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The Resilient Farm and Homestead: An Innovative Permaculture and Whole Systems Design Approach
"The Resilient Homestead" is a manual for developing durable, beautiful, and highly functional human habitat systems fit to handle an age of rapid transition.Ben Falk is a land designer and site developer whose permaculture-research farm has drawn national attention. The site is a terraced paradise on a hillside in Vermont that would otherwise be overlooked by conventional farmers as unworthy farmland. Falk's wide array of fruit trees, rice paddies(relatively unheard of in the Northeast), ducks, nuts, and earth-inspired buildings is a hopeful image for the future of regenerative agriculture and modern homesteading.The book covers nearly every strategy Falk and his team have been testing at the Whole Systems Research Farm over the past decade, as well as experiments from other sites Falk has designed through his off-farm consulting business. The book includes detailed information on earthworks; gravity-fed water systems; species composition; the site-design process; site management; fuelwood hedge production and processing; human health and nutrient-dense production strategies; rapid topsoil formation and remineralization; agroforestry/silvopasture/grazing; ecosystem services, especially regarding flood mitigation; fertility management; human labor and social-systems aspects; tools/equipment/appropriate technology; and much more, complete with gorgeous photography and detailed design drawings."The Resilient Homestead" is more than just a book of tricks and techniques for regenerative site development, but offers actual working results in living within complex farm-ecosystems based on research from the "great thinkers" in permaculture, and presents a viable home-scale model for an intentional food-producing ecosystem in cold climates, and beyond. Inspiring to would-be homesteaders everywhere, but especially for those who find themselves with "unlikely" farming land, Falk is an inspiration in what can be done by imitating natural systems, and making the most of what we have by re-imagining what's possible. A gorgeous case study for the homestead of the future.
320 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2013
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2624 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 70 reviews
November 8, 2013
There are so few books that are really helpful for homesteaders and permaculturalists beyond the beginner stages, but this book is one of them. What I enjoy most is the way the author has clearly tried out lots of techniques that are presented theoretically elsewhere, then explains why they did or didn't work for his farm. It's also handy (for me, at least) that his farm is medium-sized, like mine, so he doesn't bother with things that are really only appropriate for small backyards, nor does he expect you (usually) to have a big tractor and other heavy equipment (the way Sepp Holzer does).
My only complaint is that he doesn't have a blog. So we'll just have to wait for book number two to figure out what he learns after year ten on the farm! In the meantime, if you haven't hunted down a copy of the book yet, you can read highlights on my blog.
My only complaint is that he doesn't have a blog. So we'll just have to wait for book number two to figure out what he learns after year ten on the farm! In the meantime, if you haven't hunted down a copy of the book yet, you can read highlights on my blog.
August 25, 2013
The Resilient Homestead is in a class of its own. It is a book about agriculture, but its attitude to production is idiosyncratic. It is a permaculture book, but Falk keeps the looming specter of Peak Oil and gridcrash squarely in view, which lends it an urgency and thoroughness that most of the play-garden "home-scale" permaculture books never approach. At a glance, it doesn't sound very unique - like most permaculturists, Falk bandwagons on all the permaculture fads in technique and theory, so it advances all the same concepts as any other of its ilk - but Falk is one of those intimidating people who've invested serious time and considered effort into learning anything they've ever been interested in, which in his case cohere into a total skillset for self- and community-sustenance in the long term in terms of nutrition, water, shelter, heat, and energy. More than anything else, the book is a ridiculously thorough account of all the things you ought to be able to do to take care of yourself in the absence of industrial civilization. Fortunately, the list of things he's good at includes writing, photography, and graphic design, making this book substantially more eloquent, concise, and beautiful than Mark Shepard's Restoration Agriculture.
In one sense, Falk eschews the business mindset to a degree that is extreme even in the permaculture movement. I don't think he even once mentions selling any farm product. This is just the opposite of Shepard's approach, which seeks to propagate perennial polycultures due to their economic advantages - a Paul Hawken kind of deal, where the free market's strength to influence widespread social decision-making is exploited to rapidly enact sweeping reform. Falk often notes social failings in a sort of abstract way, giving pretty vague condemnations of the Fundamental Cause of social and environmental issues. But fortunately he generally refrains from presuming the reader's situation, so the advice can be applied as well to an isolated commune as to a functional market or community farm.
On the other hand, he's clearly not dogmatic about the ills of money. His clients are clearly almost all wealthy white people scared of losing their quality of life when their needs can't be filled at any price. It's the sort of privileged, greedy mindset that most permaculturists and Leftists (it's exactly the kind of isolationist withdrawal from the consequences of massive inequality that Naomi Klein warns about in Shock Doctrine) decry, and see their movement as opposing. But Falk takes some good, practical lessons out of it instead.
Permaculturists are a relatively radical branch of organic farming, and people my age (at least) interested in permaculture can often be dogmatic and obsessed more with personal purity of action and body than with serious work. Falk avoids this trap better than most. Rather than seeing money and fossil fuels as purely evil - since they're what caused the storms our homesteads must weather - he encourages us to leverage them as resources that, like any, can be used for good and ill. He points out that a little money and fossil energy applied now can help us create systems that will increase in yield over the long term despite decreasing labor and energy inputs and increasing climatic hardship.
