Grow your own vegetables and herbs, indoors in containers or outside in a garden. Raise chickens or goats. Build a beehive. Make your own nontoxic cleaning sprays. And more!

Gehring’s books on country living have sold more than 500,000 copies. In this book, she offers a guide to homesteading skills that is as charming as it is practical. Full of sweet illustrations and gorgeous photographs, step-by-step instructions for essential skills such as building a chicken coop are interspersed with country lore and old-fashioned tips and tricks.

Readers will learn how to:

• Container garden


• Raise chickens


• Churn butter


• Grow vegetables


• Can tomatoes


• Brew kombucha


• Make shampoo


• Repel garden pests


• Milk a goat


• Improve garden soil


• Make strawberry-rhubarb jelly


• Ferment vegetables


• Make yogurt


• Sprout grains


• And more!

The Essential Guide to Self-Sufficient Living combines the know-how of Back to Basics with the charm of The Farmer’s Almanac. This is the perfect gift for anyone interested in a more self-sufficient, greener, country lifestyle.