2012 Book Catalog
Updated January 19, 2012
We have a few books that we think are really great. We feel that everyone who has an interest in gardening, homesteading, or raising farm animals should consider one or more of these wonderful books. These make wonderful gifts for friends and relatives as well. The link for the book order form may be found at the bottom of this page.
2012 Book Order Form
The link to the Book Order Form may be found at the bottom of this page.
Gardening Books
100 Heirloom Tomatoes for the American Garden by Carolyn Male. Carolyn is a well known expert on tomato history, and how to raise this most popular vegetable. This book gives detailed descriptions and wonderful photos of 100 heirloom varieties. We have nearly all of them in the catalog. UNAVAILABLE FOR 2012. CURRENTLY THE PUBLISHER IS NOT REPRINTING THIS BOOK.
Melons For The Passionate Grower by Amy Goldman. The photos in this book will make any lover of melons drool, and the text and histories of the varieties are a treasure. $27.50 per copy
Seed to Seed by seed saving expert, Suzanne Ashworth. This book is the best reference book for anyone interested in saving their own seed. Every vegetable crop that you could imagine is included in this book. $30.00 per copy
Starter Vegetable Gardens by Barbara Pleasant. For first time vegetable gardeners, Barbara Pleasant takes the guesswork and anxiety out of growing food. She clearly explains exactly how to start, maintain, and eventually expand an organic garden, even in the smallest of spaces, covering everything from soil quality to planting schedules to fertilizers, harvesting, and more. Includes 24 no-fail, small-scale garden plans that will provide fresh food all season long. $22.50 per copy.
The Compleat Book of Squash by garden expert, Amy Goldman. The photos in this, Amy's second book, are once again provided by Victor Schrager. Mr. Schrager's still-life photography of fruits and vegetables is amazing. Ms. Goldman has gone into a tremendous amount of detail about the squash varieties that she has chosen for this wonderful book. $40.00 per copy
The Heirloom Tomato - From Garden to Table - by Amy Goldman. This book contains recipes, portraits, and history of the world's most beautiful fruit with photographs by Victor Schrager. $37.50 per copy
The Perfect Pumpkin by Gail Damerow. Gail Damerow offers detailed instructions on how to grow and harvest more than 95 varieties, plus fun ideas for carving and craft projects and more than 30 recipes. The big orange pumpkin is no longer just for Halloween. $16.00 per copy
The Vegetable Gardener's Container Bible by Edward C. Smith. Ed Smith provides information on growing everyone's favorite vegetables in all kinds of containers. He explains how to choose the right plants, select appropriate containers and tools, provide balanced nutrition, care for plants throughout the growing season, control pests without chemicals, and much more. He even includes plans for small-space container gardens that urban and suburban gardeners will love. This book has everything gardeners need to produce bountiful container harvests, even in the smallest spaces. $22.50 per copy
Tips for the Lazy Gardener by Linda Tilgner. Hundreds of time-saving tips and routines allow gardeners to produce better vegetables and herbs with less work and more pleasure. $15.50 per copy
Poultry and Farm Animal Books
Barnyard In Your Backyard edited by Gail Damerow. This book is for the small homestead owner who wants to raise a few of several different kinds of animals. Each chapter is dedicated to a particular animal (chickens, ducks and geese, rabbits, goats, sheep, dairy cows, and beef cattle) and offers tried-and-true advice on raising healthy, happy, productive farm animals. This is the perfect primer for homesteaders. 416 pages, 8 1/2" x 10 1/2", $29.00 per copy
Chicken Coops (45 Building Plans for Housing Your Flock) - by Judy Pangman. Bring your chickens home to roost in comfort and style! Whether you're keeping one hen in a small backyard or 1,000 hens in a large free-range pasture, you will find the perfect housing plan in this comprehensive handbook. It contains low-budget alternatives for working with what you have as well as working with found and recycled materials. There are also plans for building more upscale coops from the ground up as well as simple ways to make waterers, feeders, and nestboxes. 166 pages, 8 1/2" x 10 1/2", $24.00 per copy
Fowl Play - by Patrick Merrell. This is a fun book of puzzles, trivia, and humor all centered around chickens. 144 pages - paperback - $12.50 per copy
Keep Chickens! (Tending Small Flocks in Cities, Suburbs, and Other Small Spaces) by Barbara Kilarski. In this book she provides, with a nice helping of humor, the detailed information every aspiring chicken keeper needs to know. She gives a lot of basic information about raising chickens (especially raising them in town) such as Why Keep Chickens?, Chicken Basics, Chickens and the Law, Building a Coop, How to Pick a Chick, and Chicken Care, as well as a few egg recipes. Ms. Kilarski also includes a summary of selected city municipal codes (current as of 2003). 150 pages, 6" x 9", $19.00 per copy
Pocketful of Poultry edited by Carol Ekarius. More than 100 poultry breeds show their amazing colors in full-page images that capture their good looks and lively personalities. Facing each poultry portrait is an informational page offering facts about the breed, including its primary use and its conservation status. A pocket treasure for fowl fanciers everywhere! 272 pages, 6" x 4 1/4", $13.50 per copy
Storey's Guide to Raising Chickens by Gail Damerow. This is another wonderful book by Gail which covers everything you need to know about raising chickens. In her book, she tells you how to choose the right breed for you, care of baby chicks, feeders and housing, how to collect and store eggs, raising meat chickens, and how to show your chickens. 352 pages, 6" x 9", $22.00 per copy
Storey's Guide to Raising Ducks by Dave Holderread. Dave Holderread has raised ducks for more than 40 years. He lives in Oregon with his wife, Millie, where they maintain some of the best flocks of domestic waterfowl in the world. Dave is "The Authority" on waterfowl today. This fully illustrated book tells you everything you need to know about raising ducks: breed descriptions, feeding and housing, showing prize-winning ducks, health care and disease prevention, etc. It is a wonderful resource for anyone from the beginner to the advanced breeder. 320 pages, 6" x 9", $22.00 per copy
Storey's Guide to Raising Poultry by Glenn Drowns. This book covers chickens, waterfowl, guineas, turkeys, as well as miscellaneous other fowl. It is complete with pen ideas, breeding plans, breed selecting, care and health issues as well as raising your own feed. This is all new material and is due to be released in May, 2012. 464 pages, $22.00 per copy (You may preorder this book at any time and it will be sent to you when it is released for sale in May, 2012.)