This bespeaks Falk's practical long-term thinking. Most organic farmers, for instance, premise their work on principles of sustainability and conserving resources. But Falk's book made me realize that so much of the work I'd done in that vein was actually not very effective or intelligent. Organic vegetable farms are premised on keeping back a flood of weeds every year, cycling through bare soil, cover crops, and annual vegetables, usually with seeds purchased from Vermont and California. On our end, we used freezers, plastic bags, and vacuum sealers to ensure local nutrition year round. Total reliance on electricity and plastic, not resilient to even a brief power outage, and it doesn't support the establishment of tree crops, which represent the best investment in long term food supply.
A lot of the weaknesses of the book stem from Falk's short tenure and relative inexperience. For instance, I got the impression that his nut trees were not bearing yet. In a lot of cases, he will simply refer to the permaculture fad (biochar, humanure, nut trees) as something he intends to do and will "report on in future editions." It's nice to get the honest sense of an evolving farm and practice, but it makes a decent portion of the book feel like a list of things you should learn about and try. There is also a Cosmo style, 1000-point "How (un)prepared are you for the Collapse?" quiz at the end of the book where you can tally your inadequacies and imagine how many ways you could die without the support of the industrial economy (and unless you're Ben Falk, this quiz is definitely a glass-(more than)-half-empty deal). Given Falk's bewildering amount of existing skills, it's astonishing to realize that he is still relatively new and inexperienced. He has a tremendous life ahead of him as a permaculture leader and pioneer, and as more people join the bandwagon, his role will probably expand.
On the Subject of Exotics:
Despite his impressively broad and deep intellectual background, Falk is prone to uncritically stating his own pet theories and biases as fact. He avoids this quite well while describing practicalities, limiting himself to personal experience on the WSD Research Farm, but in theoretical matters he is quite fallible.
The worst example concerns non-native species. This is a very complex question that I have been turning over in my mind for months. I have come to the conclusion that the question is in fact (at least) two questions: how should agricultural land managers treat existing weedy, persistent invasive species, and, by extension, the introduction of new species from abroad; and what role non-native species should play in restoration agriculture systems meant to serve dual-duty in food production and habitat for threatened native organisms. The first question, of course, is widely discussed in the restoration literature, and there are very few people who advocate careless introduction of exotics today. Permaculturists are, to varying degrees, one of those groups, and that is one of the only marks against their claim of ecologically minded design.
Falk makes an extreme argument that essentially conflates the two questions I noted. He opposes the ideology of eradication, and supports the introduction of any and all species that can make niches produce food/medicine/resilience. This mindset makes sense superficially, but in historical perspective it's clearly the same philosophy that created so many costly and damaging ecological situations we are dealing with (using, among tools, permaculture).
It's not like his argument isn't persuasive. He's not advocating we introduce wild cats, rats, and tree snakes. He's talking about chinese chestnuts, apple trees, and goats. By this point, crop plants are generally altered enough (using their resources on produce, not survival) that they are unable to colonize wild ecosystems. They survive because of human aid. All the Eurasian plants that can colonize wild systems are already here as weeds. Encouraging them probably won't make much of a difference.
On the other hand, the question of restoration agriculture is essentially unresearched. It is the logical conclusion of the bioregional argument, of a historically informed human-inclusive model of restoration (all the North American ecosystems restorationists seek to restore supported plenty of Native Americans). But Falk sees no value in this possibility, and attacks those who seek the ideal as naive, limiting, or even xenophobic.
For better or worse, a quick look at Falk's source material on the issue discredits him tremendously. He cites a book called "Invasion Biology: Critique of a Pseudoscience," written under a pseudonym by seed salesman J.L. Hudson, whose short summary of his position on exotics cites himself (as "JLH") and no one else, inspired a review titled "Time to expose this environmental fraud!" and is premised on the argument that the ecological science damning invasive species is a deception driven by greedy academics and Monsanto. Casting Monsanto and greed as your villain is a great way to get environmentally minded consumers on your side, but the argument is essentially as thin as the one conservatives level at climate science, and just as dastardly. The fact that Falk was taken in by a book David Soberloff described as "squarely in the realm of crank literature" is a pretty big warning sign about some of his other theoretical conclusions.
In one sense, Falk eschews the business mindset to a degree that is extreme even in the permaculture movement. I don't think he even once mentions selling any farm product. This is just the opposite of Shepard's approach, which seeks to propagate perennial polycultures due to their economic advantages - a Paul Hawken kind of deal, where the free market's strength to influence widespread social decision-making is exploited to rapidly enact sweeping reform. Falk often notes social failings in a sort of abstract way, giving pretty vague condemnations of the Fundamental Cause of social and environmental issues. But fortunately he generally refrains from presuming the reader's situation, so the advice can be applied as well to an isolated commune as to a functional market or community farm.
On the other hand, he's clearly not dogmatic about the ills of money. His clients are clearly almost all wealthy white people scared of losing their quality of life when their needs can't be filled at any price. It's the sort of privileged, greedy mindset that most permaculturists and Leftists (it's exactly the kind of isolationist withdrawal from the consequences of massive inequality that Naomi Klein warns about in Shock Doctrine) decry, and see their movement as opposing. But Falk takes some good, practical lessons out of it instead.
