The Encyclopedia of Country Living

by Carla Emery

The bible of sustainable living, food gardening, and living green, no home is complete without this one-of-a-kind encyclopedia! For more than thirty years, people have relied on the thousands of recipes, detailed how-to instructions, and personal advice provided in this definitive classic. It is the most complete source of step-by-step information about growing, processing, cooking, and preserving homegrown foods from garden, orchard, field, or barnyard. This book is so basic, so thorough, so reliable, that it deserves a place in every home whether country, city, or in between. Carla Emery started writing The Encyclopedia of Country Living in 1969 during the back-to-the-land movement of that time. She continued to add content and refine the information over the years ad the book went from a self-published mimeographed document to a book published by Bantam and then Sasquatch. The 10th Edition reflects the most up-to-date and the most personal version of the book that became Carla Emery’s life work. It is the original manual of basic country skills that have proved essential and necessary for people living in the country and the city, and everywhere in between. The practical advice in this exhaustive reference tool includes how to cultivate a garden, buy land, bake bread, raise farm animals, make sausage, can peaches, milk a goat, grow herbs, churn butter, build a chicken coop, catch a pig, cook on a wood stove, and much, much more.

Genres: Nonfiction, Reference, Gardening, Survival, Food, Cookbooks, How To

922 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1977

Reviews

[Jason Caldwell · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is an excellent resource. I can't put it down. It is not a book you would read from cover to cover as there are many sections that are specifically for reference. It is full of 1000's of recipes and references including many websites, magazines, and books. It covers an extensive list of subjects from growing beets to butchering hogs and from keeping bees to making soap. It covers storing fruits, meats, and vegetables and hundreds of other basic skills that use to be passed down from father to son but which have been forgotten, for the most part, in our modern urban lifestyle. I highly recommend this book. The copy I have is from the library. I am thinking this is one I may need to buy.
**UPDATE** My wife got me my own copy for my birthday.

[Mandi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow! What an incredible volume of useful knowledge! And while one would initially think to buy this and place it on a shelf to use as a reference (and they should!), they will find upon perusal that there are all kinds of tidbits mixed in as well that they might miss if they don't go cover to cover. For example, you wouldn't think to find homemade household cleaner recipes in the gardening section, nor would you expect to find out what to do if you find yourself giving birth and you are all alone in the introductory chapter! Ha ha! I highly recommend this and again, make sure to give it a look-through before placing it on your shelf - you won't be sorry! ( :

[PJ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Got this one along with a couple of other "basic skills bibles", and so far I'm impressed with the breadth and depth of its coverage. Been reading about corn lately, all kinds of stuff about it. A good one for the commode, to have handy and just open randomly to any page.

[Jenn Pellerin · Rating 5 out of 5]

We keep this book up at the cabin. I like to sit by the fire and read about shearing sheep and slaughtering pigs (sorry, my veggie friends).
Contained in these pages is just about everything you need to know to live off the grid or on it, if you prefer. It covers finding and purchasing land, building houses and barns, buying, raising, and breeding all sorts of animals, hunting, foraging, slaughtering livestock, shearing sheep, growing fruits and vegetables, canning, and more and more and more. Seriously. Everything.
What I love about it is the use of little stories to illustrate points and the fact that it presents you with various ways you can make your operation self-sustaining. And there are recipes for things like "small animal stew". Just in case you happen upon a tasty looking squirrel. Delicious!
Since we got this book, I am even more obsessed with living the dream.

[Sherri · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow what a volume. There is everything you can run into on a homestead. Drawings on some things. Anecdotes. Recipes. How to's.

[Lisa Kearns · Rating 5 out of 5]

There's a reason why so many farmers and homesteaders consider Carla Emory's book to be THE definitive source of information. Sure she wrote it many years ago, but it has evolved with each printing into a total package of information. It covers everything from raising and butchering livestock, to baking, gardening, canning, using herbs, building chicken coops and churning butter. I've turned to it many times when I needed information, or to read about something I was considering trying. She has a very no-nonsense approach, much like our farming grandparents did, and I appreciate that most of all.

[Brittany · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love this book. Must have for home library.

[Kate Singh · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is huge and has a little bit of everything. I didn't finish it. It is a book to have on your shelf for constant reference as the farm grows. I will be adding it to my library as it is a must have. There is everything from detailed gardening to how to make egg noodles.

[Gladimore · Rating 3 out of 5]

Helpful reference book.

[Anjanette · Rating 5 out of 5]

Must-have

[Dahlia · Rating 5 out of 5]

good lord, this book is comprehensive. i got it out of the library because i'm trying to put in a garden and am clueless, but i found myself paging through it, fascinated, as she discusses such handy and useful things as how one slaughters a hog, keeps hens from getting "broody," does laundry with a plunger and bucket, etc. information that won't help me a bit in my urban home, but which is entertaining to read and, as with the animal-slaughtering-how-tos, page past very quickly. if i had any desire to homestead, this is the book i'd take with me.

[Sandy · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my all time favorite books. The first time I made bread by hand, it was by a recipe in this book for four loaves. Everytime I have sat down to read this, I almost get lost in the pages! I love it.
This isn't one of those read all the way through at once (even though I did so when I first got it!) and you can tell that from the size of it! Huge book!
Carla Emery takes the intimidation out of so many areas of country living and her book delivers!

