OK, snicker. The name is funny. I’ve never really taken the Complete Idiot’s Guide line of literature all that seriously. I guess I just assumed most of them were, well, for the very new beginner.
Sundari Elizabeth Kraft’s book, The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Urban Homesteading, changed my mind. I have to say it is the most comprehensive book I have read on urban homesteading.
She includes just about everything you can think of from gardening to raising livestock to homesteading without a yard. Most importantly, she goes quite extensively into zoning and how to find out what you can legally do in your own city.
Of course it really won me over when I saw that it, unlike every other book I have on goats, included African Pygmy goats and even mentioned milking them. But that’s not where it ends.
There are recipes for different types of cheeses, how to raise fish using aquaculture, preserving food, how to spin your own wool using a homemade drop spindle, and how to reduce your energy. I told you this was an extremely comprehensive book.
The layout of the book is easy to follow and there are little icons with subtext next to them to point out important information from definitions to road blocks, small steps and urban info.
If there was just one book you needed for urban homesteading this would be it. It will definitely be staying on my bookshelf.