Permaculturists are a relatively radical branch of organic farming, and people my age (at least) interested in permaculture can often be dogmatic and obsessed more with personal purity of action and body than with serious work. Falk avoids this trap better than most. Rather than seeing money and fossil fuels as purely evil - since they're what caused the storms our homesteads must weather - he encourages us to leverage them as resources that, like any, can be used for good and ill. He points out that a little money and fossil energy applied now can help us create systems that will increase in yield over the long term despite decreasing labor and energy inputs and increasing climatic hardship.
This bespeaks Falk's practical long-term thinking. Most organic farmers, for instance, premise their work on principles of sustainability and conserving resources. But Falk's book made me realize that so much of the work I'd done in that vein was actually not very effective or intelligent. Organic vegetable farms are premised on keeping back a flood of weeds every year, cycling through bare soil, cover crops, and annual vegetables, usually with seeds purchased from Vermont and California. On our end, we used freezers, plastic bags, and vacuum sealers to ensure local nutrition year round. Total reliance on electricity and plastic, not resilient to even a brief power outage, and it doesn't support the establishment of tree crops, which represent the best investment in long term food supply.
A lot of the weaknesses of the book stem from Falk's short tenure and relative inexperience. For instance, I got the impression that his nut trees were not bearing yet. In a lot of cases, he will simply refer to the permaculture fad (biochar, humanure, nut trees) as something he intends to do and will "report on in future editions." It's nice to get the honest sense of an evolving farm and practice, but it makes a decent portion of the book feel like a list of things you should learn about and try. There is also a Cosmo style, 1000-point "How (un)prepared are you for the Collapse?" quiz at the end of the book where you can tally your inadequacies and imagine how many ways you could die without the support of the industrial economy (and unless you're Ben Falk, this quiz is definitely a glass-(more than)-half-empty deal). Given Falk's bewildering amount of existing skills, it's astonishing to realize that he is still relatively new and inexperienced. He has a tremendous life ahead of him as a permaculture leader and pioneer, and as more people join the bandwagon, his role will probably expand.
On the Subject of Exotics:
Despite his impressively broad and deep intellectual background, Falk is prone to uncritically stating his own pet theories and biases as fact. He avoids this quite well while describing practicalities, limiting himself to personal experience on the WSD Research Farm, but in theoretical matters he is quite fallible.
The worst example concerns non-native species. This is a very complex question that I have been turning over in my mind for months. I have come to the conclusion that the question is in fact (at least) two questions: how should agricultural land managers treat existing weedy, persistent invasive species, and, by extension, the introduction of new species from abroad; and what role non-native species should play in restoration agriculture systems meant to serve dual-duty in food production and habitat for threatened native organisms. The first question, of course, is widely discussed in the restoration literature, and there are very few people who advocate careless introduction of exotics today. Permaculturists are, to varying degrees, one of those groups, and that is one of the only marks against their claim of ecologically minded design.
Falk makes an extreme argument that essentially conflates the two questions I noted. He opposes the ideology of eradication, and supports the introduction of any and all species that can make niches produce food/medicine/resilience. This mindset makes sense superficially, but in historical perspective it's clearly the same philosophy that created so many costly and damaging ecological situations we are dealing with (using, among tools, permaculture).
It's not like his argument isn't persuasive. He's not advocating we introduce wild cats, rats, and tree snakes. He's talking about chinese chestnuts, apple trees, and goats. By this point, crop plants are generally altered enough (using their resources on produce, not survival) that they are unable to colonize wild ecosystems. They survive because of human aid. All the Eurasian plants that can colonize wild systems are already here as weeds. Encouraging them probably won't make much of a difference.
On the other hand, the question of restoration agriculture is essentially unresearched. It is the logical conclusion of the bioregional argument, of a historically informed human-inclusive model of restoration (all the North American ecosystems restorationists seek to restore supported plenty of Native Americans). But Falk sees no value in this possibility, and attacks those who seek the ideal as naive, limiting, or even xenophobic.
For better or worse, a quick look at Falk's source material on the issue discredits him tremendously. He cites a book called "Invasion Biology: Critique of a Pseudoscience," written under a pseudonym by seed salesman J.L. Hudson, whose short summary of his position on exotics cites himself (as "JLH") and no one else, inspired a review titled "Time to expose this environmental fraud!" and is premised on the argument that the ecological science damning invasive species is a deception driven by greedy academics and Monsanto. Casting Monsanto and greed as your villain is a great way to get environmentally minded consumers on your side, but the argument is essentially as thin as the one conservatives level at climate science, and just as dastardly. The fact that Falk was taken in by a book David Soberloff described as "squarely in the realm of crank literature" is a pretty big warning sign about some of his other theoretical conclusions.
December 8, 2016
The author articulates many good ideas, but his writing style is overwrought and too self-serious, with frequent manifestations of a mindset dominated by survivalist paranoia. Furthermore, several not-insignificant inconsistencies appear within his overall blueprint for an ideal lifestyle.
