Home-Grown Harvest

Home-Grown Harvest offers a practical handbook for those seeking a more sustainable life. Whether you reside in a large country garden or a small city backyard, this essential guide to the 'Good Life' assists you on your journey to becoming more self-sufficient, a necessity in today’s world.

Issues such as climate change, industrial farming's chemical reliance, rising food prices, worries over food security, or simply a desire to spend more time outdoors drive many towards homegrown food and self-sufficiency. In this thrifty guide by the original 'Tom and Barbara,' Eve and Terence McLaughlin explore these topics deeply. They authored the first edition of this book in 1979.

This information-packed book provides expert advice on cultivating, harvesting, storing, and preserving your produce. You will learn how to brew your own beer and preserve your produce through bottling, curing, smoking, and pickling to extend its shelf life.

Featuring easy-to-follow instructions, the book also covers DIY tools and equipment to save money, reduce energy consumption, and decrease waste. Learn how to plan your planting site, discover optimum planting times and methods, grow a variety of vegetables, fruits, and nuts, and manage pests and diseases.

Besides growing food, the book delves into the basics of keeping livestock such as chickens, ducks, goats, and pigs, and how to use alternative energy sources like solar and wind power.

Producing your own food and contributing to a sustainable future is incredibly rewarding. It provides health benefits, including physical exercise from planting and harvesting, mental wellness from spending time in nature, and reducing chemicals in your diet, all of which contribute to greater wellbeing.

Whether you aim for full-blown self-sufficiency or are curious and wish to take your first steps toward growing your own food, this essential guide contains everything you need to know.

AUTHOR: Eve McLaughlin, alongside her late husband Terence McLaughlin, a scientist, co-wrote the original version of Cost-Effective Self-Sufficiency. Eve, a genealogist, has authored numerous books and guides about family history. At 82, she remains an avid gardener and propagator, enjoying her farmhouse garden in Buckinghamshire.