+of+copy+3+ayib.JPG "The Year is over, but we're still baking!")
Holiday Giveaway:
Win A $100 Shopping Spree at Back 40 Books!
Just Some of the Delicious Reads Available from Back 40 Books
Do you love books as much as I do? Then this is the contest for you! Back 40 Books is a small Missouri company that's a big resource for anyone interested in a self-sufficient and sustainable lifestyle. They offer books on everything from alternative energy and Amish life to woodworking and worms—and dozens of subjects in between. Animal shelters, aquaculture, and blacksmithing? Yep, yep, and yep. Fencing, flowers, and greenhouses? Naturally. And that's just a small sampling from the Agriculture/Farming section. Of course they have all kinds of tasty food books, too.
Back 40 Books also carries a wide selction of CDs (many of which they purchase directly from the artists), DVDs and videos, and Leanin' Tree greeting cards. All items are in stock, so you'll get fast service—and shipping is free to U.S. addresses on all orders $25 and over (there's just a $2.50 handling fee on orders under $25.00). Holiday orders should be placed by December 15th for timely delivery. Back 40 Books gift cards are perfect for stocking stuffers or hard-to-buy-for individuals.
The Back 40 Forums let you join in discussions on things like ducks vs. chickens and recycling a 100-year-old log cabin schoolhouse. And country music fans will want to check out Back 40's new, commercial-free Internet radio station, KWBC, which is 'kickin' the world's best bluegrass, country, gospel, and Western.'
The generous folks at Back40Books are giving away a $100 shopping spree to one lucky Farmgirl Fare reader. To enter, leave a comment in this post telling us either 1) something self-sufficient or sustainable you do (Recycle half of your garbage? Shop at a farmers' market? Ride your bike to work? Buy stuff at thrift stores and flea markets? Grow backyard veggies? Belong to an organic Community Supported Agriculture program? Bake your own bread? Make your own soap?) or 2) which book(s) you'll order if you win.
The details:
One entry per person, please. I moderate comments, so if I'm away from the computer it may be several hours before yours actually appears. If your comment doesn't show up right away, there's no need to leave another one.
You can enter through next Wednesday, December 10th, and I'll choose and announce a random winner on Thursday, December 11th. Thanks for entering! The contest is over. I'll announce the winner later today. Please check back to see if you've won, especially if I have no way to get a hold of you (for example, if you have a blogger profile, is it public?). Sorry, but if I don't hear from you by Sunday, December 14th I'll have to pick another winner.
International readers are welcome to enter! But please realize that you will be responsible for all shipping charges (which can be deducted from the $100 if you choose). I checked with the Back 40 Books shipping department for a few examples of rates. To ship a 5-pound box of books to Canada would be about $22.00 Priority. To Australia or the UK it could be as low as $10.00 if you're willing to wait for first class delivery, or as much as $37.00.
I have more fun giveaways planned for December, so be sure to check back. Good luck!
© Copyright 2008 FarmgirlFare.com, the award-winning blog where I was treated to a shopping spree of my own recently, thanks to Farmgirl Fare sponsors BlogHer and JCPenney. You can read all about it here, and you can sign up to win your own JCPenney $300 shopping spree here.
Do you love books as much as I do? Then this is the contest for you! Back 40 Books is a small Missouri company that's a big resource for anyone interested in a self-sufficient and sustainable lifestyle. They offer books on everything from alternative energy and Amish life to woodworking and worms—and dozens of subjects in between. Animal shelters, aquaculture, and blacksmithing? Yep, yep, and yep. Fencing, flowers, and greenhouses? Naturally. And that's just a small sampling from the Agriculture/Farming section. Of course they have all kinds of tasty food books, too.
Back 40 Books also carries a wide selction of CDs (many of which they purchase directly from the artists), DVDs and videos, and Leanin' Tree greeting cards. All items are in stock, so you'll get fast service—and shipping is free to U.S. addresses on all orders $25 and over (there's just a $2.50 handling fee on orders under $25.00). Holiday orders should be placed by December 15th for timely delivery. Back 40 Books gift cards are perfect for stocking stuffers or hard-to-buy-for individuals.
The Back 40 Forums let you join in discussions on things like ducks vs. chickens and recycling a 100-year-old log cabin schoolhouse. And country music fans will want to check out Back 40's new, commercial-free Internet radio station, KWBC, which is 'kickin' the world's best bluegrass, country, gospel, and Western.'
The generous folks at Back40Books are giving away a $100 shopping spree to one lucky Farmgirl Fare reader. To enter, leave a comment in this post telling us either 1) something self-sufficient or sustainable you do (Recycle half of your garbage? Shop at a farmers' market? Ride your bike to work? Buy stuff at thrift stores and flea markets? Grow backyard veggies? Belong to an organic Community Supported Agriculture program? Bake your own bread? Make your own soap?) or 2) which book(s) you'll order if you win.
The details:
One entry per person, please. I moderate comments, so if I'm away from the computer it may be several hours before yours actually appears. If your comment doesn't show up right away, there's no need to leave another one.
You can enter through next Wednesday, December 10th, and I'll choose and announce a random winner on Thursday, December 11th. Thanks for entering! The contest is over. I'll announce the winner later today. Please check back to see if you've won, especially if I have no way to get a hold of you (for example, if you have a blogger profile, is it public?). Sorry, but if I don't hear from you by Sunday, December 14th I'll have to pick another winner.
International readers are welcome to enter! But please realize that you will be responsible for all shipping charges (which can be deducted from the $100 if you choose). I checked with the Back 40 Books shipping department for a few examples of rates. To ship a 5-pound box of books to Canada would be about $22.00 Priority. To Australia or the UK it could be as low as $10.00 if you're willing to wait for first class delivery, or as much as $37.00.
I have more fun giveaways planned for December, so be sure to check back. Good luck!
© Copyright 2008 FarmgirlFare.com, the award-winning blog where I was treated to a shopping spree of my own recently, thanks to Farmgirl Fare sponsors BlogHer and JCPenney. You can read all about it here, and you can sign up to win your own JCPenney $300 shopping spree here.
posted by Farmgirl Susan at 6:17 PM
313 Comments:
I love to bake bread, which has several benefits, aside from the sustainability part. It is yummy; more nutritious than store-bought bread;I buy the flour from King Arthur Co, where all employees own a stake in the company; and I find it incredibly theraputic.
Books, I love them, I think I would like any book about apples, a slight obsession this year
thanks for the great blog
Hello Farmgirl! Well, I read your blog faithfully, but I'm pretty sheepish (uhh, no pun intended! I think!) to leave any comments. So does it make me a bad person to leave one now that there's a free giveaway? Hmmm...
Anyhow. I DO most of those things that you were mentioning. I grow veggies in the back of the brownstone, I recycle, I make my own bread, I sew, I make my own soap, I even make my own floor and counter cleaner (all hail baking soda!)..hmm, now if I could only keep sheep in the apartment! :)
I'll try for winning as the 1st commenter, once again. To live more sustainably, I grow vegetables on my rooftop and in window boxes inside my manhattan apartment.
Also, I compost all my food scraps by chopping them up and putting them in my specially designated compost blender. When it's full, I blend and dump into a bucket for compost I keep on my fire escape. The blending makes decomposition much faster, and adds water to the pile on a regular basis. I use the compost in my garden at planting time in the Spring.
And, of course, I recycle as much as possible.
I moved from Alaska to Wisconsin this summer. Up in Alaska there was not much recycling going on. Now that I moved here I'm starting to recycle. I have 2 bins going. One for plastic and one for cans. I end up with one trash bag every 2 weeks of unrecyclable trash. I'm very interested in goats and making soap with the milk. So if I won I would get soap books and goat books.
Also, I don't know if you would remember me but I e-mailed you from Alaska about moving here to WI , you were very nice and sent a encourging e-mail back. Thanks.
I love your blog and the daily dose of cute. I shop at 2 of the Farmers Markets available in the Atlanta area.
I also recycle and make my own bread, cookies, cakes and pies.
I love books of all kinds and am hoping that I win this contest.
I recycle, use cloth diapers on my little one, clean mainly with baking soda and vinegar and try not to buy unnecessary items. I do the best I can to be friendly to the environment.
As for books, I would probably buy the Little Critters books for my book obsessed little one and probably something on paper making or knitting for me. It would be a hard decision though.
I make my own bread and other baked goods for that matter and try to recycle and be frugal in every way I can.
Great contest! I tried to pick out books I would get, but I was like a kid in a candy shop and would have to study and narrow it down a bit! ;-) I keep free ranging chickens for their eggs, put out a garden in the Spring (which has been top dressed in the fall with sheep and chicken manure), raise sheep for the fiber arts--spinning/felting etc. I also re-use, recycle, reduce as much as I can, and don't happen to think just because a new version of something comes out that I need it..until the old one is kaput. Thanks again for a great contest!