For example, he discusses the importance of hoarding spare chainsaw parts for a post-societal-collapse future, yet he does not disclose how he intends to fuel his chainsaw, and this oversight is especially noticeable in the context of his continual references to the imminent disappearance of 'cheap oil' from the world stage (incidentally, the first edition of this book was published shortly before global oil prices entered a period of precipitous decline).
The author's attention to referencing his information sources is irregular. Citations are thorough in some places and absent in others. In one instance, an extensive table of BTU heating values for various species of trees does not offer any indication as to its origin.
Similarly, the detail devoted to the various subjects is scattershot. While the author belabors his personal approach to landscape architecture design across far too many pages, numerous interesting practical topics are only briefly mentioned and then glossed over with a vague comment to the effect that, because extensive educational resources are already available elsewhere, there is no need to discuss the material.
Also, he incorporates made-up words like 'foodmedicine' and 'thrival', which is a great annoyance to this reviewer.
In the column of positive attributes, the visual components and the aesthetic design are very appealing.
I would probably not purchase this book except at a steep discount, although a newer edition could be worth a second look...
In the spirit of permaculture ideals, however, this hefty tome does deserve a high rating, insofar as it holds excellent potential as insulation material.
For example, he discusses the importance of hoarding spare chainsaw parts for a post-societal-collapse future, yet he does not disclose how he intends to fuel his chainsaw, and this oversight is especially noticeable in the context of his continual references to the imminent disappearance of 'cheap oil' from the world stage (incidentally, the first edition of this book was published shortly before global oil prices entered a period of precipitous decline).
The author's attention to referencing his information sources is irregular. Citations are thorough in some places and absent in others. In one instance, an extensive table of BTU heating values for various species of trees does not offer any indication as to its origin.
Similarly, the detail devoted to the various subjects is scattershot. While the author belabors his personal approach to landscape architecture design across far too many pages, numerous interesting practical topics are only briefly mentioned and then glossed over with a vague comment to the effect that, because extensive educational resources are already available elsewhere, there is no need to discuss the material.
Also, he incorporates made-up words like 'foodmedicine' and 'thrival', which is a great annoyance to this reviewer.
In the column of positive attributes, the visual components and the aesthetic design are very appealing.
I would probably not purchase this book except at a steep discount, although a newer edition could be worth a second look...
In the spirit of permaculture ideals, however, this hefty tome does deserve a high rating, insofar as it holds excellent potential as insulation material.
October 22, 2013
In this book, Falk talks about updating his findings in another edition. I wasn't even finished with this one before I wanted to read the next, which I'll be buying when it comes out. Why? Because Falk has written a highly readable and informative book about his life and findings so far at the Whole Systems Research Farm. The second edition can only be better as he continues to relate his successes and failures.
While the book is chockfull of practical information for those wishing to create a resilient homestead, I think it would be an interesting read for anyone who is the least bit curious about how to lead a more conscientious life for both him- or herself and the planet. And speaking of the planet, Falk's attitude towards human beings and our place in this world is a refreshing change from the doom-and-gloom one often hears from those who seem to think Earth would be a lot better off if people ceased to exist. The book is a great mix of helpful and hopeful, providing advice for the climatological, economical, political, etc. dangers that will someday come along. According to the author--and I must agree--disasters are not a possibility but a certainty; it is not a matter of if, but when. All things break, all things come to an end. Maybe sooner, maybe later, but it is always nice to be prepared. But as I said before, Falk does not descend into melodrama or paranoia when talking about such things, and that is refreshing.
I started this book with a vague idea of what a resilient homestead might look like; I finished it full of motivation, concrete information, and resources to bring our hopes for a farm out of dreamland and into reality.
While the book is chockfull of practical information for those wishing to create a resilient homestead, I think it would be an interesting read for anyone who is the least bit curious about how to lead a more conscientious life for both him- or herself and the planet. And speaking of the planet, Falk's attitude towards human beings and our place in this world is a refreshing change from the doom-and-gloom one often hears from those who seem to think Earth would be a lot better off if people ceased to exist. The book is a great mix of helpful and hopeful, providing advice for the climatological, economical, political, etc. dangers that will someday come along. According to the author--and I must agree--disasters are not a possibility but a certainty; it is not a matter of if, but when. All things break, all things come to an end. Maybe sooner, maybe later, but it is always nice to be prepared. But as I said before, Falk does not descend into melodrama or paranoia when talking about such things, and that is refreshing.
I started this book with a vague idea of what a resilient homestead might look like; I finished it full of motivation, concrete information, and resources to bring our hopes for a farm out of dreamland and into reality.
May 5, 2015
The first third of the book was extremely helpful and applicable to my setting and homesteading efforts. Much of this part dealt with general principles of resiliancy and permaculture. It would be well worth the perusal for anyone who has an interest in exploring these concepts on their own. The remainder was valuable in it's own right, but dealt more with the author's on-location experiences specific to a Vermont climate. Seeing as my weather is about as far from that as it gets, the remaining chapters kept my interest by recording the author's successes and failures (more of the former) on his own land over the last few years.
