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

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

Readers will learn how to:

• Container garden
• Raise chickens
• Churn butter
• Grow vegetables
• Can tomatoes
• Brew kombucha
• Make shampoo
• Repel garden pests
• Milk a goat
• Improve garden soil
• Make strawberry-rhubarb jelly
• Ferment vegetables
• Make yogurt
• Sprout grains
• And more!

The Essential Guide to Self-Sufficient Living

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