Backyard Farming on an Acre (More or Less) – Book Review
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Backyard Farming on an Acre (More or Less) by Angela England is a homesteading guide written with the enthusiasm of a beginner and the experience of several years of homesteading with limited space. It’s a great pep talk for those new to the idea of self-sufficiency who are wondering if they can raise more of their own food without moving to the country.
How Backyard Farming on an Acre (More or Less) is Organized
Backyard Farming on an Acre is divided into five parts:
- Living Large on a Small Scale
- Gardening on a Backyard Farm
- Animals for a Backyard Farm
- Enjoying the Bounty
- Crafting from the Backyard Farm
Each of these parts is divided into subsections.
Living Large on a Small Scale includes: the Backyard Farm Adventure; Finding Land; and Building on Land Your Already Own
Gardening on a Backyard Farm includes: What and How Much do You Want to Grow?; Tools and Skills for the Backyard Gardener; Gardening Smart from the Start; Get the Most from Your Garden; Vegetables for the Backyard Farm, Kitchen Herb Gardens; Fruits, Berries and More; Heirloom Plants and Saving Seeds
Animals for a Backyard Farm includes: Keeping Chickens on a Small Scale; Rabbits on a Backyard Farm; Sheep and Goats: Backyard Multi-taskers; and Beekeeping in the Backyard
Enjoying the Bounty includes: A Seasonal Guide to Managing Your Harvest; Canning and Freezing Produce and Meat; Dehydrating and Smoking; Root Cellars and Basements; and Preserving Garden Herbs
Crafting from the Backyard Farm includes: Making Butter, Yogurt and Cheese; Fibers: From Sheep to Sweater; Home Brewing Cider and Wine; Goat’s Milk Soap Making and Other Ways to Use Your Harvest
There are also appendices featuring Simple Plans for the Backyard Farm, Gardening Journal Pages and Resources.
Things I Like About Backyard Farming on an Acre (More or Less)
Angela features a taste of a *lot* of different topics, so there’s something in this book for nearly every interest level. She’s got some nice drawings in the beginning of the book to give the reader ideas about how much can be worked into a typical suburban back yard.
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With a supportive spouse, Angela tackles fence building, gardening, food preservation and many other tasks that can help you provide your family with fresh food no matter how small your space is. There are a few seasonal recipes to get your thinking about eating from your garden instead of from the grocery store.
She moves beyond the basic chickens discussed in many small scale homesteading books to an assortment of backyard animals. There’s a nice tutorial included from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds on how to properly save tomato seeds. (They need fermenting to remove the outer seed covering.) She defines basic terms in many of the sections so that those unfamiliar with the topic will be better able to understand the discussion. I was glad to see that she included medicinal herbs as well as culinary herbs, as these are also left out of many garden planning books.
Things I Didn’t Like About Backyard Farming on an Acre (More or Less)
Even though the book contained a lot of information, there were many areas that could have used deeper explanations, recipes or at the very least relevant online links. For instance, there were multiple photos of how to make a lavender wand, and only one photo of how to butcher a chicken. Granted, most of us would find the wand far more pleasant, but if you need to butcher a chicken, you’d better have a different book or some other source of information.
I would have loved to see some color photos, and more photos in general, or more line drawings. In the tool section, for instance, a side by side shot of the different tools would have been a great addition to the descriptions. There were so many garden photos that simply didn’t capture how beautiful I know these plants should be with only a gray image. (Color photos significantly increase printing costs, so I understand the need for grayscale.)
I’m also pretty sure my old neighbors in the suburbs would have had kittens if I had tried to transform my yard as she suggests. Some of them had panic attacks just because we had a garden and an assortment of fruiting plants. Critters would have sent them off the deep end. Hopefully your neighbors will be more understanding.
A Homestead Doesn’t Have to Be Huge
No matter how much or how little land you have, this book will help inspire you to look at your space in new ways. You don’t have to do everything – you can pick and choose what fits for you and your family. I think Angela did a nice job creating a beautiful book to help inspire a new generation of homesteaders.
You may also enjoy other book reviews from our homestead library, such as:
- If You Only Get One Homesteading Book, This Should Be It
- The Independent Farmstead
- How to Make Money Homesteading
Originally posted in 2013, updated in 2017.
I would like to know how to feed my chickens so they get the best non-GMO nutrition possible so we can get the best quality eggs from them.
Great Giveaway!
We grow a huge garden and are planning to enlarge even more. Also want to raise chickens the most efficient way.
I have a small piece of land and have been working to use every inch of it for gargens, fruit trees and this spring Chickens and some bee hives. I am currently trying to talk my husband into tearing up the front lawn to put in a blueberry patch. I would love to add this book to my collection, for some fresh ideas.
I’m interested in learning more about doing some gardening in pots (in addition to our regular garden plot). We don’t have a lot of sunny land so I think I need to try more in pots in our sunny spaces.
Great give away. Would love to have a copy of this book.
I’d really love to learn more on herbal and homeopathic remedies…homemade soaps and cleaners (working on some now)…root cellaring. Pretty much all of it 🙂 Thanks for doing a giveaway like this 🙂
I would like to be better at planning and not wasting a garden for ALL year.
Perfect timing for a perfect book for this season!
Sounds like a good book, I have 3 acres and I think I could learn a few things from this.
I would love to learn about keeping goats. I currently have chickens and bees and would like to expand
What I need to learn is to how about going changing your town ordinances so that you can raise chickens in your backyard. I would so love to have my own eggs.
” Hi there!
I’m the proud owner of handmedown copy of Richard M Bacons “An Acre and Security”, and I think that this would be the obvious, perfect pairing as far as my situation is concerned. He is very through, covering everything from goats to compost to chicken coops and treating bugs in your garden, but from my perspective (greeeeen, green, greenhorn), I can’t have too much help) working around three kiddos (all old enough to ‘help’ a little) and very limited resources, I am always excited to investigate new methods.
Would love to enter. How to?
dev – can you see the rafflecopter widget at the bottom of the post? You just click on the different tabs in the widget and enter your contact information so we know how to reach you if you win, then do each of the optional activities to get additional entries. Your information will never be sold.
Whether i win or not. This looks like a book i want in my collection. Thank you for sharing.
This is a great giveaway. Could not come at a better time. From your review I know that I would dive right into this book. I have been looking for land for the purpose of homesteading as we can no longer rely on the government to take care of us, it is time to stand on my own two feet. As a result of that, I think that a book like this would be a great addition to a library whose purpose is bring agriculture and self sustaining living back to the forefront of the game.
I would love to add more variety of vegetables/fruits to my very small garden, as well as adding a few animals. Thank you!
I live on a rocky ridge top but have managed two gardens by building up soil and raising chickens. I love the idea of a 1 acre homestead but when you don’t have flat land, good soil or a water source it’s difficult. I would love to know if there are books similar to this that discuss how to manage on hilly, rocky terrain where nothing is level, no pastureland, etc. If you come across anything like this, please call it out in a post or Facebook. Thanks!
Would love to learn more about meat goats.
I would like to learn more ideas about efficiently using my space, especially in integrating animals like goats (beyond the chickens I’ve already had). I *am* microfarming on one acre…but at least mine is rural and the neighbors won’t complain about the critters.
Looks very interesting