Tammy
We recycle most of our garbage, and I make as much homemade foods as possible. Plus, we grow a few veggies on our back patio in containers. I would enjoy reading some of the American Ingenuity Classics and the self-sufficiency/survival skills books.
Thanks for the write-up of Back 40 Books. I shall have a good browse shortly. We live on a little farm in Australia and summer has just started. Our only water supply is our rainwater, we grow our own vegetables, fruit, berries. Unfortunately, we are not yet self-sufficient but working on it. Our 5 sheep provide wool for warm socks, jumpers, scarves, gloves, etc. for winter. The chooks (aussie speak for 'chickens') are free-range and roam the whole place. Super-yellow egg yolks, as you can imagine.
Come winter we shall have some time again to sit in front of the fire and read books on self-sufficiency and plan our next projects around the farm. Thanks for your great blog, which we have been following for a long time now. :)
Ah, I love books. All books.
As for sustainability, we do the backyard gardening and chicken raising thing, along with all the composting, thrift store shopping, seed swapping, etc. that goes along.
Also, I take the train to work. This might be my very favorite sustainable thing, since it is the only one that equals more reading time.
Please enter my name in your drawing. I do garden in raised beds and am always looking for more new resources, usually in books, because I love to learn and then do!
Thanks.
I live in a low income neighborhood and I teach Biointensive backyard gardening on the weekends, I have a demonstration garden where my neighbors can come and learn to grow food. These books could add to our community library!
Thanks!
Brian
http://www.plantedparadise.com
This looks like a wonderful book store, and a great contest! We grow a garden, have fruit trees at 5300', compost, recycle, make all meals from scratch, do lots of canning and dehydrating, grind our own flours, make all our own baked goods, etc. I make our own household cleaners and use a clothesline in the summer. I spin-wool, but sometimes our dog's hair, knit, sew, and sometimes weave. I try to think good thoughts and be kind to my neighbors.
Oh, man, oh, man. This is the giveaway for me! I love books, and I'm all over sustainability issues.
I grow a lot of what we eat in my garden, and I keep hens for eggs. Also, I bake all our bread, do a lot of cooking at home, and focus on reducing wastage of food. The hens help a lot with that.
Other than that, we do a lot of things to save money, that also happen to be sustainable, like hanging our laundry to dry inside year-round, driving as little as possible, and keep the thermostat low in winter while layering up.
Oh wow! I love this!
I would order the Heirloom Tomatoes book for my favorite heirloom tomato grower. He would love to see something like that!
What a great giveaway! Thanks for the offer.
To be more sustainable our family grows tons of veggies in our backyard and fruit in the front yard. We also compost and have vermi-compost, buy in bulk, do lots of cooking and in season freezing, sew, make our own soaps, cleaners and deodorant, and cloth diaper our baby!
OH...and we run an organic produce co-op out of our lanai one afternoon a week.
Yeah, we're pretty crunchy :)
We recycle, grind wheat to make our own bread, garden & can the excess. But I guess the most sustainable thing is, that DH is working on creating a CSA with his university to provide fresh, sustainably grown foodstuff for the school, the community, but especially for those on welfare. There is a tremendous lack of fresh food available to this segment of the population.
Plus we love to read!!!
I have a small organic vegetable garden, recycle, try to be conscious about consumption and buy used stuff, save energy by using fluorescent lights and minimizing heating/cooling, and live close enough to school that I almost never need a car. Most importantly, I'm a graduate student in ecology and will be teaching for the first time next semester. Hopefully, some of my research will be useful in moving towards sustainability.
Hello there!
Thank you for this fantastic opportunity.
I make all of my own cleaning supplies, laundry detergent. I recycle like you wouldn't believe--even dumpster diving in to my neighbor's trash to pull out recyclables. I have a little suburban garden that feeds my family, my friends, and my neighbors. I currently making slippers from felted sweaters, shopping bags out of birdseed bags, and homemade spa supplies for Christmas presents.
I'm an avid reader and a friend of my local library. If I were to win, I would work with my librarian to make choices that would benefit our library's holdings and therefore, the community.
Peace to you this holiday season!
I started the environmental awareness group in my church of 3000+. Now the whole church recycles paper, plastic, aluminum, and glass.
On a personal level, I take all of the corrugated cardboard generated by our apartment building to the recycling center.
I recycle quite a bit (until my depot took away plastics - boo) and belong to a CSA. I'd love to learn more about suburban gardening (making the most of my yard) and rain recycling.
Howdee...I would love to win the contest..but i dont feel worthy compared to all these other very worthy contestants.. but here goes...My husband and I live full time in a Motorhome and travel. When we visit family and friends we love to help out around the garden. What I would love to do is to add some type of sustainable garden in each of the areas we stop.
I would love after creating these gardens...to can..dry ..store..the results of our work.
anyway..thats it...thanks for the informative blog.
I recycle as much as possible (CT isn't stellar on recycling) and compost. If I win, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver is at the top of my list! Then some soapmaking books, that's something I've been planning on trying...
1) three compost bins, whenever I'm in the kitchen, I have one large bowl going for the chickens and another large bowl for the compost bins
2)recycle containers for tin, clear glass, dark glass, paper, and plastic.
3) have NDD goats and poultry, we drink raw goats milk and eat fresh eggs
4) compost goat and chicken poop
5) buy produce from our local Farmers Market
6) sell eggs at our local Farmers Market
7) we eat LOCAL as much as possible and we frequently bake our own bread, kneaded in our KitchenAid ;-)
8)love to read about being self-sufficient, and blogs to that effect
9)head up recycling at the office by putting up signs and furnishing containers. (At first, containers were pushed out of sight and I had to throw a hissy fit to get 'em back).
10) concious of water use
11) we're nesters, our footprint isn't very large
12) use the recommended eco-friendlier lightbulbs
13) I VOTE for politicians that at least claim to be enviromentally concious.
14) bumper sticker on my truck reads: NO FARMS, NO FOOD
15) making efforts to be debt free
16) divided our home into a duplex, provides rental income $$, we share utilites, etc and Mike and I live in only 1/2 of our house (vegetarian chef batchelor lives in the other side)
17) on outside projects, we strive to use recycled lumber, etc
18) Coworkers and neighbors recycle egg cartons for us
19) My parents were cremated and now reside among my backyard azalea bushes.
20)Always ready to READ about new ways to improve on being eco-friendly.
Cool giveaway! We recycle all of our plastic bottles and our paper. We also keep a compost heap :-)
We seem to find more and more ways to live more naturally and simply each passing year. This year we joined a local CSA and also started growing some of our own veggies. We've been composting too.
Thanks for the giveaway opportunity!
I'd definitely nab the rootcellar book and the Knott's handbook. I have an ex-hippy landlord who needs convincing that tearing up the back yard is a good idea.
We raise alpacas, and we take all the manure and use it in our garden. We also have rabbits in our greenhouse to help keep the plants warmer longer. We just picked the last tomatoes off the plants today even with the heavy frost we had last night. Very nice (but sad we'll have to wait a while for our next fresh tomatoes. We also can fruits and veggies. The books I would get would be dairy related. Like Home Cheese making, Getting Started with Beef & Dairy, and other cattle books since we're looking to add a family milk cow or 2.
Bil
bil@silkcreekalpacas.com
What a wonderful giveaway - these books are "right up my alley!" Thank you for hosting this!
This would be an amazing prize to win! Here at home we have apple trees and grape vines for fresh and preserved fruit, keep hens for eggs and raise heritage breed (Black Welsh and Jacob) sheep for meat and wool. I wash, card, spin and knit with my own yarns. We jumped in head first about 2 years ago and haven't looked back.. although we have had to take some crash courses in fencing, farming and gardening! Having a well stocked home library is essential, and there are many more books we would love to have!!
I have various ways that I try to live more sustainably. We recycle much more than we throw away. We compost. We grow a vegetable garden in our very small back yard supplemented with pots.
Wow...what books wouldn't I want from Back 40. There's a great Candlemakers book. Herbalist's Way. Several canning books I saw.
I rarely use paper towels anymore. I have 5 - 6 dozen of the white towels that the hardware store sells in the auto parts area. I use them for wiping down counters, drying dishes, as napkins, and for household cleaning. A lot of them fit into a load of laundry (which is why I have so many). I wash them with hot water and bleach and they stay in good shape for quite a while. That is of course if the dogs don't decide to play tug with them! The paper towels are used mostly to clean up animal body functions in the house.
This year, I also began freezing and dehydrating food so that my husband and I can eat local all year, as well as control the quality of what we are eating. We were worried the freezer was too big when we bought it (the biggest one was the most energy efficient). Well, it is stuffed to the brim! My goal was to freeze or dry enough to make it to next June, when the fresh local vegetables come back in. And we have done that.
I do most of our cooking from scratch. I worked for a large food conglomerate for a while and was pressured to taste test new products. They were not very happy when I explained that what they sold was not what I cooked.
i have a nice big garden, but i also work at a local farmers' market and take home all the bruised and slightly overripe veggies that otherwise would be tossed and pass them out to friends and family who don't have gardens. it's small, but it's something.
thanks for the chance!
kate.
