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The Urban Farm Handbook Giveaway

February 15th, 2012

When my friend Annette Cottrell from Sustainable Eats asked me to read through her new book Urban Farm Handbook: City Slicker Resources for Growing, Raising, Sourcing, Trading, and Preparing What You Eat I gladly accepted. There’s nothing I love more than giving my friends a hand, especially when it means that I get a free copy of the book to give away to one of you!

I expected this book to be like most of the other homesteading books that abound these days. It seems everyone wants to relearn some of the skills that have been lost throughout the last couple generations, so homesteading books are flooding the market. Thankfully, this book is different. Anette’s personal style brings the information to life, unlike many other books of this genre that I’ve read. She’s passionate about why she does what she does and it comes through. Her directions/explanations are in depth enough but still simple. You won’t be overwhelmed with information and feel like it’s unattainable for you to incorporate these changes into your current lifestyle.

The book covers everything from keeping chickens and grinding grain, to growing your own vegetables and making cheese. She makes these tasks seem achievable by anyone who sets their mind to it and takes away some of the mystique that surrounds them. If you’ve ever considered dabbling in keeping goats, chickens, making your own cheese, grinding grains, growing your own vegetables and all other kinds of self-sufficient things, this will be a fabulous reference guide to keep on your bookshelf.

Annette’s book is a great resource for the newbie, especially those of you that live in the Pacific Northwest. She lives in that area provides many resources that she knows about first hand. Reading about all the wonderful groups she’s a part of made me wish I had something similar here in NE Ohio.

If you’d like to win a copy of this book for your library, comment below. I’ll choose a winner next week.

What is one area of homesteading that you’d like to learn a bit more about and possibly incorporate into your life this year?

We have a winner – Congrats to Andres from Stell Homestead.

Anette is having a year long Urban Farm Handbook Challenge on her blog if you’re interested in joining. Each month a different area is featured, it’s the perfect way to work on incorporating changes into your life slowly without feeling overwhelmed.

In case you missed it, the winner for the Victory Garden Poster winner is Chicago Mike.

129 Comments to “The Urban Farm Handbook Giveaway”
  1. Sara on February 16, 2012 at 1:22 am

    This book looks fantastic, I would love to win it. I’m most interested in learning more about vegetable gardening, and cellaring/long term storage of crops.

    Reply to Sara's comment

  2. Dee on February 16, 2012 at 3:29 am

    Oooh… to start: vertical gardening, fermenting and other preserving, natural pest control.

    Reply to Dee's comment

  3. Lisa on February 16, 2012 at 9:07 am

    Would love to learn more about cool-weather gardening.

    Reply to Lisa's comment

  4. Karen on February 16, 2012 at 9:48 am

    I’d love to have chickens, but I can’t where I am. My neighbor has some though, so I *do* get the benefits! I’ve another neighbor with goats, that I get to goat-sit for sometimes… Not sure if I’d get them myself, I think I’d rather have sheep.
    I’d like to work on my gardening skills. While I get plenty of lettuce, basil, and some tomatoes, my potatoes, and onions are usually small. And my carrots look like wet thread. *sigh*
    Then, I’d like to learn how to preserve stuff other than just jams.

    Reply to Karen's comment

  5. Kaytee on February 16, 2012 at 9:55 am

    Raising chickens is my goal, but I need to wait until I have a more stable living situation. But this year, I would like to try grinding my own grains. And expand my cheese making capabilities.

    Reply to Kaytee's comment

  6. Kelly on February 16, 2012 at 10:57 am

    I’d like to learn more about tools to help with timing garden crops better. Perhaps succession planting techniques?

    Reply to Kelly's comment

  7. Rick on February 16, 2012 at 11:23 am

    Sounds like a great book, I’ll have to give it a read. My family is always laughing at my because my nose is always in a gardening book of some kind!

    Reply to Rick's comment

  8. cynthialeigh on February 16, 2012 at 11:46 am

    I love reading and dreaming of homesteading here at home! This sound like a great book! Thank you for the chance to win.

    Reply to cynthialeigh's comment

  9. April on February 16, 2012 at 11:55 am

    This would be a great addition to my resource library. If I am not the winner I will gladly find it at the book store!

