The City Homesteader: Self-Sufficiency on Any Square Footage

by Scott Meyer

The City Homesteader is the handbook for the world of self-sufficient living. It's about living tangibly in a virtual world. It's about being resourceful, saving money, reducing consumption, and increasing self-reliance. Join the many who are raising backyard chickens in the city and tilling their side yards: tapping into natural energy, managing homes more efficiently, and getting back to the earth. Explore the homesteading arts: gardening on small and large scales, raising dwarf fruit trees, sprouting grains, smoking meats and fish, grinding grains for flour, making cheese, making wine, cellaring, heating without fossil fuel, harvesting rainwater, composting, and much more The City Homesteader provides all the basics, including how to find supplies and step-by-step instructions that make it easy to follow along. Original illustrations throughout help you create your very own homestead on any piece of earth.

Genres: Nonfiction, Gardening, Food, Nature, Lifestyle, Crafts, Reference

272 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2011

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Reviews

[Loren · Rating 3 out of 5]

A general reference guide. He makes a point not to go into too much detail and trusts you will continue researching that of which is of most interest to you. He even warns you that this is his intent. Fair enough. But I could no longer take him seriously once I reached the foraging chapter and forced to endure poorly executed, even childlike sketches of various edible wild plants as a means to thwart a miscalculation into less innocuous species. If you're not going to do it right, no caveat emptor is going to save you from me saying, why bother at all? Easily this is only one example which represents my general opinion of the book in it's entirety.

[MNBooks · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good introduction for those who are interested in ideas and plan to do more research. The garden section was fun and gave me a couple ideas for deck options I could do. The foraging section wasn’t great—most of those plants aren’t local to my area and more caution should be taken before eating wild food! Mushrooms being a big worry... with serious consequences if you screw up. I’ve read one should only forage with someone who knows what they’re doing, or collect only when you can positively identify the plant in two separate books/references. For the animal section, I think the author assumed a lot about climate. For those of us with harsh winters, having animals is a lot more involved and really not much benefit for the effort. He also completely missed the cons of having animals—a lot of urban chicken raisers are surprised to find mice in their coop and the influx of pests!!! This should have been in the pest section because mice are going to happen at some point. Homesteading has a lot of pros, but people need to be prepared that this is the pretty and polished version of it and not a comprehensive guide.

[Anna]

A fun easy read, good for browsing while watching
Cocomelon. There isn’t a huge amount of info on any one topic, rather a starting point and several relatively simple projects on various subjects. Some silliness about being “organic” and “natural” that made me a little suspicious of the overall content

[Cayla · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is definitely geared more towards those that have a yard. Or more space then most city dwellers. It does have a few handy tips. But it’s not really geared towards anyone who resides in an apartment.

[Kate Singh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Many good ideas and advice for the city farmer.

[Ali · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was a light read—simple, fairly quick, and not loaded with information.

[Juli Anna · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a very broad overview. Not enough specific projects for my taste.

[Karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book! I checked it out from the library, but worth buying to have in my own personal library. Lots of fantastic, practical, hands-advice. Very useful.

[Kendall · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5⭐

[Brekke · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars.

A nice little overview of more efficiently using space, this is geared toward folks who live I homes with*some* actually yard space. A few good thoughts on maximizing a balcony, this definitely isn't for an apartment dweller. Biggest detractor to is book is hey the vast majority of his info is readily available online for free.

[Cindy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brought back lovely memories of my family's garden when I was a child. I wish I could have provided more than flowers for my children. But spring is coming and I will plant something edible in honour of my parents <3 This book is an easy and enjoyable read. All this info is available on the internet, but it is comforting to read the same voice through various topics as gardening, housecleaning and food preservation. It's an introduction. You may have to dig deeper. But as we're awaiting spring, make yourself some tea and enjoy the optimism and encouragement this book offers.

[Alexis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Unfortunately I do not have a backyard or a large kitchen, and I am not about to begin homesteading. Still, this book is a fascinating resource! The author gives you an overview on vegetable gardening, canning, preserving, raising backyard chickens, composting, and so on. I thought this was a great resource and it really ties into some of the things I learned in my urban agriculture class.

Thumbs up!

[Erin · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book would be a great first primer for someone who wanted to start becoming more self-sufficient. It's full of great, simple ideas for ways to make and save for the family, but it is by no means as valuabe as a subscription to Mother Earth magazine. I would recommend it to gardening newbies, but not to anyone who has already built their beds and starting drying and canning the year's produce.

[Ami · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a very basic guide to city homesteading. I appreciated the inclusion of sections about foraging and raising rabbits, I haven't seen these before in urban homestead books. However, the information was very basic with no references to other books or guides. Additionally there were no color photographs, which is a big mistake in my opinion.
Overall, this is a decent read for beginners but there's not much there for practicing homesteaders.

[Latasha · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think I'm addicted to these kinds of books. I really love all the great ideas for indoor small space self sufficiency. This one gave a lot of good ideas on how to dry food you can't eat, how to can, but also good ideas for container gardens. A little more ambitious than most books because it talks a lot about fruit trees and beekeeping/chickens in the city. That's not happening, but I did enjoy the book as a general guide to gardens/canning/drying, etc.

[Aja Marsh · Rating 4 out of 5]

i'm reading several urban homesteading related books right now, and i liked this one for it's sort of quick hit approach-- giving small, but usable details on a wide range of subjects that you could get entire books of on their own. it makes it seem approachable and practical-- offering advice on storage, cellaring, and other handy tips in ways that are do-able in various types of homes. i'd pick this up again if/when i had more opportunity to take advantage of more of the advice.

[Kristin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked this book. Great suggestions on how to maximize your space and how to preserve foods with little storage areas. It was a very basic, very easy read for someone trying to live more "off the land" without a whole lot of land to do so.

[Malerie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great starting place for inspiration, though the information tends to be broad, leaving the reader to seek further info on specifics. A great tool for an overlook at homesteading and easy read, I enjoyed it!

[Heydi Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really liked how this guide really just took you through the highlights of what you need and how to do it. I appreciate the last third of the book that listed each plant and when to plant it and tips about its growth.

[Luci Rossi · Rating 3 out of 5]

I borrowed this from the library and read it in one sitting. I found it informative but I already knew a lot of the material since the author only scratches the surface. I think this book is a great starting point for people wanting to get into urban homesteading.

[Clara Dearmore Strom · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good book for those wanting to become a little more self-sufficient.

[Diana · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very good book, with great ideas.

[Amy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is a handy beginner's guide to doing domestic things yourself. My favorite is making your own cheese.

[Michael Garner · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another great introduction to homesteading. Includes instructions for simple projects around the home to implement a homesteading lifestyle.

[Stephanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Learned a lot from this one, and actually took notes!

[Carla · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a good starter about raising chickens, bees, starting a garden, etc. There are also some good references for more reading and some nice lists in here.

[Lyndsay · Rating 3 out of 5]

Just skimmed through it mostly - it was okay, but not as helpful as I had hoped.

[Daniella]

Great intro to homesteading. Certainly outlines the basics and shows me where I need to do more research. Also made me really want to buy some goats and chickens!!

[Amanda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good information but for my apartment very little was of us. However, that is not the author's fault and if I was in a better apartment I could see this being much more useful.

[Shyla · Rating 3 out of 5]

A lot I already knew.. Would be better if I had any square footage at all but the resources section did lead me to something really useful so I am glad I checked it out!