My sustainable activities include shopping at my local farmer's market and cooking on the weekend to fill my whole fridge for the coming week's meals.
THank youf or accepting my entry
We recycle more than 1/2 our garbage, the city of Monterey makes it easy. All the yard trimmings get collected and composted. We eat snails gathered from our organic yard; we have three fruit trees that provide fresh and canned fruits for us and some of our neighbors. I patronize the four local Farmers' Markets regularly (and none of the chain grocery or other stores). My boyfriend spins and I knit.
I grind my own wheat, bake my own bread, vermicompost, compost and this year started growing heirloom veggies in the backyard. I'd love to sit down with my daughter and pick out some books to continue our journey into more sustainable lifestyle. Thanks for introducing us to back 40 books!
We had a vegetable garden this summer, and have grand plans for expanding into fruit trees & berries. My husband bikes to work when it isn't raining or snowing or freezing. We compost MOST of our kitchen scraps.
I'd order any books on potager design--I really want to do away with my front yard and replace it with a formal kitchen garden.
I'd order:
- Brew Chem 101
- Farm Blacksmithing
- Encyclopedia of Country Living
- Uncommon Fruits For Every Garden
- Low-Impact Forestry
I grew up with gardening, canning, and making due because my parents had grown up as dirt farmers in Kentucky. I thought I was going to rebel!
Life played a trick on me. I'm allergic to the base of all processed foodstuffs - corn, soy, and milk (maybe gone?) - so, I have become lil' miss self-sufficiency.
Even my dad has made fun of me for being way above the call of duty for this since I have discovered the local farmer's market! Not only do I buy from the farmer's market, I also belong to a CSA.
I also try and make people aware of the plight of small farmers and want to do anything I can to encourage people to eat local and support local-focused food businesses - including publishers devoted to those interests.
I also love books - all books. The focus of what was supposed to be my knitting blog turned into book reviews. Granted, the majority are about "cotton candy" books, but I also review science and news books. If I remember, most of the books I buy will probably be reviewed on my site as well.
Ok, I'll quit talking now!
Working toward being a "sustainable" and have made some progress with so much more to go. We grow a lot of our own vegetables and fruit (working on extending into winter) plus are members of a vegetable and a meat CSA. Milk from a raw milk co-op. Would like to get our own chickens next spring and hopefully bees sometime in the near future. Could really use some books on those topics (but if I don't win, I'm happy to check them out of the local library, too). Thanks to you and the generous book store for the giveaway.
- andrea
I enjoy your blog! This year, my neighbours and I applied for a city grant and built three raised beds in our urban front yards and planted lots of wonderful veggies. I've also planted my own vegetable garden in my south facing front yard. Its so satisfying to grow our own food.
I love this idea! We live in a townhouse, but do as much as we can with what we have. We have a garden plot at a community garden, compost at home in our tiny backyard (we keep it pretty stink-free), we can/freeze our own and farmer's market produce, recycle, make our own breads and yogurt, and participate in our local food co-op. I'm even hoping to learn to make cheese if Santa is good to me!
For books I'd choose, they have so many that are already on my list - the Home Cheese-making (unless Santa beats me to it), the Busy person's guide to preserving food, maybe one or two of the other cheese-making books, or the nature books for kids - the bird ones because my hubby is a bird nerd, and then finally and absolutely, the encyclopedia of country living. Choosing for sure now is too hard, but if I had to, I would force myself! Thanks for having a great contest!
That would be wonderful. I live in the city, but dream of moving to acreage. I'm always looking for ways to live more simply and do more for ourselves, even on our little limited piece of land. We do have chickens! I hang my clothes on the line. I have grown my own veggies with limited success, but we do have pecan trees and a fig tree. I put up figs every year.
And I think you have the cutest donkeys in the world!
I live in a medium sized city, so sustainability is a challenge. I compost and garden and shop at the Farm Market in season. Each step is a small one, but small steps do make a difference. I'm heading over to look at the book selection now!
What a wonderful giveaway! I checked out the Back 40 Books website and they have tons of good stuff there.
Lately I've been using old magazines and catalogs to make cool envelopes. I'd love to get a paper-making book so that I can make something to go inside those envelopes.
Hi there! I adore your critters and the shots from your gorgeous homestead! While I don't have quite as many acres to work with, I am interested in sustainability . . . so this giveaway is ideal! This year my family is doing a re-gifting Christmas, so that we don't go out and acquire more stuff we don't need, when stuff we do need is probably sitting in our relatives' garages! We also have a trio of chickens for delicious eggs, compost all our scraps (at least those the chickens don't eat first), grow as much veg as we can on our rocky soil, and are starting a small fruit orchard. We're working on it! Many thanks for your inspiring blog and this fabulous giveaway! (And, just to answer the other question, I would love a book on beekeeping--save those dwindling supplies of bees!--and also perhaps a tome about gourd crafting, and then also that book "Our Farm" to inspire my kiddos . . . I could go on). Thanks again!
i love baking my own bread.
We live off grid when we can spend time in Westcliffe. Spent most of the year there last year. This year a different story. My dad was ill and we came back to spend time with him. He passed in June of this year.
With the state of the economy and the cost of traveling 150 miles one way to get to our little piece of heaven on earth, we've been spending more of our time staying put here in Denver. Our peach trees were amazing here in Denver this summer. We also planted close to 300 trees.
We do all the recycling we can. What the dogs or chickens don't eat gets buried in the garden. Ha, that how our peach trees got started 5 years ago, from seeds. I'm not kidding we had a crop to die for this year.
Much of the lumber we used to build in Westcliffe was recycled in some way.
Do all the normal plastic, glass, cardboard recycling.
Love reading your blog. I'm a lurker. I sure could learn some knew stuff from your giveaway. :)
What a great contest!
At the moment the most sustainable/self-sufficient thing that I do is breastfeed my child. I am also a part of our local CSA and really try to buy local/organic if possible. I know it is better for my family, but I also just feel more thankful and appreciative of what I am cooking when I know how it was grown or raised.
I too do many many of things you mentioned: I belong to a CSA, shop at farmers' markets, try to buy in bulk, recycle, do errands by bike (until I have to get something really heavy), compost, etc. And I'd love to get my hands on some more organic gardening books (from an independent retailer, no less).
I try very hard to recycle. I also make all of our own bread and we shop at only local stores and farmers markets. We own a small business so we now how important it is to support local people. We also recycle our old clothes by making something new out of them.. baby washclothes, quilts, dog t-shirts... Give me a old shirt and I can make just about anything ;)
The kids and I also try to pick up the litter while we take our stroller walks.
I am so jealous of your country living.... Im a city girl who would love the country living.
Over the years, as our family life has changed, we've done different things. We do recycle what we can (we live in the suburbs and the garbage company doesn't collect everything we'd like them to.) We hope to get back to composting soon. We've had a veggie garden most every year except about four in the last 25; the responsibility for that has now mostly been turned over to our oldest daughter, Sarah. I used to make our bread, but since my husband was diagnosed with incurable cancer and kidney failure, I haven't done so, although again, Sarah does sometimes. And, I have enough soap left from my former toiletries business that we don't have to buy any! Sarah and I make a lot of our own toiletries, although we haven't been able to convince her sister to try them.
Am I allowed to win even if we're friends? I hope so, I want new books and I grow my own veggies every year (well, you know that already.)
I love books soooo much. I make my own gluten-free bread and have my own chickens that I keep for fertilizer and eggs. I hope this counts as a sustainability trait....
What a great deal! I am an avid reader of non-fiction, instructional-type tomes--I love to take something away from what I am reading. I would have a hard time picking only $100 dollars worth of books! Food, cooking, baking, organic gardening, and composting would be my choices. As we are buying a home, I'd also like to read up on green renovations and repairs. And as for living sustainably, I may be a city girl, but I recycle like a crazy woman, bake my own bread, keep an organic garden, and buy eco-friendly products. I also shop my farmer's markets and try to buy locally. Here's to many nights spent reading!
I bake bread, tend a garden, belong to a CSA, recycle everything I can and compost. And this is in NJ, which ought to give me an extra point or two. Elizkat
There were only 14 comments when I went looking to see what I would choose with the $100 and became so distracted I somehow ended up in Portugal... virtually of course.
Let's see... what don't I do? How about how I joined a Food Council that seeks to support sustainable systems.
And, I'd want the "$64 Tomato" and "Pumpkin" and "Serving Up The Harvest" among others. I already have "The Real Dirt on Vegetables; Farmer John's Cookbook" but I'd choose the movie if they had it as it's my favorite of all time. The movie just moves me.
Fun Giveaway!
I recycle cans, newspapers, food scraps, yard wastes, etc. I do all sorts of water-saving tricks, and we keep the thermostat at 68 degrees. I also shop at organic stores,and use canvas bags. I also like to learn tips to save the environment.