Beyond mere permaculture and integrative systems approaches to farming, the author doesn't lose sight of the bigger picture: basic preparedness and self-sufficiency. In the West we've long lived under conditions that, as compared to most of the rest of the world, are ideal. But it wouldn't take much either economically or environmentally to snatch away the societal security blanket. Think suburban lawns turned into vegetable gardens and swimming pools serving as cisterns. If nothing else, simply gathering knowledge and skills is always a prudent use of time. This book is a valuable resource to possess in that regard.
Beyond mere permaculture and integrative systems approaches to farming, the author doesn't lose sight of the bigger picture: basic preparedness and self-sufficiency. In the West we've long lived under conditions that, as compared to most of the rest of the world, are ideal. But it wouldn't take much either economically or environmentally to snatch away the societal security blanket. Think suburban lawns turned into vegetable gardens and swimming pools serving as cisterns. If nothing else, simply gathering knowledge and skills is always a prudent use of time. This book is a valuable resource to possess in that regard.
December 22, 2013
This is probably the most inspiring, and yes, empowering book I have ever read. I'm sure the author's intention was to motivate the reader toward the holistic, self-sufficient path we should be on (probably 'should have been on', for years). In this, he succeeded with me. I have often regretted the sale of my great-grandparents' farm when I was a small child, because as I recall, they had done most or all of these things at the farm/homestead and raised several generations on it's bounty. Now, I REALLY miss the pear, pecan, sassafras, and cherry trees!...and the spring, although it was at the bottom of the hill.
I broke all the highlighter-rules while reading this book, and had to make myself stop painting the book yellow. Actually, I didn't read this book - I devoured it slowly, creating an even bigger list of books to read along the way.
"Inaction quickly consumes a lifetime. Be curious, be bold, pay close attention to the world in front of you. And start trying stuff."
My only complaint, having shared his journey and "watched" his farm develop, is that I may never find a piece of property I like as well as the WSRF!
I broke all the highlighter-rules while reading this book, and had to make myself stop painting the book yellow. Actually, I didn't read this book - I devoured it slowly, creating an even bigger list of books to read along the way.
"Inaction quickly consumes a lifetime. Be curious, be bold, pay close attention to the world in front of you. And start trying stuff."
My only complaint, having shared his journey and "watched" his farm develop, is that I may never find a piece of property I like as well as the WSRF!
August 16, 2016
This book was a game changer for me. Or, perhaps, more properly gave me the information I needed to do something I hadn't dreamed of doing before.
I bought a small farm in SE Michigan around the New Year, and had this book from the library about that time. As I was mulling over a way to use the area in the creek's floodplain I got this book, where the author talks about growing rice in Maine. I'm now a few weeks away from bringing in a rice harvest on an otherwise marginal piece of land.
I bought a small farm in SE Michigan around the New Year, and had this book from the library about that time. As I was mulling over a way to use the area in the creek's floodplain I got this book, where the author talks about growing rice in Maine. I'm now a few weeks away from bringing in a rice harvest on an otherwise marginal piece of land.
February 15, 2015
This is probably my #1 go-to book now when people ask me for homestead/permaculture book recommendations. I learned a lot from reading this, and it's given me some really good ideas for further development.
December 12, 2025
More technically written than Sepp Holzer's permaculture book, but Ben's homestead location is much more similar to mine in Minnesota, so again, I found many takeaways. I particularly took a lot of notes on things to consider when building a house/building on a property...where to situate it, systems to include or exclude based on sustainability. He has some interesting points to consider about garden produce sustainability and the energy it takes to preserve items (is it worth it?).
Definitely a book I'll come back to in the future.
Definitely a book I'll come back to in the future.
January 20, 2023
Though perhaps not the most polished writing—it was very textbook-y—this is a fantastic resource for Permaculture. Lots of good stuff.
February 19, 2015
This book gives a great overview of the different activities of the homestead, from the initial stages of site assessment, design practices, and earthworks and site preparation, to energy strategies for shelter, nutrient flows and food crop selection, and the development of health through nutrition and activity selection. It digs into detail on a number of key points common to the region of the site, including the gathering of firewood and the insulation of buildings in wet climates. In other cases, notably long-heating compost mounds and humanure, it only marks the subject as "to be continued", leading to frustration. However, the topics that are covered well are illustrated through diagrams, and photographs contextualize the scene throughout.
This book is accessible in its layout and vocabulary, with it's organization, diagrams, pictures, and listings giving a kind of light textbook feel. It's initial chapters are more clearly organized, with later chapters developing through extended anecdotes about his farm's practices, summing up with an essay chapter to motivate the entire work.
The book also has a number of ideas about personal development, having a kind of weird survivalist edge I wasn't exactly expecting, but I feel has a justified origin with an attitude of personal responsibility combined with a historically-informed strategic thinking. This book, unlike other notable peers, says little about community organization or regional cooperation, assuming that if you're good enough at taking care of yourself, you'll be intrinsically useful to others with your skills.
I think there is a difference between resilience and self-reliance, resilience being a network effect provided by multiple layers of self and neighborly support, and not limited to the survivalist baseline of how much one has in the pantry. Having said that, it is arguable getting a decent stock for yourself is one way to step towards making sure everyone is covered.