Storey's Guide to Raising Turkeys by Leonard S. Mercia. Although this book is focused on the production of turkeys for meat, there are some other good things in the book also. It tells about brooding poults and turkey diseases as well as how to butcher and cook the turkeys. 200 pages, 6" x 9", $21.50 per copy
Storey's Illustrated Guide to Poultry Breeds edited by Carol Ekarius. Presented here, breed by breed, are more than 120 barnyard fowl - - from chickens and turkeys to emus and pheasants. For each animal, readers will find stunning color photography, a brief history, and a detailed description. The identifying characteristics included for each breed are: class; size; appearance of comb, wattles, and earlobes; color; place of origin; conservation status; and special qualities. Author Carol Ekarius provides enough information to satisfy both the dedicated browser and the serious farmer weighing the pros and cons of multiple breeds. 224 pages, 8 1/2" x 10 7/8", paperback. $20.00 per copy
The Chicken Health Handbook by Gail Damerow. Gail is a well-known authority on chickens. We feel that this book is a must for the small flock owner. It talks about the problems and diseases common to chickens of all breeds and ages. Practical charts in this book help pinpoint common symptoms and causes of disease. There is an alphabetical listing of diseases which gives quick access to treatments and remedies for most problems you may encounter when raising chickens. 352 pages, 6" x 9", $22.50 per copy
Books For The Children In Our Lives
The best way to ensure that heirloom seeds and poultry are going to be around on this planet for many years to come is to encourage a child to become interested in their heritage. We would recommend that you find a young person to mentor and share a book with them. We will try to increase the listings here as we find good ones to share.
NOTE: If you are a 4-H leader (or a parent or friend of a 4-Her), Please consider ordering the book Storey's Illustrated Guide to Poultry Breeds by Carol Ekarius (listed above) and donating it to your local 4-H club. It will be an invaluable tool to use for selecting which birds to show for the fair! The other book listed above named Pocketful of Poultry by Carol Ekarius would also be a good book to consider giving to a 4-Her. This is a very good learning tool for young people.
Barnyard Games & Puzzles by Helene Hovanec & Patrick Merrell. 100 mazes, word games, picture puzzles, jokes & riddles, brainteasers, and fun activities for kids. These games and puzzles depict life on the farm and have a difficulty rating of 1 hay bale (for younger children) up to 4 hay bales (for older children). It also includes a barnyard dictionary and an answer key in the back of the book. 144 pages - 8 1/2" x 10 1/2" - $14.00 per copy
The Barnyard - Read-and-Play Sticker Book Illustrations by Christina Wald and text by Lisa Hiley. This is a book for younger children with 80 reusable vinyl stickers and four farm scenes (kind of like Colorforms). It will stimulate imagination and creative play about life on the farm. 8 1/2" x 10 1/2" - $11.00 per copy
Nature's Artbox - written by Laura C. Martin with drawings by David Cain. From t-shirts to twig baskets, 65 cool projects for crafty kids to make with natural materials you can find anywhere. 215 pages - paperback - $19.00 per copy
Your Chickens: A Kid's Guide to Raising and Showing by Gail Damerow. This book is similar to Storey's Guide to Raising Chickens, but is written more on a child's level of understanding. It gives much of the same information but in a somewhat simpler format. This would be a great book for parents to get to help their 4-H kids, who are learning about poultry. It would also be a wonderful book for 4-H leaders to give out as an incentive prize to their 4-H youth. 160 pages, 7" x 10", $18.00 per copy
Cookbooks
Grandma's Recipes - from Homestead Publishers. The recipes from this book are all from the decades of the 1920's, 1930's, and 1940's. The ingredients are ones that would have been available during those eras. 281 pages, spiral bound - $16.00 per copy
The Basics and More Cookbook - from Homestead Publishers. This cookbook is a collection of basic recipes from Mennonite kitchens. 459 pages, spiral bound - $20.00 per copy
The Practical Produce Cookbook - from Homestead Publishers. This cookbook is a complete produce manual that every gardener will want on their bookshelf. Linda has had this cookbook for years and goes there first when Glenn brings vegetables in from the garden to sample. The book is divided alphabetically by vegetable and gives recipes for soups, salads, sandwiches, main dishes, baked goods, and desserts as well as planting, harvesting, canning and freezing tips for each vegetable. 332 pages, spiral bound - $18.50 per copy
Download and print and the book order form [PDF format]