Here's what I'd ask for if I won:
Heirloom Tomato
Medicinal Herbs
Herbal Teas
Herbal Handbook
Dr. Kidd’s Guide to Herbal Dog Care
Healthy House Book
Healing Tonics
And I'm sure I'm over the $100.00!
We recycle as much as we can, paper, tins, glass and plastic, and then smaller bits of paper, such as envelopes, sweet wrappers etc get saved and used to light our log burner. We also compost all our veggie peelings and garden waste to put back on the garden the following year. Most of our light bulbs are the energy efficient sort and we drive a low emission diesel fueled car.
Hi Farmgirl,
I love your blog!
Holiday giveaway entry:
I try to be a responsible earth inhabitant. I take public transportation to work. I grow my own herbs in my SF apartment and shop the farmer's market for most of my fresh produce. I try to partcipate as much as possible in my city's recycle program. Fortunately SF provides many resources to be able to do all of the above.
I am also trying to become a better baker so that I can make my own bread.
Thank you for your blog, I really enjoy it.
Carolyn I.
fishoutofwater@gmail.com
We've been doing a lot of things: growing some of our own food, buying locally, canning, recycling, thrifting, line drying, etc. But the latest thing is composting our garbage in a worm bin under the kitchen table. If I won, I would like a book about cider-making, to start with. We have our first 5-gallon batch bubbling away in the cellar.
A few of my more sustainable habits:
recycling, walking and riding the bus, reusing bags, baking bread and other from-scratch cooking, favoring organic and sustainably raised foods, not eating meat.
Thanks, Farmgirl!
Hi, I enjoy reading all your blogs! Here in Mexico, I compost all my kitchen waste, have a small vegetable garden, fruit trees, shop at the street market weekly and I hope to raise some chickens in the near future. I bake bread, cookies and cakes and cook from scratch. Both of my sons were cloth diapered. I line dry most of our clothes. We hoping one day to go solar for our power source.
Hi Farmgirl...
What a terrific give-away! I'm a faithful reader, just not a faithful responder. I love books; I make time to read. I checked the Back 40 link and the first book to show up was about Randy Owen, one of my favorites. That's one possibility.
I do recycle; I can not believe the reduction in my weekly trash pickup.
Thanks for offering such a great give-away.
Linda in St. Louis
Hi this is such a great contest! 1) Since I live in Switzerland a lot of sustainable things, like recycling everything possible and using public transit (much of which runs on electric) are just part of daily life in Europe's least polluting country, but I also like to bake my own bread, support bio/organic and fair trade products, and support local farmers by buying direct from farmer's markets or the farms themselves. I really love my egg guy, who lives down the road and provides the most delicious eggs with intensely yellow yolks. 2) I wouldn't buy anything with the 100$ becuase I'd give it to my dad for Christmas since he is trying to convert his house to be 100% carbon neutral and start to grow his own food. I'll probably get him a gift certificate if I don't win.
What a great contest!
Okay, here are a few of the things I do:
*I bake my own bread with starter from my own grapes, water, and flour.
*I sometimes make my own cheese (two wheels of parmesan are in the basement now).
*I garden, and then can, freeze, and dry the food
*We hang our clothes on the clothesline, and we have no dishwasher.
*We don't have a TV.
*I homeschool my kids
*I love natural childbirth (the last one was born at home, though I was shipped off to the hospital later on account of a Stuck Placenta)
*And so on.
Merry Christmas!
-JJ
I save veggie scraps to make stock, throw away as little as possible (there's no recycling in my part of the world), and try to reuse everything.
I sew, we grow our own vegies and meat, I recycle everything I can, I make my own soap and washing liquid, scraps go to the chooks, I used cloth nappies on my babies, I have made my own paper in the past, we rely on tankwater collected from our roof, we have a small orchard. I think I have covered the main ones. I often drop in to your blog to catch up, although this is my first comment! Hi!
Oh - I also forgot to mention that we built a mudbrick and recycled timber home!
Cheers
I sew, knit, bake, cook, garden, make cheese, freeze food and this year I successfully canned for the first time!
Looks like the company has many wonderful titles to offer! Too hard to make a decision!
My husband, daughter and I have recently tried to make changes in our lifestyle to become more sustainable. We grow our own veggies, are in the market for a composter and I've been looking for books about backyard chicken coops. This would be our first experience with chickens and to tell the truth don't know if we are even allowed to house them in our neighborhood.
Thanks!
i bake our bread, grow a garden, raise rabbits and chickens. recycle, line dry my clothes, choose cotton fabrics, buy local, shop my farmers market and i'm teaching myself to knit! please throw my name in the hat for this awesome giveaway! good luck everyone!
btw, i'm posting the giveaway on twitter too!
Books on drying foods.
I recycle glass, tin, al, paper, cardboard and plastic. Family of 5 and we put out less than 1 can or trash a week.
candy
books! I love books, and I would have a serious problem choosing if I won. I used my first composted dirt in a raised bed garden this year, and am planning on adding a new bed in the spring (removing front yard grass.. less mowing!) We recycle or compost the grand majority of our household waste, and I took up canning and bread baking this year.. If I didn't live in the city we'd get some chickens for the dog to guard.
I found an organic food co-op in town using localharvest.org. It's a lot of fun seeing what's in my share each week-- and finding recipes to see what to do with the unfamiliar items.
Love the blog... especially the donkeys!
I also make my own bread with fresh ground wheat. I try to conserve water and electricity and teach my children to and why that is important. I am interested in the farm life but not at a place in life where I can do that yet. Always researching and dreaming though!
What a great contest! I love making bread, I have a little garden (when the rabbits aren't helping themselves), the kids often carry kitchen scraps to the compost (I only go back there when the weather is nice!), and I have dreams of raising alpaca someday.
I think I would have a hard time choosing books. I'd like a good gardening book (maybe something could suggest what to do about the pesky rabbits that's humane), I like to knit, so maybe the book on growing plants for dyeing fiber. Oh, yeah, and a good cook book, and a soap making book...candles!, candles are good....
I shop at a local farmer's market, we have a garden and can throughout the season.
I also love to bake for my family.
Hi Farmgirl - I love to make and grow things from scratch. This would include a kitchen garden, bread, and lots of other things.
I have a big soft spot for books and would love to see what fun finds this bookstore has!
I live in a very compact downtown neighborhood, but despite having a postage-stamp sized yard I do attempt to grow as much of my own food as I can.
Our biggest effort for sustainability right now is renovating the house to be more energy-efficient. Who knew that 100-year-old houses could be big energy drains?
We also recycle, freecycle, and buy local. We compost our kitchen waste. I shun modern all-purpose cleaner and instead use a water/vinegar/essential oil mixture.
bake all of our bread...yes
joined veggie CSA summer '08..yes
veggie CSA winter '08/'09..yes
winter fruit CSA '08/09..yes
already signed up and paid deposit for summer '09 CSA...yes
buying local lamb, pork, chicken and beef for freezer...yes
buying milk and eggs from local farm...yes
frequent the local farmers markets and local farms...yes
Almost never step into a chain grocery store anymore....YES!
I love the way my life has changed.
Sheila Z
This year, I got much more into canning so I could preserve some of the leftovers from my garden (and also to make christmas presents!). I recycle everything I can, compost my kitchen scraps, and my newest project is trying to break myself of using paper towels for 75% of the things I use them for.
But there's still so much I could learn from these books!
I joined freecycle in my town and have been using that to get rid of some of the stuff I have. Instead of tossing it, there are people out there who can use it and in a way we are recycling stuff.
Hello,
I've been reading your blog for awhile, but hadn't worked up the courage to leave a comment yet. I guess now is a good time to do so! There are many books that I would love to get from that site - especially some of the cooking and sewing books.
I walk to school (I'm a grad student) each day, which is a four-mile round trip. I also bake bread every week or so, I make my own cleaners, and basically do everything I can to minimize consumption.
Hi! We love books too! We also live in a solar powered home, heat the house with wood from our own land, raise the majority of our own food (milk, eggs, lamb, pork, beef, garden) and are working toward growing our own grains and also developing a local source for clean grains and feeds for people and animals. Lot's more too! We're always thinking "what are the base ingredients in this and how can we grow/make them ourselves?" A fun and challenging exercise.
My fiancee and I have been working to incorporate more sustainable living practices, which is a bit more complicated to do living in a large city. We recycle, bake our own bread and other baked goods ( we often get ideas from different food blogs, including yours), We brew our own beer and mead and try to eat local as much as possible. This includes regularly shopping at the local farmers market, working at a local CSA farm during weekends, and borrowing a small corner of a greenhouse in order to grow our own tomatoes, basil, hot peppers, and a very small stevia plant.
I shop at the local farmer's market, but am unable to have a vegetable garden. I love books and would choose cookbooks about veggies and baking bread!
That is an awesome book store to know about. One sustainable thing we do is grow our own veggies in the yard, fertilized sustainably by the horses in the yard. Now if only we could get them to do the weeding as well.