I think that this is something off-putting, even demotivating, about parts of this book, given the time where I found it. It emphasizes traits built over years in a very particular personal background and context, while the truth of a design practice like permaculture is anybody can start to begin, and other books are more accessible in that regard. However, it tempers its attitude occasionally with a spirit of care I think we all can relate to, offering an offsetting motivation. Overall, if this book could have somehow been fused with Rob Hopkins's transition handbook, we'd be compensating for the weaker points in each.
This book is accessible in its layout and vocabulary, with it's organization, diagrams, pictures, and listings giving a kind of light textbook feel. It's initial chapters are more clearly organized, with later chapters developing through extended anecdotes about his farm's practices, summing up with an essay chapter to motivate the entire work.
The book also has a number of ideas about personal development, having a kind of weird survivalist edge I wasn't exactly expecting, but I feel has a justified origin with an attitude of personal responsibility combined with a historically-informed strategic thinking. This book, unlike other notable peers, says little about community organization or regional cooperation, assuming that if you're good enough at taking care of yourself, you'll be intrinsically useful to others with your skills.
I think there is a difference between resilience and self-reliance, resilience being a network effect provided by multiple layers of self and neighborly support, and not limited to the survivalist baseline of how much one has in the pantry. Having said that, it is arguable getting a decent stock for yourself is one way to step towards making sure everyone is covered.
I think that this is something off-putting, even demotivating, about parts of this book, given the time where I found it. It emphasizes traits built over years in a very particular personal background and context, while the truth of a design practice like permaculture is anybody can start to begin, and other books are more accessible in that regard. However, it tempers its attitude occasionally with a spirit of care I think we all can relate to, offering an offsetting motivation. Overall, if this book could have somehow been fused with Rob Hopkins's transition handbook, we'd be compensating for the weaker points in each.
August 19, 2014
This book is one of the most easy to read and enjoyable non fiction works I've read in some time. I sat down one afternoon and wanted to gobble up all the great information as fast as I could. Besides being well organized and written clearly, it features beautiful pictures and succinct graphs. It isn't a introduction book nor is it written for dummies. It assumes the reader is educated and has some basic information on permaculture, agriculture, or similar field. However, it is approachable for those new to permaculture or sustainable systems purely through its down to earth language and the realities of experience backing the methods and systems. You really feel that the author is sharing his own stories, successes and failures, without any pressure for the reader to blindly agree. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is hoping to live more consciously or start working with permaculture! I'm so thrilled I splurged and got a physical copy for myself.
November 17, 2020
This book is to homesteading what interior design is to construction. It lays out plans, provides lots of information on aesthetic choices, and inspires lots of good ideas. The problem is, eventually you have to actually build this stuff, and the book goes into very little technical detail. I don't really feel any more confident in my home farming skills after reading this book than I did before.
June 4, 2014
This book is incredible. It's extremely educational without being dry and I found the whole concept very inspiring. My own journey with homesteading is very different but weirdly enough, though I'm halfway across the country, I am also in zone 6 so it was neat to see what he was doing in zone 6 that I never thought possible.
February 5, 2016
I loved this book! It's about a guy who bought a farm and was only going to stay there a couple of years. He is now 10 years into it, and it documents his journey on this particular piece of land. He built rice paddies, lots of trees, a house, raises animals, fruit crops, garden crops, and more. Lots of pictures and charts. Very, very informative.
November 1, 2019
Lot of good valuable information but not as much practical implementation information. Could be that I am too new to homesteading and permaculture will definitely reread. Also a lot of Doomsday preachy content.
January 31, 2015
New things learnt - much reinforced, some great new ideas. Motto as per ending - just try stuff!
January 8, 2024
Book #43 of 2023. "The Resilient Farm and Homestead" by Ben Falk. 3/5 rating.
This book is all about using permaculture and system design to build a homestead for yourself.
Ben lives in Vermont and has managed to make his own 10-acre oasis with a plethora of food crops and a few animals all while treading lightly on the land. Within this short textbook, there were a lot of good ideas about site design, best practices around food and animals, as well as water and shelter. I think that this book would be a powerful tool if you are actively in the process of building your homestead. From the discussion in here, Ben's classes at his home I am sure would be incredibly beneficial.
Apart from this, I think that giving some of the quotes that I wrote down might be the best way to give an idea of the array of tidbits Ben offers:
- "A permaculture can accurately be said to be any system in which 'the whole function of each part is fully realized.'
- "A nut tree is simply more effective and efficient at converting sunlight and precipitation into value, over the long term, than any other technology humans have yet designed."
"All in all, you can grow three to eight times the product value (protein, fat, carbohydrate, Btus and other nutrients/values) via a tree crop system than with an annual, input-dependent crop such as corn, and you can do so while improving the land from decade to decade."
- "Embracing what the land we are working with can truly do best is a large part of learning to inhabit a place well..."
- "'Weed' and other plant identification is also a great way to understand what nutrients may be in abundance or lacking in your soil..."
- "Our ability to remain here well into the future depends greatly upon our ability to participate within the living world of which we are part and parcel. Being a nonparticipating observer attempting to maintain the world around us in a static condition is simply not an option."
- "Human presence can be regenerative, not just less bad."
