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NEW! Renewing America's Food Traditions:
Saving and Savoring the Continent's Most Endangered Foods
Edited by Gary Nabhan 2008, 350pp., $35

Renewing America’s Food Traditions is a beautifully illustrated dramatic call to recognize, celebrate, and conserve the great diversity of foods that gives North America its distinctive culinary identity that reflects our multicultural heritage. It offers us rich natural and cultural histories as well as recipes and folk traditions associated with the rarest food plants and animals in North America. In doing so, it reminds us that what we choose to eat can either conserve or deplete the cornucopia of our continent.

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While offering a eulogy to a once-common game food that has gone extinct—the passenger pigeon—the book doesn’t dwell on tragic losses. Instead, it highlights the success stories of food recovery, habitat restoration, and market revitalization that chefs, farmers, ranchers, fishermen, and foresters have recently achieved. Through such “food parables,” editor Gary Paul Nabhan and his colleagues build a persuasive argument for eater-based conservation.

In addition, this book offers the first-ever list of foods at risk in America (more than a thousand), shows how all of us can personally support and participate in such recoveries, and lists food festivals held across the continent to honor and enjoy some of the country’s most iconic foods, from crab cakes to maple syrup and filé gumbo. Organized by “food nations” named for the ecological and cultural keystone foods of each region—Salmon Nation, Bison Nation, Chile Pepper Nation, among others—this book offers an altogether fresh perspective on the culinary traditions of North America.

Nourishing Traditions

Nourishing Traditions:
The Cookbook that Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition & Diet Dictocrats by Sally Fallon
(1999 2nd Edition) 672pp. $27

Recalling the culinary customs of our ancestors and looking ahead to a future of robust good health for young and old, this book offers modern families a fascinating guide to wise food choices and preparation techniques. Unites the wisdom of the ancients with the latest independent and accurate scientific research.

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With her insistence that human food should have a much higher nutrient content than corporate industrialized farms are able to provide, Sally Fallon has awakened families all over North America to the fact that if they want to live full and happy lives, they won't find the nutrition they need in packages at the grocery store and are going to have to put some effort into acquiring the quality of food that only small, owner-operated farms can provide. With the large network of "Weston A. Price groups" she has established in the U.S. and in Canada, she has undoubtedly saved more family farms in the last 10 years than any other person or organization. The well documented knowledge she shares makes both farms and families more healthy.
Build Your Own Earth Oven

Build Your Own Earth Oven, 3rd edition:
A Low-Cost, Wood-Fired Mud Oven; Simple Sourdough Bread; Perfect Loaves
by Kiko Denzer 2004, 132pp, $18

Build Your Own Earth Oven is a fully-illustrated handbook for making a simple, wood-fired, masonry-style oven. It provides clear, step-by-step instructions for building and firing the oven, as well as complete directions for making sourdough bread in the best (and simplest) artisan tradition.

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Wild Fermentation

Wild Fermentation:
A Do-It-Yourself Guide To Cultural Manipulation
by Sandor Ellix Katz,
2001, 187pp, $25

Elegantly written and tested introduction to basic ferments of food and drink, drawing on world culinary traditions. Eat live food! Use friendly microbes to preserve food, enrich diet, and enhance nutrition. With 99 recipes.

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Wild Fermentation Booklet:
A Do-It-Yourself Guide To Cultural Manipulation
by Sandor Ellix Katz,
2002, 33pp, $7

This is a much abbreviated version of the above book featuring 16 recipes for sauerkraut, miso, amazake, sourdough, injira, honey wine, vinegar, yogurt, kefir, and more.

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Booklet
The Revolution Will Not Be Microwaved

The Revolution Will Not Be Microwaved: Inside America's Underground Food Movement
by Sandor Ellix Katz 2006, $20, 390pp

"This is the story of the consumer revolution against globally industrialized agriculture and corporate domination of food production, processing, and distribution systems. Katz (Wild Fermentation: The Flavor, Nutrition, and Craft of Live-Culture Foods) asserts that there are alternatives to the dead, unhealthy, homogenized food commodities this system provides. He visited farmers' markets, food cooperatives, and communities in search of local initiatives that restore traditional food production and distribution methods and revive local economies.

