Self-Sufficient Living

Learn how to manage a homestead, survive off the grid, grow and preserve your own food, and more!

Updated March 13, 2025
RPL Staff
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50 projects for building your backyard homestead : a hands-on, step-by-step sustainable-living guide
Toht, David
Paper Book
Ready for new 10 new practical ideas for creating yourbackyard homestead? 50 Projects for Building Your Backyard Homestead: AHands-On, Step-By-Step Sustainable-Living Guide updates one of the most popularbooks on the subject with the addition of 10 new projects to help yourhomestead thrive....
For the bees : a handbook for happy beekeeping
Chapman, Tara Dawn
Paper Book
A handbook for what to expect the first year of beekeeping and beyond. The path to becoming a successful beekeeper begins with a deep understanding of the bees themselves. Taking an approach that is both holistic and practical, Tara Chapman, founder and operator of Austin's beloved...
The self-sufficiency garden : feed your family and save money
Richards, Huw
Paper Book
Eat homegrown food all year round and save money on your weekly shop by following a simple plan for self-sufficiency. Huw Richards and Sam Cooper have spent the past two years planning and trialing their very own self-sufficiency garden in a 10x12.5m plot and now they've worked...
50 do-it-yourself projects for keeping chickens : chicken coops, brooders, runs, swings, dust baths, and more!
Garman, Janet
Paper Book
Owning and raising chickens doesn't have to be an expensive hobby. With imagination, simple tools, and salvaged or bargain materials, you can make everything your flock needs for their health and safety. Buying a chicken coop can be a major expense. Follow the steps provided in...
The modern homestead garden : growing self-sufficiency in any size backyard
Pilarchik, Gary
Paper Book
With this accessible and indispensable gardening reference, discover how little land and effort it takes to start growing and preserving your own healthy organic food. Modern homesteading is a lifestyle focused on living lightly on the land and increasing self...
Epic homesteading : your guide to self-sufficiency on a modern, high-tech, backyard homestead
Espiritu, Kevin
Paper Book
Followed by millions @epicgardening, Author Kevin Espiritu has built a modern, high-tech homestead on a modest urban lot. In Epic Homesteading, he teaches you how to do the same, wherever you live. As Kevin has proven--thanks to his enthusiasm and willingness...
The tiny but mighty farm : cultivating high yields, community, and self-sufficiency from a home farm
Ragan, Jill
Paper Book
In The Tiny But Mighty Farm, author Jill Ragan of YouTube's Whispering Willow Farm teaches you how to turn a typical suburban backyard into a productive mini farm. Backyard mini farming is about regular people who live in regular houses turning all or part of their...
The Midwest native plant primer : 225 plants for an earth-friendly garden
Branhagen, Alan
Paper Book
Bring your garden to life--and life to your garden! Do you want a garden that makes a real difference? Choose plants native to our Midwest region. The rewards will benefit you, your yard, and the environment--from reducing maintenance tasks to attracting earth...
The ultimate self-sufficiency manual
MacWelch, Tim
Paper Book
More than 220 tips for existing, persisting, and thriving independently in the modern world.  Looking for a greater sense of control in the chaotic world of today? Concerned about your dependence on existing food and power sources, and other systems beyond your control?...
The urban prepper's guide : how to become self-sufficient and prepared for the next crisis
Cobb, Jim
Paper Book
"Jim Cobb is perhaps the most well-respected author in the preparedness community." -- Joe Alton, MD, author of The Survival Medicine Handbook.  The Urban Prepper's Guide teaches you how to become more self-sufficient while also preparing for any impending worst-case...
Raising ducks for beginners and beyond : the guide to breeds, ponds, nutrition, and all things duck
Ellis, Kristine (Blogger on ducks)
Paper Book
Raise healthy, happy ducks, and enjoy a steady supply of rich, creamy, and delicious fresh eggs with this approachable guide. Raising ducks is not difficult, but it does require time, effort, and knowledge. Duck-fluencer Kristine Ellis (@dunkin.ducks) has the information,...
The self-sufficient life and how to live it : the classic back-to-basics guide to going off the grid
Seymour, John
Paper Book
The Self Sufficient Life and How to Live It is the only book that teaches all the skills needed to live independently in harmony with the land harnessing natural forms of energy, raising crops and keeping livestock, preserving foodstuffs, making beer and wine, basketry, carpentry, weaving,...
The rugged life : the modern guide to self-reliance
Emerson, Clint
Paper Book
In an era of escalating crises, what would you do after disaster struck? Are you prepared to keep yourself and your family alive for a month? A year? What about a lifetime? "Add The Rugged Life by former Navy SEAL Clint Emerson to your library today and get on...
Canning full circle : from garden to jar to table
Deveraux, Diane
Paper Book
Canning Full Circle breaks the mold of traditional canning cookbooks. Others fall short, giving only the canning process, failing to demonstrate what to do with the food once it is in a jar. The Canning Diva® teaches readers how to incorporate home canned goods into their everyday lives with...
Essential home skills handbook : everything you need to know as a new homeowner
Peterson, Chris
Paper Book
BLACK+DECKER Essential Home Skills Handbookoffers 100+ beginner-friendly solutions for common household headaches, with achievable DIY projects and full-color step photos and illustrations. Whether you're moving from an apartment to yourfirst homeor...
Breaking the Grid : How to Buy Nothing, Make Everything, and Live Sustainably
Martin, Dan
Paper Book
When a crisis hits, we all wish we could be a little more self-sufficient. With Breaking the Grid, you can learn to live completely off the grid or just be a little more environmentally conscious. In this comprehensive guide, you can find step-by-step photographed instructions for everything...