This book is all about using permaculture and system design to build a homestead for yourself.
Ben lives in Vermont and has managed to make his own 10-acre oasis with a plethora of food crops and a few animals all while treading lightly on the land. Within this short textbook, there were a lot of good ideas about site design, best practices around food and animals, as well as water and shelter. I think that this book would be a powerful tool if you are actively in the process of building your homestead. From the discussion in here, Ben's classes at his home I am sure would be incredibly beneficial.
Apart from this, I think that giving some of the quotes that I wrote down might be the best way to give an idea of the array of tidbits Ben offers:
- "A permaculture can accurately be said to be any system in which 'the whole function of each part is fully realized.'
- "A nut tree is simply more effective and efficient at converting sunlight and precipitation into value, over the long term, than any other technology humans have yet designed."
"All in all, you can grow three to eight times the product value (protein, fat, carbohydrate, Btus and other nutrients/values) via a tree crop system than with an annual, input-dependent crop such as corn, and you can do so while improving the land from decade to decade."
- "Embracing what the land we are working with can truly do best is a large part of learning to inhabit a place well..."
- "'Weed' and other plant identification is also a great way to understand what nutrients may be in abundance or lacking in your soil..."
- "Our ability to remain here well into the future depends greatly upon our ability to participate within the living world of which we are part and parcel. Being a nonparticipating observer attempting to maintain the world around us in a static condition is simply not an option."
- "Human presence can be regenerative, not just less bad."
October 12, 2020
Really inspiring and practical book. While I may not be in the ideal place to grow my own rice, I still found it interesting to read about Ben Falk's experiments with growing it in Vermont.
Here's someone who's actively practising permaculture - permanent culture, permanent agriculture - ways of living that can be sustained long term. And documenting it for his own knowledge and for others.
The experiments and experiences Falk outlines are really useful and interesting for anyone from the home gardener to the farmer - anyone wanting to be more self-sufficient, live in harmony with the environment and other beings, and survive (and thrive) in an increasingly uncertain future.
What foods are easy to grow? Easy to store - and how? What are the benefits of animals in a permaculture system? How best can we capture and store water in the soil, rather than having it run off, and having either droughts or floods? All this and much more.
Here's someone who's actively practising permaculture - permanent culture, permanent agriculture - ways of living that can be sustained long term. And documenting it for his own knowledge and for others.
The experiments and experiences Falk outlines are really useful and interesting for anyone from the home gardener to the farmer - anyone wanting to be more self-sufficient, live in harmony with the environment and other beings, and survive (and thrive) in an increasingly uncertain future.
What foods are easy to grow? Easy to store - and how? What are the benefits of animals in a permaculture system? How best can we capture and store water in the soil, rather than having it run off, and having either droughts or floods? All this and much more.
September 8, 2022
Finished this fantastic book months ago, and have slacked on checking in partly just to draw out the inevitability of its end. Good thing I will be able to go back and re-read it!
Seriously though, whether you are a homesteader or amateur farmer looking for an encyclopedia / guidebook, or just a person like myself who dabbles in gardening and agriculture and wants to learn more about traditional practices, this book is worth the read. Author Ben Falk is an incredible writer, and weaves into this tome on specific practices he has used for decades as a landscape architect and homesteader in Vermont so much general wisdom about life and musings on what it means to be a human bean. While like any person, some of his thoughts and philosophy you may not agree with, he seems to approach life and the questions around us from a place of genuine curiosity, interest, and good intention in terms of being a steward of the land and a member of a sustainable community.
Seriously though, whether you are a homesteader or amateur farmer looking for an encyclopedia / guidebook, or just a person like myself who dabbles in gardening and agriculture and wants to learn more about traditional practices, this book is worth the read. Author Ben Falk is an incredible writer, and weaves into this tome on specific practices he has used for decades as a landscape architect and homesteader in Vermont so much general wisdom about life and musings on what it means to be a human bean. While like any person, some of his thoughts and philosophy you may not agree with, he seems to approach life and the questions around us from a place of genuine curiosity, interest, and good intention in terms of being a steward of the land and a member of a sustainable community.
May 12, 2024
I’m glad I waited until the revised and expanded edition came out before buying this book which now covers 20 years of Ben Falk’s permaculture experiments in Vermont, both at his own homestead and through his design company working with clients. I don’t know of many other books covering this range of material and providing the aspiring permaculturist with a guidebook on systems design for their homestead. The author doesn’t go into extensive detail on some topics such as animal husbandry, building design and construction, etc. (which would be impossible in a book of its size), but provides sources and ideas for the reader to get started.
I particularly liked the chapter on food crops as the author describes which perennial crops have proven themselves over the long run. The book is full of beautiful pictures and inspiration for those wishing to lead a similar lifestyle based on resilience and regeneration of the land.
I particularly liked the chapter on food crops as the author describes which perennial crops have proven themselves over the long run. The book is full of beautiful pictures and inspiration for those wishing to lead a similar lifestyle based on resilience and regeneration of the land.
December 8, 2024
Finished this book after slowly digesting it for a better part of 2024 - this came as a recommendation from my sister who attended Ben's course at his farm in Vermont.