Gardening, composting, recycling,canning, freezing, baking...you know the usual, lol! I also reuse camel poo in my garden, does that count?
Thanks for your great blog! We'd order:
Encyclopedia of Country Living
Singing Creek
More with Less
Picture Yourself Cooking w/ Your kids
Great Possessions
And I could go on! This is a great find - thank you !
i love the challenge of trying to lead a more sustainable life, and take great pleasure in doing little things to help make a difference. some of my lifestyle choices include: using homemade cloth napkins, line drying all clothing which has been washed in cold water only, biking everywhere i can, low-flow faucet heads, washing and reusing all plastic bags and also containers, no a/c, only fans (that's commitment for a florida girl!), composting kitchen scraps, eating vegan, participation in local food-buying group, the keeper/diva cup (no tampons or pads), thai deodorant stone (no plastic packaging), unplugging appliances, thrifting (!), recycling, a plastic bottle filled with water in the toilet tank to reduce flush capacity, rain barrels, native plantscaping, sewing, cooking... erm, that just about covers it! it gives me such inspiration and hope to see so many other like minded peeps! we are in good company! thanks for the chance to grow my home library of resources.
I LOVE cookbooks! Someday, when we redo our kitchen, I'm going to have lots of shelves and fill them with hundreds of cookbooks! So that's probably what I would buy.
For the sustainability part, I do a ton of gardening, canning, freezing, baking bread, actually, making almost everything from scratch, I grind my own whole wheat flour, I hang the laundry up to dry, I reuse plastic food bags and recycle any bottles or cans that I end up using, if I do buy veggies, I get most of them from my neighbors veggie stand, I use cloth diapers on my baby...and the list goes on! I think it's so much fun to live like this, knowing that I have done my part to make the world a better place for my children to live in. Hopefully I can pass that legacy on to them!
I make bread sometimes, although I've had a harder time getting it to rise correctly on the East Coast...not sure why. We recycle a sizeable chunk of our garbage, but perhaps the biggest for me has been making the switch from disposable diapers all the time to using a combo of cloth and gdiapers...using disposable only at night...hopefully phasing them out completely. I would LOVE the shopping spree!
I joined a CSA for the first time last spring and I'm permanently hooked. It made me so happy to walk to the pick-up every Saturday & fill my backpack with gorgeous veg. still dirt-dusted from the farm. It inspired my cooking and improved my health.
I also garden and make all my own bread, like so many other commenters (which I'm thrilled to see!). I also make my own vegetable stock by saving leftover but good vegetable bits (potato peels, broccoli stalks, the thick bit in the onion, etc.) in the freezer and then boiling it all down when the bag's full.
Have you ever told the story of how you and Joe got together?
By the way, I've baked two blueberry pound cakes in the past two days. My son has eaten them both!! Think I got the recipe from my other favorite site---Pioneer Woman
Gramps
Lke many others, I have my small veggie garden, which I am planning to expand in 2009, and for the first time, it looks like I will be going completely heirloom. I'm excited!
On a different note, I only drink tap water, never bottled. My city's water is fabulous, and it makes me crazy to see all my coworkers going through several of those plastic bottles every day.
Thanks for the great giveaway!! A few things we do to be more sustainable....grow and preserve our own veggies, belong to a local organic CSA, compost and bake our own bread. This coming year we are hoping to get some chickens and bees!
We recently moved from Nebraska to Ohio, and with the move I managed to get myself a home with nearly two acres. Normally I drive around until I find neighbors or random strangers with fruit trees and ask if I can have their left-overs. (Most are happy to get the fruit out of their yard) I then can it and use it throughout the year.
Now that we have two acres I have asked my b=husband to find a good rainwater collection system to build, and we are going to build a large "victory" garden, we're going to be victorious over the darned economy.
I would like to find some books on rainwater collection, as well as for putting up less common produce.
I compost, grow veggies and am slightly obsessed with recycling.
Hi, we are slowly adding more and more things to the list of what we are doing to reduce, reuse and recycle. We raise chickens with the help of a small elementary school, each year I take about 36 fertile eggs to them and the second grade class hatches them out in an incubator I got at a farm auction for $10, when they are a couple days old I bring them home. Last year they had a straggler that ended up staying at the school for a couple extra days and it was eventually taken home by the librarian, she made it a coop with plans from one of my chicken books that I lent her and then she just had to get her some friends. They now have 6 chickens. Introducing others to the joys of chickens is something I love doing. We have about 12 free-range chickens and 60 more that are cage-free, we sell the eggs to people at our city jobs.
Also, another big savings for us was when diesel starting costing more than gas I gave my car to my husband so he could park his truck and I started taking the bus, it's a 50 mile one way trip, too far to bike, but on the bus I can knit and it reduced out fuel bill ny about $500 a month.
If I won I would gets books on fiber animals, I am on Craig's list everyday looking for deals on animals that need new homes for whatever reason. I would love to have a mixed flock of fiber animals, mohair goats, alpaca's, llama's and sheep.
Thank you for the intro to a great source of books.
Kathy Tuschhoff
Wow, I love contests! And books!
I do several things to help out Nature: I ride to work 2-3 days/week, I recycle, I shop at farmer's markets, I buy organic when I can, and I even shop for clothes at thrift stores (and take in donations too). I feel bad if I have to throw something away. :)
-Kathy
I have a large garden and grow and home-can my own vegetables. I can my own sauces too like spaghetti sauce, salsa, bbq sauce, etc. I love your blog!
Sustainability is our family name.
Okay, not really. But we garden, raise livestock, compost everything we can, bake, cook, can . . . I think I'm done for now.
Lets see -- hopefully a big kitchen garden counts? We freeze and can lots of goodies -- applesauce, salsa, greenbeans, tomatoes, etc...
I recycle, I home make/bake most things, and keep a food storage (my church believes we should have a year's worth of extra food storage--we're trying to get there!) I love cook books and things to do with home storage, organizing and gardening.
Thanks for highlighting this company! How cool!! I bake my own bread (or maybe your bread since most recently it was one of your recipes), garden, and I am planning for chickens and ducks on my 1.5 city acres this spring. I have dyed some wool from our walnut trees and am trying to establish an orchard and berries as well.
Farmgirl you are great! I just had a piece of your Orange Yogurt Cake for, um, breakfast. De-lish!
As for sustainability, we do a bunch, but I'm sure we could do so much more. We are currently having a geothermal system installed and my husband has just put in a compost pile.
I live in the city. So I have nowhere to grow stuff, but on the other hand I also don't drive and I do recycle.
I was really exicited when I saw this post. This is a great opportunity plus I'm learning quite a bit from all the other posters. I'm a graduate student in DC. The longer I live in the city the more I dream of moving into the farm I have been saving for. On stressful days my fiance Chris and I add to our wish list (chickens that lay green, brown, and white eggs; a friendly dairy goat; bees; canning equipment with large gardens; and a wrap around porch from which to enjoy it all). Thankfully we are educating ourselves in bioinformatics, a field which will allow us to work from home so we can have all of this and still contribute to the advancement of science. I can't imagine a better way to raise a family together. We aren't perfect, but we try to do what we can now from our apartment by baking our own bread, making stocks from our saved scraps, brewing our own beer, cider and mead, walking to grocery stores and farmers market and riding the bus to work (the cars don't get out much), work sharing at a local organic CSA, and growing a small secret garden in a greenhouse at school (thanks to the kindness of a professor there). I've had the chance to take wood carving, blacksmithing, jewlery making and felting classes at the John C. Campbell Folk School (www.folkschool.org) in North Carolina and we have collected a couple books, but we sure would apreciate expanding our knowledge on so many of these topics. It would be a wonderful wedding gift ;) Thank you and be well.
Hi Susan, You are so nice to do this giveaway! One of the things that I do is grow my own veggies. I've had my own garden for a few years now and each year I try to increase my variety. I also try to buy things from the local farmers market and use reusable bags for grocery shopping, etc.
Thanks again!
Blessings,
~*~
I too, am picking up tips from other posters!
We do bake our own bread and make our own ice cream. When possible, we offer local restaurants our own containers to use when packing up take-out. When that's not an option, we wash and re-use the take-out container until it falls apart.
I am a stickler for reusable shopping bags. We've cut our plastic grocery bag collection to 0.
The farmer's market is the only place to get decent garlic, so shopping there is a must!
As for what I'd order, I'd indulge in farming/livestock books. We live in the city right now, but a girl can dream. And there's nothing wrong with a little preparation. I'm sure my future goats will appreciate it.
Wow I would love to win this! We have a garden in our yard where we get a lot of our vegetables, plus an orchard where we get some of our fruits and nuts. We also recycle and I think do a lot of other things!
I think I would get the Farm to Table Cookbook and maybe some books on brewing because I am thinking about choosing it as my major and I know nothing about it!
