Resources

I love reading.  I can't stop myself from absorbing as much information as my mind can hold, and so I find myself frequently spouting random facts or making reading recommendations.  Here is a compilation of some of the best/most inspiring of what I've read.

Websites

Cultures For Health: A great resources for all things fermented (well, accept wine, beer and cider).  They have great instructions and offer many varieties of starter cultures.

Well Preserved: A great blog about preserving food.  This couple is quite adventurous and creative when it comes to preserving, which is a great inspiration!  They cover many kinds of preservation - canning, dehydrating, and preserving through fermentation and/or alcohol.

Food in Jars: another preserving blog, this one entirely focused on canning.  She offers recipes and great beginner tips and answers to questions.


Books

I love books!  (If you didn't gather that from reading my blog)

Home Comforts by Cheryl Mendelson - an encyclopedia on keeping home and why it's important.  I love this book although it is massive.  She even tells you how to properly fold a fitted sheet!

The Self-Sufficient Life and How to Live It by John Seymour - this is the book that started me on the dream of homesteading.  He gives detailed explanations of quite a few things that you will need to know and there are absolutely gorgeous pictures.

The Art of Simple Food by Alice Waters - a cookbook using basic, seasonal ingredients.  I also read the introduction to cookbooks and Alice's philosophy on food and cooking is inspiring to me - hopefully to you as well.  When we were attempting to cook entirely from our CSA, this cookbook was a wonderful resource.

Real Food for Mother and Baby by Nina Planck - She also wrote Real Food, which is what I was trying to get my hands on, but my library at the time had this book instead and it covers much of the same topics.  In it she discusses what 'real' food is and why it's important.  Then she provides researched discussion of how food impacts pre-conception through the baby's first foods.  She weaves her own experience with her first child into the book, which makes it an informative and interesting read.

In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto by Michael Pollan