The First-Time Homesteader: A Complete Beginner’s Guide to Starting and Loving Your New Homestead

Roots and Refuge blogger Sowards (The First-Time Gardener) dispatches a “love letter” to homesteading and a fine guide to getting started doing it in this thoughtful account. While Sowards doesn’t sugarcoat the lifestyle, her fond reflections (“There is a beauty and a harmony to having animals on a homestead”) go a long way toward making it seem idyllic. Sowards starts with advice for land shopping, laying out a farm, and identifying one’s purpose for going the homesteading route. She then covers best practices for raising yard birds, describing different chicken breeds and how to build one’s flock (“The folks at the post office will never forget you once you’ve picked up a box of peeping chicks”). Next up is “Meat in the Freezer,” an up-close look at raising animals to be butchered (“the most contested part of our lifestyle”). Readers will also find notes on dairy production, keeping bees, and stocking a kitchen, plus a deep dive into gardening that covers succession planting, healthy soil, and compost. The simple but stunning photography—done by the author herself—is a treat. Sowards is realistic about the fact that becoming a homesteader is a long process often full of mistakes, but readers ready to go down that path would be hard pressed to find a better guide. Budding homesteaders, take note. (Sept.)