I compost, have a large vegetable garden, recycle constantly, and make sure my children turn the lights off when they leave their rooms! ;)
Alison in KY
in the past year or so i've become really conscious about living life more sustainably. i try to bake a lot (alas, not all) of my bread, my husband and i compost as well as grow lots of veggies - what we don't grow we buy at the Farmer's Market. And if funds allow, I'm really really hoping to participate in a local CSA for fruit and veggies.
Here are the things I do to try to live a more sustainable life - bake my own bread, shop primarily at the local food co-op and farmer's market, grow my own vegetables, preserve food through canning and freezing, and make my own hand-made gifts.
Thanks for the contest!
Thanks for the heads up about the book store. I've been reading your blog for a few years and am anxious to see and hear about your wholesale bakery (used to own a bakery myself). I recycle, compost and buy organic if I can - if I had the space I would grow vegetables.
AHD in Colorado
I'm a brand new reader, from the Santa Cruz Mountain area. I found your site whilst researching ways to use my green tomatoes. What a wonderful site and resource! We do as much as we can to recycle and conserve energy, and try to grow as much food as possible. I have a worm compost as well as a cold compost pile, and try to buy things locally if we can't produce them ourselves. I would love to learn further ideas for sustainable living. It's been a dream of ours to do something similar to what you're doing, Farmgirl! Thanks for being here! - Juliette, Boulder Creek, CA
OMG! This is so cool!! Okay, I do lots of things to be as self-sufficient as possible. I grow veggies and fruit, bottle much of it, compost my scraps, shop the farmer's market, thrift shops and yard sales. I sew "new" clothes and household goods from recycled fabrics, sew and sell reusable produce bags on Etsy, and line dry all my laundry.
Well, the list goes on, but there is so much more I need to learn. I would REALLY love to win this!
Hmmm, I'm seeing a little over compensation when I go to write this... make soap, regularly make bread, sew & quilt, vegie garden, etc. Left 20 acres (and the long drive for DH for work) 4 yrs ago & have finally convinced him I am dying in town. I miss my chickens!!! Currently looking for a smaller acreage not so far from town.
We work towards sustainability by backyard gardening, composting and poultry/egg raising. The chickens help make the compost - not just the obvious way - but by breaking up tough oak leaves for the "brown" layers!
I'm impressed by what everyone is doing to be more sustainable! Our city *just* started curbside recycling, so I'm eagerly participating in that. I'm going to start composting soon - my holiday request from my fiance is to help me get started. I also shop at a local farmer's market. I'm hoping to grow some vegetables myself next spring/summer. And I bake bread whenever I get a chance!
I would love to give this to my husband for Christmas. This would be one of the few gifts he would really want and appreciate. He is so hard to shop for! We have had a garden for a few years but now we are starting to plan our crops so we can start feeding our family over the winter. His new project is to try and grow all of the ingredients to make beer. We have hops growing up over our shed and winter barley and wheat in the small garden in our back yard. A library that we could turn to in order to take the next step towards self-sufficiency would be wonderful!
LOVE YOUR BLOG! One thing I just did today is wrap presents and I collected plain brown bags throughout the year and used them as gift bags.I fold over the top, punch two holes and tie with ribbon or scraps of fabric.
I would get some books on canning I think. I have been wanting to try it,but have been afraid.
Every March, I drive down the road to sheep farm around the corner.I pick out the fleeces I want to spin. I wash my fiber, comb,spin,dye,and knit wool garments for my family and friends. I recycle paper,cans and plastic. We are avid Dutch oven cooks, but we do it all outside over wood or coals. I make my bread & biscuits all from scratch as well as most pastries & muffins. Nothing tastes as good as homemade! I can my own grown tomatos, and I raise blackberries for my jams, and grapes for jelly. These often find their way in gift baskets this time of year. But I LOVE everything about what I do. I think I was a prairie wife in days gone past.
Wow, Look at all those cool books.
What a hard choice that would be...
I try to do all I can not to be a consumer...from my own garden, to our own hens, and sheep. To recycle everything possible or just not buy plastic in the first place...making bread, preserving local fruit and produce, It's so encouraging to see that so many others are also aware of the importance of lessening the impact we are making in this world.
I volunteer at the aluminum can recycling center
God bless Santa
I compost everything that I can (I even had a worm bin when I lived in NYC!), as well as try to find new uses for things that can't be recycled before I throw them away.
I'm a bit of a biblio-holic, so I'm sure trying to decide which books to get would be tough.
i recyle, buy from the farmer's market, make some of my dog's food and bake many of my own baked goods. i love books and have no idea which ones i would pick - there look to be many i would be interested in to choose from.
I raise grass fed lamb, drive out weekly to WI to buy real milk and butter from a dairy farm, shop at a co-op regularly and am a lifetime member of a traditional foods buyers club. Plan to enlarge our garden once we get settled on our new acreage where we will also be raising grass fed cattle and free range chickens! I also love to bake bread.
The desire to be more self-sufficient is why my hubby and I moved our family from Big City, Florida to Small Town, New Hampshire this year. We aren't in our own home yet (we're renting) but there are a few things we are doing to be more independent of the system. We raise chickens for eggs - after several months of fresh eggs, I could never go back! I bake all our bread. And we are learning to keep a well-stocked pantry that doesn't require weekly replentishing. It will only get better when we have our own bit of land!
Oh Susan, what a wonderful opportunity! Thank you and Back 40 for offering it!!
Since you posted your Farmhouse White over on A Year In Bread, I've been making it every few weeks. I love that I'm not paying almost $5 for bread anymore, and that I'm feeding my family something that was made by my hands, with local ingredients (flour milled locally at least), and without chemicals or other yucky preservatives.
We also exclusively use our own cloth shopping bags that I made and try to do as much food shopping at local stands in the spring, summer, and fall. We only purchase our meat from the butcher at the end of our block - lunch meat, our Thanksgiving turkey, cheese, etc. We'll go the farmers' market in the winter, so we're at least supporting local business, even if the produce isn't necessarily local.
We are hoping to move and get some land soon, and once we do, we'll grow our own vegetables and fruits. There are plenty of books on the Back 40 site that I would love to add to my collection to help us in the next stage of our life!
Hi Susan, I made your AYIB loaves this weekend, they turned out great!
We recycle and compost - in fact our municipality has a great composting program.
We have a little car, a little house, buy used books when we can and try to shop local when we can. (In Canada we don't always have much choice - esp. in the winter!)
We use the compact florescent bulbs in most of our fixtures, canvas bags for groceries and use mostly 5% vinegar for cleaning.
Not bad, if we do say so, always room for improvement though.
Cheers!
We make as much as we can from scratch. We are in charge of the ingredients and don't use products that just add to the landfill or the recycle bin.
ps.I have my own collection of heart rocks going;)
What a great give away and just what I need!
Our family has enjoyed making our own bread for the last 20 years. We received the recipe along with a wheat grinder for our wedding and they are both still in use! Our daughters now know how to make bread and take turns keeping our family (of 8!) in supply!
My husband and I are trying to buy as little as possible from the supermarket. So we belong to an organic CSA, do all our other vegetable shopping at the local farmer's market. We're also hoping to expand our own garden next summer. And we just bought a whole lamb from a local farmer (thanks for your help Susan!). So that's our start with eating sustainably. We're hoping to do better every year.
I really enjoy your blog, especially the pictures of your animals.
To help our family be more self-reliant, we raise our own veggies and can or freeze them. The stuff we don't grow, we buy from local farmers at the local farmer's market or at the pick your own stands. We also raise our own chickens for the eggs.
I cook as much as I can from scratch including cakes, cookies and such like.
I have a backyard garden, belong to a CSA, try to eat organic and am trying to teach my 5 year old and 8 month old that we don't have to be such consumers. I have a long ways to go, but I am trying to make lots of small changes.
Thanks for all of your posts.
Tricia
I dry my clothes on the clothesline.
Love your blog. I grow all my own veggies, herbs, potatoes, apples, strawberries, make my own bread, can and freeze and dry what I grow, and I sew quilts and am working on making drapes and christmas gifts right now. I'd love these books!
Cooel, I love books too!
I have been in a CSA for 2 years, and I cook most of my food from scratch. I compost and have a little wormery, although they are a bit slow getting started!!
Thanks for the great site! In a nutshell, I live on a 5,000 SQ FT lot in Portland, OR. I too have dreamed of living like you do... but until I take that leap, as much as I am able I am working on making my current home an urban homestead. I tore up my lawn to make, got some chickens, installed a woodstove and burn others' waste, joined a CSA, got rid of our garbage service so that we have to figure out how to compost or recycle everything... well, the list goes on. My husband just passed 15 months straight of cycling to work.
I cannot tell you how much we'd appreciate winning!
Amy Manning
Well, I do live in a rural ag/mountain area, but since it is in California most 'real' country folk tend to be skeptical. My home is only 1070 sq ft - we never fell into the California Monster McMansion Mania trap - and we only use enviro friendly cleaning products, but other than that and a bit of curbside recycling I simply stink at sustainability. So I really need some books to help!
