sugar
How To Make Jar Candles From Deer Fat
How To Make Mozzarella Cheese (The Easy Way)
10 Tips Everyone Should Know About Small Space Gardening
How to Make an Herbal Salve
16 Bread Baking Tips Your Grandma Forgot To Tell You
Easiest DIY Automatic Chicken Waterer You’ll Ever Make
Living without Running Water
Blessed with Being Self Sufficient
9 Ways To Make Money On The Homestead
Chickenpalooza! An Awesome List of Homestead Chicken Resources
4 Reasons Your Tomatoes Are Not Ripening
Raising Rabbits On The Homestead For Beginners
Practical Permaculture Principles For Gardeners and Farmers
Living Without Refrigeration
Here’s Why a Prepper Homestead May Not Be a Good Plan for Survival
Depression Era Tips to Stretch Your Food Budget
50 Ways to Homestead…No Matter Where You Live
Best Tips For Raising Ducks
How to get the most out of your gardening zone
PVC Drip Irrigation System for your garden
The cost of setting up a homestead
5 Reasons Homesteaders Fail
Grafting: The Best Way To Grow A Homestead Orchard
Homesteading? There’s an App for That!
Securing Food When Your Garden Fails
The Key To Successful Husbandry
A Guide to Winter Sowing
Corn Cob Syrup
9 Crops to Grow for Food Storage
Purchasing an Existing Homestead
Top 9 Methods of Finding Reclaimed Building Materials

The Best Homesteading Books of 2015…

I spent most of spare time this year working through a Permaculture design course, so my book list for 2015 was smaller than usual. There were a few books that were released this year, that I had time to read, that I really enjoyed. Here they are.

The Nourishing Homestead: One Back-to-the-Land Family’s Plan for Cultivating Soil, Skills, and Spirit
This is the best homesteading book I have ever read. It is also the best book of any kind that I have read in a long, long time. Those who know me, know these are not proclamations that I lightly throw out there. This is a masterpiece! This book should be mandatory reading for anyone considering pursuing the homestead life!

You can read my review Here .

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Year-Round Indoor Salad Gardening: How to Grow Nutrient-Dense, Soil-Sprouted Greens in Less Than 10 days
Would you like to grow nutrient dense sprouted salad greens all winter with no pumps, no lights, and no greenhouse? In Peter Burke’s Year-Round Indoor Salad gardening you find a simple, low-tech way to do just that. Burke grows all his soil sprouted greens on windowsills in small trays with remarkable yields. This is undoubtedly the easiest, most cost-effective and productive way to provide your family with greens.

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Critter Tales, What my homestead critters have taught me about themselves, their world, and how to be a part of it
This is Leigh Tate’s newest book that was just released. I had the privilege of reading the manuscript before it was published and enjoyed it a great deal. In the tradition of her earlier book, 5 Acres and a Dream, Critter Tales is a wonderful collection of lessons learned, this time in the realm of homestead livestock. I highly recommend this book to anyone that is thinking about adding animals to their homestead as well as those who just love to read the stories of an authentic fellow traveler. Some people are natural born story tellers and Leigh Tate is one of those people.