WEEKEND HOMESTEADER PA

The WeekendHomesteader is organizedby month-so whether it's January or June you'll find exciting, short projectsthat you can use to dip your toes into the vast ocean of homesteading withoutgetting overwhelmed. If you need to fit homesteading into a few hours eachweekend and would like to have fun while doing it, these projects will be rightup your alley, whether you live on a forty-acre farm, a postage-stamp lawn insuburbia, or a high rise. You'lllearn about backyard chicken care, how to choose the best mushroom and berryspecies, and why and how to plant a no-till garden that heals the soil whileproviding nutritious food. Permaculturetechniques will turn your homestead into a vibrant ecosystem and attract nativepollinators while converting our society's waste into high-quality compost andmulch. Meanwhile, enjoy the fruits of your labor right away as you learn thebasics of cooking and eating seasonally, then preserve homegrown produce forlater by drying, canning, freezing, or simply filling your kitchen cabinetswith storage vegetables. As you become more self-sufficient, you'll save seeds,prepare for power outages, and tear yourself away from a full-time job, whilebuilding a supportive and like-minded community. You won't be completely eliminatingyour reliance on the grocery store, but you will be plucking low-hanging (anddelicious!) fruits out of your own garden by the time all forty-eight projectsare complete.

Anna Hess dreamed about moving back to the land ever since her parents dragged her off their family farm at the age of eight. She worked as a field biologist and nonprofit organizer before acquiring fifty-eight acres and a husband, then quit her job to homestead full time. She admits that real farm life involves a lot more hard work than her childhood memories entailed, but the reality is much more fulfilling and she loves pigging out on sun-warmed strawberries and experimenting with no-till gardening, mushroom propagation, and chicken pasturing. Visit her at www.waldeneffect.org.