I think the first one would definitely be the one on the Back 40 homepage on Heirloom Tomatoes. YUM! Heirlooms are big business up here in the Sierras and I could start a little home based business on the side. Of course, then I would need the "Wildlife in the Garden - How to live in harmony with deer, raccoons, rabbits, crows" book because they all live and rut and give birth in my backyard.
If the economy keeps going down the swirly flushy thing, I may need one on hunting for my hubby. Or, if neither of us can bring ourselves to shoot anything, one on healthy vegetarianism. And if things REALLY get bad we will absolutely have to order one on Amish life - although I am so country illiterate I am not sure which end of the horse gets attached to the buggy.
So, as you can see, I need all the help I can get.
Thanks for a smile making blog and introducing me to a new bookstore I can now ogle!
What a great giveaway chance. Thanks! I try to do as much as I can to live more sustainably and self-sufficiently. I'm lucky enough to live in a town that is very pro-recycling, so I recycle nearly all of my food packaging, paper, etc. I'd say I only fill up a bag of actually garbage once every couple weeks. I also put food scraps into my yard waste bin (also allowed by my town) so that they get composted instead of going to the landfill. I shop at farmer's markets, as well as a local farm that has a produce stand. I've learned to make my own jam and tomato sauce, which I can for winter, and I also make my own chicken and veggie stock (uses up scraps AND tastes so much better than what the stores sell!) I also make a lot of my own clothes, hats, mittens, etc and shop at thrift stores frequently.
I have been baking my own bread for the past year. I did belong to a CSA over the summer and shopped at the Farmer's market till thanksgiving when the one I usually go to closed for winter. I grew lots of vegetables and berries in my yard over the summer. I also started composting last summer. I do recycle whatever I can. Carry my own cloth bags to grocery stores.
I recently came across your blog and have been reading along. I thought I would leave my first comment. I don't know what to say except that I have enjoyed reading. Nice blog. I will keep visiting this blog very often.
Susan
http://www.car-insurance-choices.com
Hello!
First time here and love it so far. I bake my own bread after I grind my wheat or oats. Of course , that is in between milking my cow morning and night. Husband is in the process of building the chicken house. I am working towards totally self sufficent.
Angi in Mo
I love your blog, and your photos! The donkeys are so wonderful.
I have my own chickens and bake all of my own bread. I compost all my veggie clippings and my chicken's bedding. I buy only used books (and I read alot!) and shop at food coops. I am planning an orchard and beehives for this spring.
I would order "The Complete Guide to Beekeeping" if I were chosen.
Kim from PA
This year my daughter and I started many new things. We grew our vegetables, we canned some of what we grew, and we dehydrated other veggies and fruits. We also like to make bread and recently we learned to crochet our own scarves and hats.Self sufficiency is fun!
I (try at least) to bake bread. I recycle almost all our trash, and ride my bike to work (weather cooperating). I also like to buy local and organic. I have great farmers in Missouri who have quite a bounty to sell- 4 months of the year! Oh yeah, we use cloth diapers and wipes! Its so easy its silly.
What book? Anything non-fiction.
Hi! I bake and do all my cooking at home - I just realized that we very rarely buy any processed or pre-prepared foods at the grocery store anymore! I also have a small container garden (or rather "had." We had snow this morning!) and this was my first year doing a CSA! Cheese-making is my next big adventure...
Hooray!
I have just started canning for the first time! It's so exciting and makes me feel like I'm taking self-sufficiency to the next level in my life. We're going to join a CSA next year so we can have lots of local veggies and fruits to can. This is just part of my project to stop buying processed food and learn how live more lightly and sustainably in the world.
While I try to do as much as I can that is sustainable, my main focus is food: I grow my own veggies, and whatever I can't grow (usually because I don't have much room), I buy from the Farmer's Market as often as possible. I've also been trying to eat less meat, and aiming for sustainably raised meats when I do eat it.
What a great idea for a give-away!
I read your blog all the time, but I feel badly that my first comment is when there is a contest at stake. At least books on sustainablity are a good cause, right?
My husband and I recently purchased a small homestead and are working our way towards self-sufficient sustainability. You can read about our journey in my blog. So far, we keep our own goats and chickens for eggs and milk. We make our own cheese and soon, soap. We compost, and have worms on the way to expand that. Our veggie garden, small orchard, berry brambles and grape vines kept us hopping this year as we learned by doing in terms of care, harvest and preservation - all organically. We also get most of our meat from a local grass-fed organic CSA. Next on our list is solar hot water and power, rain barrels & beekeeping. Any books on these subjects (or spinning & weaving) would be a huge help in our efforts!
My husband and I have a vegetable garden here in Nothern Ontario Canada. We share with other family members and neighbors to spread the wealth so to speak. We also shop our local farmers markets. Our grocery stores also carry special sections that have local produce. It's nice to have access to local products where you know where it was grown.
I compost like a demon! Among other things, just about every piece of paper that comes through the house now gets shredded, marinated in my special homegrown nitrogen source :) and sent to the side of the house to turn into beautiful organic matter. Between that and becoming somewhat veggie and quitting soda pop, our trash quantity has shrunk so dramatically!
Thanks for the link to Back40Books. I'll have fun exploring. I just received my worms yesterday for my new worm bin (garden compost) and just refreshed my winter garden. Next this spring...chickens!
I recently came across your blog and have been reading along. I thought I would leave my first comment. I don't know what to say except that I have enjoyed reading. Nice blog. I will keep visiting this blog very often.
Susan
http://www.car-insurance-choices.com
I never knew about the Back 40 Books site. I'll definitely check them out, whether I win or not.
We recently moved, so I had to leave my beautiful, established compost bins behind, but we should have some good soil from the new ones by next summer. We'll be starting a new garden from scratch where I'll be growing my mandatory crop of tomatoes (as I am a fanatic about tomatoes) and other various produce.
We recycle everything here. We're fortunate to have a good program which accepts everything from magazines to plastics and glass, etc.
Keep up the great blog!
I walk to my classes at college when I can instead of driving or taking the bus. I often bake my own bread with organic unbleached King Arthur flour, and I don't buy bottles water- instead I just carry around my trusty Nalgene bottle and refill it at a water fountain (this saves money as well as being kinder to the environment).
I would order the book Country Houses. I am an architectural historian and I love studying rural architecture, like farmhouses. The Homestead Builder also looks extremely interesting.
And about a zillion other books- I am so glad you pointed us to this company!
WOW! That is alot of books! We do our part and we have recently drawn up plans to add 2 more raised beds 10 by 10 and a fruit patch for strawberries and rasperberries. We are also planting blueberries near our pine trees so the soil is more acid for them.
This is a great blog for down home recipes and I love the farm tips. And the animals.
My Daughter is now raising chickens so your post was great. We are going to get them a book from Back 40. So Thanks much
Awesome blog! As a Missouri native, this contest is right up my alley. PLUS I love this company! :-) Here's hoping I actually win. That would be a first for me. :)
Merry Christmas!
Wow...sustainable? Well, I do a vegetable and herb garden which is fed with the manure from my 2 horses and 3 dairy goats...I have 8 hens with a HUGE house and pen that not only provide eggs, but work on the bugs in the garden. Of course, the vegetable trash from the house goes into the compost and returns to the garden. I also bake bread and make soap. Is that sustainable enough to win some books?
Aaw, sweet!!
Let's see...I grow veggies, herbs & now fruit, too. I bake bread. I cook at home most days. I shop the farmers' market. Recycle & upcycle as much as I can. I pickle, can & freeze.
thanks for giving your readers this opportunity!
Hi Susan ~ I just wanted to tell you that I really enjoyed reading about your 'shopping trip' at JC Penny. I knew you lived far from most everything, but I don't think I realized that you lived that far from everything - but it seems you have a beautiful life, and that's what's most important.
Good luck to all with this contest.
You really made me think and I've enjoyed reading the comments and also learned a thing or two. I also recycle, shop farmer's markets and buy local produce whenever possible. I grow my own herbs, no space for anything else. I look forward to implementing some of the great ideas I see here.
We grow our own veggies, raise chickens and rabbits. We compost and take our own bags shopping.
What a fun giveaway! Well, we are aspiring urban farmers, for one. We cloth diaper, cloth wipe (for everyone, haha), eat as local as possible when not growing our own food, we have taken a pledge to not buy anything new, etc. Mostly, we are always trying to improve, and that's what keeps us working for a sustainable and clean and love-filled future. I would get books that would help me further that cause. Probably more books by Derrick Jensen...
This is a really awesome giveaway!
As for us, we do what we can. We cloth diaper, I bake all our bread and make most of our food from scratch. We use a clothes line, garden for our food, we compost, recycle, we use soap made by a friend of mine (body, dish, hand, laundry and shampoo) I make our own air freshener, carpet freshener, counter cleaner, I sew a lot of our clothes, recycle old fabric and clothes to make new stuff. Basically if it's a better cheaper way for us to do it, we do it.