    Reply to April's comment

  10. Jennifer Maltba on February 16, 2012 at 1:09 pm

    Ahhh…Looks like another great book to have on hand…You can never …ever.. have to many!

    Reply to Jennifer Maltba's comment

  11. Pamela on February 16, 2012 at 2:16 pm

    I plan to start a root cellar, and also to start making cheese.

    Reply to Pamela's comment

  12. Jaye Whitney on February 16, 2012 at 3:39 pm

    This book looks very intriguing! I like that it seems to have something for every aspect of the changes we’re all trying to make in even the tiniest ways.

    Reply to Jaye Whitney's comment

  13. Dixie on February 16, 2012 at 3:45 pm

    Chickens! After spending the past two years getting our garden started, we’d really like to add a small flock to the mix.

    Reply to Dixie's comment

  14. June on February 16, 2012 at 4:49 pm

    I’ve always wanted to learn how to keep bees. We have chickens and they are doing well… I think bees would be a fun new adventure for our suburban garden.

    Reply to June's comment

  15. Annette on February 16, 2012 at 7:48 pm

    I really want to get chickens, and expand the vegetable garden again. My cool weather crops did well this winter, since it was so mild. I’m going to have to accelerate plans to get more cold frames in before next winter

    Reply to Annette's comment

  16. Melanie on February 16, 2012 at 9:03 pm

    I’d love to have some chickens, but my city won’t permit it. Not yet, anyway!

    Reply to Melanie's comment

  17. Holly L on February 16, 2012 at 9:14 pm

    I’d love to learn to make cheese. One of my favorite foods.

    Reply to Holly L's comment

  18. Fred on February 16, 2012 at 9:51 pm

    where to start… cold weather gardening, vertical gardening, cultivating miushrooms, and beekeeping just to name a few.

    Reply to Fred's comment

  19. deedee on February 16, 2012 at 10:17 pm

    I’ll be adding this to my list of books to get/read!

    Reply to deedee's comment

  20. Erin on February 17, 2012 at 12:40 am

    I’ve now tried making ricotta and would love to try making more cheese!

    Reply to Erin's comment

  21. Andres on February 17, 2012 at 9:40 am

    I would love to raise chickens, but as that is against county regulations, I am going to have to wait (at least until I have a fence to obscure the garden….). I would also like to learn more about incorporating permaculture into my kitchen potager, to create more self sufficient gardens.

    Reply to Andres's comment

  22. Lozy on February 17, 2012 at 11:31 am

    I have really been enjoying your posts on sugaring! I also look forward to hear more about your bees as their season starts to approach.

    Reply to Lozy's comment

  23. Diane on February 17, 2012 at 8:42 pm

    Please enter me in the giveaway. I would like to learn about grinding grain and making cheese.
    Blessings
    Diane

    Reply to Diane's comment

  24. Kat on February 18, 2012 at 12:49 am

    I would love to raise my own chickens. Currently my area doesn’t allow it, but there is a large group of people trying to get that changed this year. Hopefully that works!

    Reply to Kat's comment

  25. Evelyn in Canada on February 19, 2012 at 1:18 am

    I continue to read info on getting the most produce out of an urban front yard and love to need to learn more about extending my growing season with hoop houses and coldframes.

    Reply to Evelyn in Canada's comment

  26. bonnie on February 19, 2012 at 8:20 pm

    I already garden, but would love to learn some more efficient ways of gardening.

    Reply to bonnie's comment

  27. Deairdre Miller on February 20, 2012 at 10:19 pm

    What a cool sounding book! I live in Oregon and recently had to move away from where I had the space to raise goats and chickens. I want to be able to continue to ‘homestead’ on the smaller area where I am now. While I miss my goaties, I am currently looking to having chickens again and making cheese. And gardening. And food preservation. And, and, and :)

    Reply to Deairdre Miller's comment

  28. Sheri on February 29, 2012 at 7:16 am

    I intend to start raising some hens this summer and would love added resources as well as other things to increase productivity of by back lot. thx

    Reply to Sheri's comment

About

This is a daily journal of my efforts to cultivate a more simple life, through local eating, gardening and so many other things. We used to live in a small suburban neighborhood Ohio but moved to 153 acres in Liberty, Maine in 2012.

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