[Jannah · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is bloody amazing. It is perfect for my adhd brain since it has 1001 subjects already and I'm only FIVE PERCENT in! I love it. There is no need to review it once read. If you have any desire to learn about living self sufficiently in even the smallest possible way in your urban home let alone in the middle of nowhere this book is still for you.

[Lisa · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book wasn't what I expected, and maybe thats why I didnt like it? It was a resource book with snipits and blurbs about various homesteading items. But, it wasnt in depth or useful to me.

[Treladon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Everything you can think of doing is in this book.

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lots of good references to get prepared for what's coming.

[Jennifer · Rating 1 out of 5]

Having grown up in and lived the country lifestyle my whole life, I bought this book in hopes of expanding my knowledge on a variety of topics without having to buy a ton of different books. This book was not the answer. Each topic would have a small description of the topic and then pages of “resources” which were references to SEPARATE books. I bought this book to give me the answer, not tell me to buy another book, I have google for that.

A great example, under the topic of mushroom hunting it literally said “don’t use books to hunt mushrooms” ok what?????

I could see this book being a great resource if you have never spent a day living in the country before. If you are a city or suburb person who needs to learn how to start a fire or have never heard of frost zones for gardening then this is the book for you.

[Zora · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn't actually read this, as it's a 900 page reference book . But I dipped in to look up what I was interested in and read the entire introduction. It struck me that many of these instructions are about matters that you really must learn firsthand from an experienced person . For instance, she gives you two pages on dressing out an elk, but if you have never done this you shouldn't do it from a two-page instruction-- or rather, you shouldn't eat the meat if you did it from printed materials. The humor was a little too Hee-Haw for me. Also, it would be a strange kind of country, simple, off the grid living where you could be online as often as she sends you online.

[Jeanne · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had heard of this book for years, so decided to get it from the library. It is not the kind of book you read from cover to cover. I was particularly interested in the food preservation, oddments and herb sections. This is a book about self-sufficient living, so it also has interesting things like a diagram of a hog with an X placed exactly where you should shoot it. I also enjoyed the recipes for pickled pig's feet and scrapple, amont others. This would be a great book to own, if you actually were living a "homesteading" lifestyle.

[Jenny · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a MASSIVE reference book over 900 pages long on just about anything you'd need to know about country living, including how to purchase farm animals, catch a run-away pig, milk a cow, make sausage, can tomatoes, build a chicken coop, etc. This book is jam-packed with an impressive amount of detail, and includes diagrams, references, mail-order sources, and price estimates. A wonderful book to either flip through for inspiration or to turn to for detailed advice.

[Calamity Jane · Rating 5 out of 5]

i have a soft spot for Carla Emery, the queen of hippie back to the landers. I grew up with this book, and read it many a time as i plotted my own future homestead. the information is far from complete, like all of these "everything you need to know" books there are simply too many subjects to cover any in depth. but it gives a person an overview of what's involved, and that's a fine starting point.
GREAT armchair reading. her style is blunt and homey.

[Morgan Mitchell · Rating 5 out of 5]

The first page I turned to said, "How to take care of your dead". So I figure it has it all. This book has everything your Grandmother should have taught you! I love learning how to do things on my own like making pickles and soap, so I am enjoying it. Already I found out I have poison Hemlock all over the front yard of my newly purchased home/ 5 acres that I want to turn into a mini farm. This book might have just saved my life!

[Mrs. · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is almost as thick as a phone book, and contains information on just about everything you could think of when it comes to living in the country - canning, raising chickens, gardening, the works. I love it because it provides a great jumping off point for me to research topics in more depth from other sources. I'll be reading and re-reading this one for a long while.

[Christy · Rating 5 out of 5]

If the apocalypse had actually occurred yesterday and I was left behind, this is the book I would want to have with me. It has instructions on seriously everything you could ever need to survive, from growing your own food, to castrating goats, to giving birth. I will probably (hopefully) never need a lot of this information, but it is incredibly interesting to read.

[Laurel Fischback · Rating 5 out of 5]

Carla Emery homesteaded in the Yukon Territoy and this book contains the wealth of information gained in that journey. Written is a very easy manner, containing humorous snippets of her blunders along the way. An invaluable resource of recipes for cooking from basic products, homesteaders,and health conscience cooks.

[Lora · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent compendium of living a simpler life, covering many aspects from land to animals to kids to health to life and death. I have never read this entire book. I use some pages regularly, and sometimes I just pull it down and flip it open to see what I'm going to learn about next. Last time I did that, I ended up reading a recipe using a camel!

[Jeanna Morgan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a book that anyone wanting to live a homesteading life needs. It can be read from cover to cover, but for me it is more of a little at a time book. Whatever I am doing at the time, be it learning about a certain plant, how to preserve food, or how to make cheese; I just refer to that section and read up on it. It is a very good book. Carla Emery really knew her stuff.

[Jill Bateman · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have to be perfectly honest here, I have NOT read this book. I'd say I've read "on" this book! I've had it for a number of years now and I pull it out of my shelf a lot and look things up... and then a few hours later I realize whatever it was I was looking up is long gone from my mind! This is a great collection of lost skills and it makes me happy!

[Bill · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another great reference book for those wanting to learn lost of arts of our agrarian past. Whether you are interested in simple gardening, self-sufficiency or just being less wasteful and more green in your lifestyle, this books provides the information you will need.

[Reanna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great info on raising animals, farming, bee keeping just about everything you need to know about country living. It was more like a journal than a dictionary though so that's why I didn't love it and the pictures could of been better.