We live out in the middle of nowhere, so bicycling isn't really an option. But we try. Eventually we are planning on homesteading (buying more acreage) so a LOT of those books would come in handy (I have some already hehehe!)
flisleshnitz at gmail dot com
I participate in community gardening. I think it's a great way to use space efficiently, grow organic food, and get to know other members of the community. Unfortunately, the city I recently moved to does not have an active community gardening up and running, but a friend and I are working hard to get one started!
what a wonderful giveaway! although i like to think that i do my part (including baking my own bread--it's better anyway!), there's still so much room for improvement! :)
I've been gardening, recycling, composting and making bread for years but I'd like to start making more of my own supplies - like soap.
Cool! I do several things and am always trying to add more in - we're leaving the heater at 62 daytime and 55 nighttime, carry re-usable bags, recycle everything, cut down on non-reusables, shop from our local co-op, live within 1 mile of my work to cut down on consumption of fuel, take short showers, use no paper products in the kitchen (napkins, paper towels, etc.), have a large veggie garden out back and a strip in the front, etc......I would buy books that have to do with food preservation, permaculture, and small space gardening, plus books that can help with skill development (animal husbandry, small scale farming, wind/solar, small engines, etc.)...Thanks for the cool giveaway!
I compost whatever I can - I try to bake my own bread whenever I have the time - and I have a small kitchen garden. Oh, and my favourite hobby is reading - that MUST be a CO2-friendly activity :-)
Oh - forgot to leave name. The reading-as-favourite-hobby person was me - Tine from Denmark
Hello! I love shopping at our local Farmer's Market. I hadn't even thought of flea market shopping as somewhat green, but I guess it is.
Thank you for the contest!
Well hello. I've been lurking here for quite some time, but this is my first comment. Your blog is so inspiring. I try to live a 'sustainable' life in every aspect, from changing to all eco-friendly household cleaners, to driving only three days each week, to growing my own food in 10- 3x8 raised beds.
Even with a very short growing season here in the upnorth area of Minnesota, I can put by nearly enough vegetables, fruits, and herbs to get through the winter. I rely on the local farmers' market for a freezer-full of grass fed and free-range meats and the local co-op for eggs, butter, and anything else I need to supplement my own stores.
My 10 little raised beds in fact produce so much food that I can share with my neighbors and still take a bushel basket or more to the local food shelf each week. And they so appreciate it! I've witnessed customers show sheer delight at the opportunity to take home something besides the conventional canned and boxed items that line the shelves. A sad truth in America is that the poorest among us have the least access to fresh, healthy, organic foods. If any of you garden, I heartily encourage you to plant a row or two for the foodshelf.
We grew our first garden this year and I am in love. We also made a compost pile and I am planning on putting in more raised beds and some rain barrels.
Ok, this is exciting.
I recycle most everything. But I live where this is very easy to do,the plant stuff goes in my compost or into the community waste as does plastic, paper, etc.
Some shredded paper goes to the garden as mulch. Any good stuff to charity.
I live in a residential neighboorhood now and have an active garden, summer and winter; in the ground, in raised beds and in large pots. Yet I still prowl the Farmer's market on Saturday. This year I have added rain barrels (water is in short supply here). Bake my own bread which contains real fiber.I try to bake/roast other things that same day to save fuel. I drive a midsize car and use about one tank of gasoline a month by grouping my purchases by neighborhoods.
Some of these things I have always done. I am 78 years old, and still have that "great depression mentality" ingrained, making saving and making do just part of life ... but I have never felt deprived.
I garden and compost. I don't recall which came first...
Cloth diapering (some I even sew myself!), flock of 8 laying hens in the backyard & gardening. :) Thanks for running this contest.
We're serious recyclers, decreased our trash by about 80%, I'd say, because we used to have a bag practically everyday, and now it's maybe once a week. Only problem is getting it to the recycling center; we're lazy and it piles up fire-hazard style in our little apartment :O
Would love to win this giveaway...I'd stock up on gardening and cooking books!
Bake my own bread. Brew my own beer. Live in a small home. Bike or public transportation to work. I have a big garden and start all of my seedlings from seed.
Hmm, I'm a college student living in an apartment, so I'm sort of limited in what I can do. My roommates and I are working on setting up an indoor worm vermicomposting bin once exams are over, and we're contemplating whether we can fit an herb spiral in a kiddie pool on the balcony. We haven't quite figured out how it would drain, though. Maybe Back40 has a book that would show us how!
Man I'm posting at 180 comments. Don't miss me!!!! I'm a Farmgirl too.
We unfortunately are not completely self sustainable yet. We are working that way. We raise all our own meat products except chicken (but we do have laying hens). We consume wild game (deer, quail, chuckard, pheasant, fish, elk), beef cows, hogs.
We grow most of our own fruits and vegetables. What we don't grow we buy from other local farmers.We are starting on a root cellar after winter. I'm doing tons of research on that. And man at the bread I bake. We even buy local milk.
Oh and ladies--don't forget honey. You can do tons of great stuff with local honey. All food tastes better when you use local products.
We bought a stock in a family farm to get fresh raw milk. Then we found 2 other families and made it a carpool. We grow our own vegetables or buy them at the farmer's market. We have the smallest trashcan our municipality has and compost and recycle everything to make it work.
Your readers are an inspirational bunch! I'm very interested in becoming more self sufficient but I have a long way to go. I grow vegetables, fruit, nuts, herbs and like to learn the best ways of putting them up - canning/freezing/drying - as well as cooking/baking up concoctions. We'll get chickens in the spring for the first time ever. We've made our own beer and wine from our own hops and grapes. I recycle a majority of what we use. We're looking into solar energy. I knit wash rags from unbleached cotton yarn. I sew. My husband is a wood worker and we use wood from our tree farm.
If I were lucky enough to win, I'd probably request books on self sufficiency and food preservation. Thanks for this opportunity.
We bought a run down 1920 house and have been restoring it ourselves (the ultimate in recycling). Although we live in the city, we try to grow most of our own vegetables in raised beds. The first year we started we shared some of our harvest with our neighbor. She was so excited and told us that she hadn't had a garden since she was a child (40 years or so ago.) She expressed interest in having a garden to teach her grandchildren about growing. By the following Spring she was telling us how she didn't think her and her husband would get around to making a garden. So, that Spring we picked up extra soil when we were getting ready to prep our raised beds, gathered together some spare lumber and built a bed for her and her husband. Now they're growing their own veggies and sharing their harvest too!
I'd love to have books about preserving vegetables so we can enjoy them throughout the winter.
I grow veggies in my small backyard garden. And in summer I buy veggies at the farmer's market. I also compost all my vegetable kitchen waste. Thanks so much for offering this prize!
We both wear long-sleeved shirts to work, and invariably the first thing to blow out is the elbow.
So I sew up the bottom hem on the body, cut straight across the body under the armpits, make two straps from the unblown-out-sleeve, and have a new shopping bag. :)
And I'd be getting books about chickens! Pardon me while I go peruse their website.
I stumbled upon your blog about a month ago while looking for blogs about sustainable living. We are working towards being more self sufficiant. We do several things but the biggest one right now is our composting in preperation for our organic garden next year. Someone was throwing away a tumbler compost bin and we took it home. Since we rent it's a great thing to have since we can take it with us when we move.Plus with a family of seven having the compost bin cuts down on garbage and on the use of the garbage disposer. ;)
I would love to read more about composting. We are growing our own veggies, potatoes and lots of garlic. We really need to make the most of our composting of scraps and such. Also my daughter collects dahlias and hostas. The gardens get bigger every year.
Hi Susan,
Great offer for the Book Shopping Spree! To conserve, I recycle almost all my freezer zip bags by washing them by hand and reusing. I bake my own healthy bread every week and practice cooking for the freezer. In 2009 I plan to have a garden at the retirement village where my folks live. Mom and I will work in it together.
Wow! What a great give-away! Thank you so much for your inspiring posts ;-)
I do many of the things you mention, the latest being soap making.
If I win the give-away, I would choose books about turning a small acreage into a mini-farm. "Barnyard in Your Backyard" is top on my list!
We have a large backyard garden, raise chickens for eggs and meat, just planted 9 fruit trees. We belong to a local foods co-op...that delivers! I also just started baking bread.
Rebekah Thompson
rebekahthompson at sbcglobal dot net
Sustainable behavior, huh? Well, I live in a big city, so I don't own a car and either walk or take public transportation everywhere. Also, I always shop at farmer's markets when they're open, and try to eat in season even when every season of produce is available at the grocery store.
Ooohhh...books, my own form of crack...
I shop at the Farmers Market during it's open season and I just moved into a house this year so I'm planning a big veggie garden. I also am learning how to make my own bread. Yes, it IS with a bread machine but I'm playing with just using the machine for the dough. I use white vinegar for EVERYTHING, and baking soda is my best friend. I know there is SO much more I can do but I'm still just learning.
Much joy to you all!
Maggie
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