I have so many feelings after finishing this book. I have about 1,000 more questions and ideas about what I want my life to entail as a person who is actively saving up to buy property and hopefully incorporate many of the principles described in this book.
I enjoyed the high-level overview of basically all principles of Ben's farm/life, and this book is an awesome starting point as I now have likely years of new reading material and subjects to immerse myself in. The book definitely had prepper-style language and tips and I'm not sure I'll ever get to Ben's lifestyle, so I had to keep reminding myself of that. Overall a super informative read that has inspired me to "try stuff" as Ben repeatedly said and take baby steps towards the lifestyle I want.
I have so many feelings after finishing this book. I have about 1,000 more questions and ideas about what I want my life to entail as a person who is actively saving up to buy property and hopefully incorporate many of the principles described in this book.
I enjoyed the high-level overview of basically all principles of Ben's farm/life, and this book is an awesome starting point as I now have likely years of new reading material and subjects to immerse myself in. The book definitely had prepper-style language and tips and I'm not sure I'll ever get to Ben's lifestyle, so I had to keep reminding myself of that. Overall a super informative read that has inspired me to "try stuff" as Ben repeatedly said and take baby steps towards the lifestyle I want.
March 21, 2021
Far from complete, this book provides a smattering of high concept permaculture ideals, mixed in with extremely anecdotal “here is what happened when I planted this” stories. The hodgepodge is quite useful, if not thorough. That is doubly true if you live in New England or hilly/rocky zone 4. Most of the book is tailored to that climate. Lots of the high concept parts of the book bordered on “preachy”. The author is a typical Green Guy: against most forms of energy production, against eating animals, etc. You can probably guess the type. The parts that border on tactical applications were far, far better. I particularly like the part on how to design your house for optimal efficiency. Anyone looking to start a homestead from scratch will find that part especially useful. Ultimately this is a good book. Maybe not great, but you are almost guaranteed to learn something. 8/10
August 31, 2017
An especially important book for New England homesteaders, gardeners, and small-scale farmers. Falk’s Whole Systems Research Farm above the Mad River in central Vermont has a climate and topography similar to what many of us in Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, and parts of Massachusetts and New York experience. Falk goes into some depth concerning rice-growing, pond- and swale-making and earthworks in general, fertility harvesting (urine and humanure, cover cropping, scything, fungi), perennial crops, animals such as ducks and chickens, maintaining and harvesting a firewood crop, and resilient systems for emergencies. Many enlightening diagrams, appendices and photos. Recommended for permaculturists.
May 25, 2020
This book casts a beautiful vision of a more sustainable and resilient future, from an individual to a global scale. It is based on solid science throughout, with a very pragmatic emphasis on doing what can be done in the short term, and focusing on what works in the long term, with a minimum of dogma. What’s more, it continually emphasizes a provocatively hopeful message: through regenerative design, we can simultaneously improve our own lives, our community, and our world.
It should be noted that this book has many ideas that can apply to any garden or homestead, but it is especially relevant to people at the earliest phases of design.
It should be noted that this book has many ideas that can apply to any garden or homestead, but it is especially relevant to people at the earliest phases of design.
September 16, 2020
What a profound book. The last few pages where Falk discusses why he homesteads are nothing short of poetic—just so powerful. Overall this is an extremely informative book, Falk knows an impressive amount about a wide range of topics involved in homesteading (think everything from landscape design to ecology to carpentry) and incorporates all of it at the right time. The depth of experience he provides the reader access to facilitates a learning experience unlike anything I’ve encountered in a textbook, although this is a kind of textbook/memoire hybrid at times. In any case, this book is HIGHLY recommended for anyone interested in self-empowerment, sustainability, nature, gardening, etc.
September 11, 2019
I'm fairly familiar with the general literature on permaculture and never actually left a review before but in this case I felt like I had to. Despite covering the basics I've found a bunch of invaluable insights in the book, put forward in a clear and articulate manner and connected to the author's hands-on experience. I only regret he doesn't live in the Mediterranean climate so I could take advantage of certain concrete examples mentioned in the book
January 2, 2020
If I was a full time homesteader with some acreage and some animals to work with I this would be a great resource for me. The author's climate is close enough to mine that many of the same ideas would work in my region and There is a lot of great information in this book. Probably one that is worth owning and taking some time with. You cannot possibly implement all these ideas within one season. The only permaculture book I know of that demonstrates growing rice in North America.
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December 28, 2021This book gets a little “out-there” for me with the peak-oil fears (should you use gas to plan for a future without gas is a philosophical question I never before faced) and humanure/pee on plants approaches. But as a study in making a piece of land your own and stewarding it well, it was a welcome thought-exercise. I wish there were books like this on the climate in which I live. I loved the ending truth of realizing his love for the tree apart from the provision of the first apple.
October 9, 2021
Astonishing to say the least. Complete, articulated, reasonable, passionate: I'd made it compulsory for any human being and alien living in the galaxy.
Ben focuses on the environment more familiar to him: that of cold, northeastern USA. And yet, he offers plenty of advice for anyone anywhere on earth.
Ben focuses on the environment more familiar to him: that of cold, northeastern USA. And yet, he offers plenty of advice for anyone anywhere on earth.
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