cover image The Resilient Farm and Homestead: An Innovative Permaculture and Whole Systems Design Approach

The Resilient Farm and Homestead: An Innovative Permaculture and Whole Systems Design Approach

Ben Falk. Chelsea Green, $40 (320p) ISBN 978-1-6035-8444-9

This intelligent, challenging book, rooted somewhere between back-to-the-land idealism and radical survivalism, sees resilience as both planting and building for the use of future generations, but also as preparing food, water, shelter, and the human body and psyche for the onset of any imaginable extreme emergency. The result is a comprehensive, open-ended, theoretical and practical system for a post-carbon-dependent life—including site design; water and earthworks; perennial farming that integrates gardening, animal husbandry, and soil building; energy; architecture; and personal health—a system that is not only sustainable but restorative of the biosphere. Readers just dipping their toes into sustainability may be overwhelmed by Falk’s comprehensive vision and intimidating appendices listing homestead vulnerabilities and crucial skills for emergencies, but more seasoned 21st-century homesteaders, permies, and possibly also survivalists will appreciate Falk’s realism and his belief that “the process is an enjoyable, vitalizing one, and the results are staggering and humbling... life wants to live.” (July)