The Urban Homestead

I often wonder whether the joy I get from eating homemade bread, for instance, or adorning a meal with that sauerkraut that just finished fermenting, comes more from the fact that it tastes so incredible, or from the feeling of empowerment that comes with simply taking certain matters into my own hands. In a world in which outsourcing has become positively quotidian, where a tomato can be grown in one town and sold in the next town over, yet somehow travel hundreds of miles in the interim, there is something deeply satisfying about doing things yourself. The Urban Homestead, by Kelly Coyne and Erik Knutzen, is a book that teaches you to countless ways to realize such satisfaction. Aimed specifically at city-dwellers looking to up their sustainability and self-sufficiency, it teaches skills that anyone can use. Fortunately, in a field in which unrealistic dogmatism is often the rule, these two write with a knowing sense of humor. They come across as normal folks who don't presume to be saving the world, yet are happy to acknowledging that their lifestyle is a definite step in the right direction.

Admittedly, a fair chunk of the book covers moderately complex undertakings, but it's also filled with a bounty of advice both simple and practical. Yes, you'll learn how to build a modest chicken coop in your yard and hack into your greywater to use your shower runoff to water your crop (which is, frankly, pretty cool). But you'll also learn how to whip up your own cleaning solutions, which takes all of a minute, costs almost nothing, and keeps some truly gnarly toxins out of your cupboard. They cover surprisingly simple recipes for foods like butter and pickles (by no means limited to the cucumber variety), and impart useful advice on bicycling, container gardening, energy conservation, and plenty more.

Ultimately, what Coyne and Knutzen offer is really much more a primer on self-sufficiency than a complete manual. They'll tell you what's possible and how to achieve it, but just as importantly, are always quick to offer advice on how to pursue a project further, should one strike a chord. If you're the curious type, like myself, expect yourself to become quickly enraptured by the possibilities proffered. What began an hour ago as a casual perusal of the book soon had me off in a half-dozen directions, scouring the website of a local mycological society for info on upcoming forages, and revisiting the familiar orange banner of Instructables, hot on the trail of blueprints for a self-irrigating planter made from old soda bottles, to name a few. And anyone who has found themselves reading this might be interested in the authors' thoughts on homemade "Country Wine," though we suspect that some things are best left to the experts.