Book Review & Giveaway: Permaculture For The Rest Of Us: Abundant Living On Less Than An Acre by Jenni Blackmore
It has been a while since I have done a book review and I am so glad to let you all know that I am adding them back in on the blog and one of the reasons is that I like connecting all of you to amazing resources. When I had the opportunity to read Permaculture For The Rest Of Us: Abundant Living On Less Than An Acre I was so excited because I was like this is so me and so right off the bat the title resonated with me.
Then to my surprise I started reading the first page and I’m like…..Jenni the author is awesome and you read about how she did so much of her homesteading and her off-grid lifestyle independently and well I immediately admired her courage and fortitude. Not only that she did all of this in Coastal Novia Scotia which is tough terrain to manage and does not have the longest growing season.
The pictures of her homestead and maps look like a real working homestead and it’s actually refreshing. So many times I see these pictures in magazines an I am thinking get real…everyone knows when certain vegetables are ready to harvest they fall over and turn brown and it’s anything but glamorous.
I so enjoyed reading this book. I think it’s because we have so much in common and we are both passionate about permaculture and using edibles on your property that you already have! I rarely use that word but it is what suburban homesteading is so no matter if you are urban homesteading, suburban homesteading, or if you have more land or you are just dreaming this book is for you! Actually if you are just dreaming now what is really awesome is that you won’t make the mistakes as others of us has. Jenni walks you through some extremely practical topics of homesteading and you will get started on the right foot with your small-scale farming operation.
So here are some highlights of my favorite topics she covered in-depth in her book:
Soil Building
Feed Storage
Best Beginning Crops
She Also Covers some of these topics:
Food Storage
The Bees
Garlic (for those of you that follow my blog know this is a topic in and of itself)
A breakdown of lesser known foods that you can grow
I never share like to share everything I learned in the entire book because the point is for you to check it out yourself and I know you are going to enjoy it so if you don’t want to wait to see if you win you can purchase her paperback book at the Amazon link below.
Or you can purchase it on kindle at the Amazon link below.
Finally I loved the transparency that Jenni Blackmore shares in this book she really shares her challenges, her successes, and gives you plenty of topics to contemplate your strategy and your plan for when you embark on your permaculture adventures. I am looking forward to to my next book review coming soon so I hope you all come back soon.
So a few things about the giveaway since it is an actual paperback and I am shipping it out it is only open to folks in the continental US and you must be 18 years or older to enter. I wish you the best of luck in this giveaway.
I wish you all a beautiful week….until next time!
Fondly,
This book looks like my son and I would enjoy it greatly, I’ll have to keep an eye out for it up here as I’m out of the running for the give away.. 🙁 … Good to know Amazon carries it so I can start looking there…. Hope the weather is good down your way, we have rain incoming and more chilly temps maybe….
Just looked out my window and Mr Cardinal is having breakfast at my feeder, handsome devil he is!!!! The Mrs must be around too.. Have a great weekend!!!
Christine you would love this book! I am such a book lover and sometimes I check at the library if my budget just doesn’t have room but I promise you I know you by now and you would love this one! Tell Mr. Cardinal spring is coming your way soon…I feel it everyday now and I can’t wait for you to post that you have a huge smile on your face because the spring NC breeze finally made its way up to you friend. I always appreciate you sharing what is going on at your homestead…take care friend!
Spring is slowly showing her face here. We have rain moving in tonight to wash all the dirt away!! I’ve been doing surveys and such to help pay for Christmas and I’m thinking I might just have to add a little something or two to an Amazon order for me when I do that…. Or see if our local library can get it in, they should have a few dollars for new books as they just had the semi-annual book sale a couple of weeks ago!! Have a wonderful weekend KarenLynn!!!
Christine glad you are finally Spring popping in! I would definitely ask your local library…..I have to say I so miss the library I just don’t get there like I used to. This weekend was crazy busy we were in the midst of spring cleaning and getting the yard ready for the Coastal Cluck Coop Tour. Thanks for stopping in 🙂 I always look forward to hearing from you!
Can you tell me what part of the country she lives in? So many permaculture people reside in California. I find it a bit frustrating to purchase a book just to find that I can’t grow / do a lot of the same things here in Dallas Texas. Do you think her info speaks to different zones around the U.S. ? Thanks, you are such an inspiration to me! Dash
Dash first of all thank you for your kind words. I enjoy connecting with all of you…some are master gardeners, some are homesteaders, some are bloggers, but you all make my life richer! I am thankful for you! The author lives/lived in Vancouver so no stranger to the cold. I am sorry that I didn’t share that in the review. I will update the post if I have time. I often pick a book and read it but she writes a lot like I think and I am not joking I wanted to read more. I am bringing it to re-read in the car to my husband on our next road trip so I can share some of her ideas with him…he is not one to just sit with a book.
Hi Karen! Greetings from a little island of the east coast of Nova Scotia where today it is foggy but at least quite mild. I’ll take that 🙂 Firstly, let me thank you SO much for such a generous review of my book, Permaculture For The Rest of Us. I wrote it wanting it to be an encouragement manual because I truly believe that if I can do it anyone can. I tend to learn best by my mistakes and sometimes I’m a slow learner 🙁 so perhaps the motto of the book might be, I make ’em so you don’t have to!
Jenni we are truly kindred spirits! I tell people all the time to try and do what you want to do and that they don’t have to go permanently off grid if they do not want to. I love that motto by the way and so generous of you to share with others your journey. <3 Glad you took the time to stop in over here and I am even happier that I got the chance to review your book 🙂
Hello again! Just wanted to mention that my wonderful publishers New Society Publishers are on the west coast, of Canada close to Vancouver but my QuackaDoodle Farm is on the other side of the country in Nova Scotia, in an even harsher climate. I visited Texas a couple of months ago for the Mother Earth News Fair (which was amazing) and was able to tour a couple of urban farms. It seemed that the growing conditions were similar, just so long as you adjusted the seasons so that my May – Sept. was quite like February – May in an around Austin. I met many wonderful people there and the green thumbies were thriving. Yeah!
Jenni I am so sorry I got that wrong I will fix it asap. Thank you so much for stopping in and visiting this post….since you are here…I must say my husband and I truly loved your book it resonated with us so much with stuff we do and of course new information in the book that we want to try. Thanks again….:)