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Katz found a broad movement of people and organizations involved in preserving native varieties, practicing humane and sustainable treatment of land and animals, supporting local producers and marketers, and using food to improve health. Of particular note is the rapidly growing 'slow food' movement, which rejects standardized fare and focuses instead on cuisine that has served ethnic and cultural preferences in the past. Each chapter cites references for further reading and organizations involved in keeping the programs active. This work is sure to enlighten readers and motivate many to join the revolution. Recommended."- Irwin Weintraub for Library Journal, December 2006

"Sandor Katz describes a political climate in which 'eating well has become an act of civil disobedience.' From bread clubs to the raw milk underground, consumers are voting against commercial food with their taste buds and their pocket books. Don't miss this remarkable manifesto."
– Sally Fallon, author of Nourishing Traditions

"Sandor Katz has given us a refreshing, wholesome, wise book on something that affects all our lives. It points us not only to eating in a new way, but thinking in a new way. Here we see food with all its social and economic ramifications, to say nothing of its consequences for our health. I hope it will be widely read."
– Howard Zinn, author of A People's History of the United States

"What's for dinner? Zesty politics, delicious democracy, and satisfying grassroots action. Devour this book." —Jim Hightower

Solar Food Dryer Solar Food Dryer:
How to Make and Use Your Own Low-Cost, High Performance, Sun-Powered Food Dehydrator
by Eben V. Fodor
2006, 144pp, $16

The Solar Food Dryer describes how to efficiently harness solar energy to preserve food quickly and easily. With your own solar-powered food dehydrator, you can conveniently make all the high-quality dried foods you want - with free sunshine! Eat local and eat healthier by preserving the goodness of your favorite seasonal foods, garden veggies, fruits and herbs to enjoy all year long.

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A good solar food dryer will perform amazingly well under a wide range of conditions, working effectively in almost any climate where you can grow fruits and vegetables. This is not "sun drying," its solar drying - a major step forward in applying solar technology to food preservation.

The solar dryer has distinct advantages over conventional electric food dryers and doesn't require the energy or storage space needed for canning or freezing. And solar food drying is a great way to learn about solar energy and to experience the incredible power of the sun - as well as being a great deal of fun!

The Solar Food Dryer includes everything you need to get started:

  • Complete step-by-step plans for building a high-performance, low-cost solar food dryer from readily available materials
  • A review of the best solar dryer designs and features
  • Solar energy design concepts
  • Food drying tips and recipes
  • Resources, references, solar charts, and more
Keeping Food Fresh Preserving Food Without Freezing or Canning:
Traditional Techniques Using Salt, Oil, Sugar, Alcohol, Vinegar, Drying, Cold Storage, and Lactic Fermentation by Authors: Claude Aubert , Centre Terre Vivante
1999, 160pp, $22

Typical books about preserving garden produce nearly always assume that modern kitchen gardeners will boil or freeze their vegetables and fruits. Yet here is a book that goes back to the future—celebrating traditional but little-known French techniques for storing and preserving edibles in ways that maximize flavor and nutrition.

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Translated into English, and with a new foreword by Deborah Madison, this book deliberately ignores freezing and high-temperature canning in favor of methods that are superior because they are more nutritious and energy efficient. As Eliot Coleman says, "Food preservation techniques can be divided into two categories: the modern scientific methods that remove the life from food, and the natural 'poetic' methods that maintain or enhance the life in food. The poetic techniques produce . . . foods that have been celebrated for centuries and are considered gourmet delights today."

Preserving Food Without Freezing or Canning (originally published as Keeping Food Fresh) offers more than 250 easy and enjoyable recipes featuring locally grown and minimally refined ingredients. It is an essential guide for those who seek healthy food for a healthy world.

Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands, Vol 1  Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands, Vol 1: Guiding Principles
by Brad Lancaster

 2005, $25, 183 pp., 150 illustrations

First of a 3-volume work, this book lays out an integrated approach to capturing water in landscape: swales, pits, diversion drains, urban runoff, and roofwater. Essential for drylands, useful everywhere.

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NEW! Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands, Vol 2: Water Harvesting Earthworks
by Brad Lancaster
2007, 336pp, $33

Earthworks are one of the easiest, least expensive, and most effective ways of passively harvesting and conserving multiple sources of water in the soil. Associated vegetation then pumps the harvested water back out in the form of beauty, food, shelter, wildlife habitat, and passive heating and cooling strategies, while controlling erosion, increasing soil fertility, reducing downstream flooding, and improving water and air quality.

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Building on the information presented in Volume 1, this book shows you how to select, place, size, construct, and plant your chosen water-harvesting earthworks. It presents detailed how-to information and variations of a diverse array of earthworks, including chapters on mulch, vegetation, and greywater recycling so you can customize the techniques to the unique requirements of your site.

NEW! Rain Gardens: Managing Water Sustainably in the Garden and Designed Landscape
by Nigel Dunnett and Andy Clayden
2007, 188pp, $35

Rain gardens encompass all possible elements that can be used to capture, channel, divert and make the most of the rain and snow that fall on a property. Using the innovative and attractive approaches described here, it is possible to enhance outdoor spaces and minimize the damaging effects of drought, stormwater runoff, and other environmental challenges.

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Nigel Dunnett & Andy Clayden have created a comprehensive guide to water management techniques for the garden and built environment. Filled with practical, manageable solutions for small and large-scale implementations and utilizing authoritative research with state-of-the-art case studies from all over the world, Rain Gardens is the first book on sustainable water management schemes suitable for students and professionals.
Water Storage: Tanks, Cisterns, Aquifers, and Ponds

Water Storage: Tanks, Cisterns, Aquifers, and Ponds
by Art Ludwig   
2005, $20, 125 pp.

Covers water system design and construction of storage both in and above ground. Comprehensive, concise information about water quality, potential difficulties, and how to avoid them while creating your own supply for domestic use or fire control. With instructions for making ferrocement tanks.

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Dam Nation

NEW! Dam Nation:
Dispatches from the Water Underground

by Cleo Woelfle-Erskine (Editor), July Oskar Cole (Editor), Laura Allen (Editor), Annie Danger (Illustrator) 2007, 321pp., $20

This essay anthology looks at water issues worldwide and throughout history, including science, history and investigative reporting, as well as personal stories and profiles. Among other concerns, writers collected here-mostly activists, but also sociologists, educators and reporters-address untreated sewage dumping and the disease outbreaks it causes; the destructive power of upstream dams; and the sediment-starved Mississippi Delta, its attendant erosion, and the horrific storm damage that's resulted.

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A short, frank multi-millennial history of urban sewage disposal illustrates well the dangers of water supplies contaminated by sewage-cholera, typhus, typhoid, etc.-and is equally forthright about the problems with current municipal sewage treatment practices. The authors maintain a tongue-in-cheek style that, for the most part, keeps tedium at bay; if readers find Part One too polemical, Parts Two and Three offer principles and proper construction techniques for practical, at-home solutions, including home watergardens, home-scale greywater systems and composting toilets.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Edited by the coauthors of the notorious zine The Guerrilla Graywater Girls Guide to Water, this collection of original essays, drawings, and photographs is part radical history of water and part DIY guide to disengaging one's home, school, or workplace from the wasteful water grid. The pieces are arranged in three sections: "Water Wars" focuses on the history and politics of dams and water infrastructure; "The Water Grid" chronicles the rise of energy-intensive, polluting sewage treatment plants, and points out alternative systems; and "Watershed" examines the often destructive relationship between human settlements and nature, but finds hope in the experiences of those involved in watershed restoration.

Creating an Oasis with Greywater

New! Creating an Oasis with Greywater:
Choosing, Building
& Using Greywater Systems (5th edition)
by Art Ludwig    
2006, $21, 144 pp.

Thoroughly revised primer detailing 20 systems that work and how they might fail; parts, design diagrams, operating and maintenance tips. Clear, logical, easy-to-read. The definitive guide.

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Builder's Greywater Guide

New! Builder's Greywater Guide
by Art Ludwig   
1995, $15, 48pp.

How to fit greywater systems into the code with tried and tested methods. Thorough, precise, well-documented, with explicit building code references and diagrams.

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Water in the Home Landscape Water in the Home Landscape

Learn simple, low-tech, quick-start solutions in this 32 page booklet from Permaculture Activist, 2005, $7

Basic approaches to Tanks, Rainwater Catchment, Ram Pumps, Ground Recharge, Urban Stormwater, Ponds, Dowsing

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Worms Eat My Garbage

Worms Eat My Garbage:
How to Set Up and Maintain a Worm Composting System, 2nd Ed.
by Mary Appelhof 
1997, 162 pp, $13

A new edition of the definitive guide to vermicomposting--a process using redworms to recycle human food waste into nutrient-rich fertilizer for plants. Author Mary Appelhof provides complete illustrated instructions on setting up and maintaining small-scale worm composting systems. Internationally recognized as an authority on vermicomposting, Appelhof has worked with worms for over three decades. Topics include: bin types, worm species, reproduction, care and feeding of worms, harvesting, and how to make the finished product of potting soil.

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The Humanure Handbook

The Humanure Handbook:
A Guide to Composting Human Manure
by Joseph C. Jenkins,
1994, 198pp. $25

Learn how to deal with your own shit. "Stop trying to change the world. Toilet-train the world and you won't have to keep changing it."(Swami Beyondananda) Here's all you need to know to make sewage treatment systems obsolete. Answers all the questions you never dared ask!

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Liquid Gold

Liquid Gold: The Lore and Logic of Using Urine to Grow Plants
by Carol Steinfeld
2004, 88pp, $13

Pee=fertilizer. Witty, practical, liberating! Grow with the flow! Urine charge. A golden opportunity. Pee here now. Every day, we urinate nutrients that can fertilize plants that could be used for beautiful landscapes, food, fuel, and fiber. Instead, these nutrients are flushed away, either to be treated at high cost or discharged to waters where they overfertilize and choke off aquatic life. Liquid Gold details three ways to use urine hygienically and productively for plant growth, with studies that show the science behind this practice. Several advocates of urine diversion and their gardens are profiled, demonstrating that using urine for fertilizer is a feasible, safe, and cost-saving way to prevent pollution and save on fertilizer costs.

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