Garden maker
Purifoy, Christie
Paper Book
Much more than a how-to flower gardening book (though you will learn how to), Garden Maker is for those who want to grow beautiful things that reflect the glory and majesty of the Creator and bring a little bit of heaven down to earth.   From the...
Container gardening-the permaculture way : sustainably grow vegetables and more in your small space
Tsimba, Valaery
Paper Book
Permaculture-rooted in centuries-old techniques for growing food with care for the Earth-is the key to producing a bigger harvest than you ever thought possible on your balcony, patio, driveway, deck, and anywhere in between! With sustainability as her guiding principle, Valéry Tsimba...
The resilient farm and homestead : 20 years of permaculture and whole systems design
Falk, Ben
Paper Book
"This is one of the most practical, down-to-earth, dirt-under-the-fingernails, comprehensive explanations of all things homesteading and small farming. Whether you're just dreaming or an old hand, Ben Falk's longer experience horizon is invaluable."--Joel Salatin, cofounder, Polyface Farm; author...
Build your own farm tools
Volk, Josh
Paper Book
Josh Volk, author of the best-selling Compact Farms, offers small-scale farmers an in-depth guide to building customized equipment that will save time and money and introduce much-needed efficiencies to their operations. Volk begins with the basics, such as...
Basic welding for farm and ranch : essential tools and techniques for repairing and fabricating farm equipment
Galvery, William L., Jr.
Paper Book
Farmers, ranchers, and homesteaders who know how to weld can repair and even fabricate some equipment on their own, saving both time and money. Basic Welding for Farm and Ranch introduces this crucial skill and covers the most popular techniques used by the home hobbyist and DIY devotee,...
Home ec for everyone : practical life skills in 118 projects
Bowers, Sharon
Paper Book
Did you remember your scissors? Discover the tremendous pleasure of learning how to do it yourself how to cook, sew, clean, and more, the way it used to be taught in Home Ec class. With illustrated step by step instructions, plus relevant charts, lists, and handy graphics, Home Ec...
Modern mending : how to minimize waste and maximize style
Lewis-Fitzgerald, Erin
Paper Book
Creatively mend and customize your old clothes to revitalize your outfits and save the planet Bring new life to your old clothes and fabrics with this fun, easy-to-follow guide to modern mending. Across the globe, we send tonnes of clothing to landfill each year. In...
Shop class for everyone : practical life skills in 83 projects
Bowers, Sharon
Paper Book
Did you remember your goggles? There used to be a time when pretty much every high school offered Shop class, where students learned to use a circular saw or rewire a busted lamp- all while discovering the satisfaction of being self-reliant and doing it yourself. Shop Class for...
Primitive technology : a survivalist's guide to building tools, shelters & more in the wild
Plant, John
Paper Book
From the craftsman behind the popular YouTube channel Primitive Technology comes a practical guide to building huts and tools using only natural materials from the wild. John Plant, the man behind the channel, Primitive Technology, is a bonafide...
Grow food for free
Richards, Huw
Paper Book
Zero cost, low effort and a long-term solution to your fresh produce needs!  Grow your own food in your home garden, acreage or container, and look forward to a bountiful harvest year-round. You can plant fruit and veggies at home without spending a penny, and Huw Richard's...
Emergency home preparedness : the ultimate guide for bugging in during natural disasters, pandemics, civil unrest, and more
Snyder, EJ
Paper Book
Are you prepared for the uncertainties that may lie ahead? In a world filled with pandemics, natural disasters, civil unrest, and the constant specter of war, the need for readiness has never been more crucial. Enter EJ Snyder--an extreme survivalist and 25-year Army combat...
The healing garden : herbs for health and wellness : a guide to gardening, gathering, drying, and preparing teas, tinctures, and remedies
Soule, Deb
Paper Book
An informative and instructional illustrated guide to herb gardening and crafting herbal remedies that promote wellness of spirit and body, from Avena Botanicals founder Deb Soule. In The Healing Garden, Avena Botanicals founder Deb Soul...
Growing vegetables : all the know-how and encouragement you need to grow and fall in love with! your brand-new food garden
Sowards, Jessica
Paper Book
You're excited to plant your first vegetable garden--but where to start? In The First-Time Gardener: Growing Vegetables, you'll find the answers you're looking for. *Winner of the GardenComm 2022 Media Awards Silver Award of Achievement in the Photography/Book General...
SAS survival handbook : the ultimate guide to surviving anywhere
Wiseman, John
Paper Book
"A classic outdoor manual [that] addresses every conceivable disaster scenario. Don't leave home without it"--Outside magazine The ultimate guide to surviving anywhere, now updated with more than 100 pages of additional material, including a new chapter on urban survival<...
The layered edible garden : a beginner's guide to creating a productive food garden layer by layer
Chung, Christina (Horticulturist)
Paper Book
Design, plant, and tend a self-sustaining, high-yielding food garden that saves space by growing plants the way nature intended--in layers.  Say goodbye to long, straight rows of vegetable plants lined up and waiting for attacks from pests and diseases, and say hello to...
276 edible wild plants of the United States & Canada : berries, roots, nuts, greens, flowers, and seeds
Warnock, Caleb
Paper Book
Self-sufficiency expert Caleb Warnock shares his expertise on living off the land in 276 Edible Wild Plants of the United States and Canada. Packed with over 800 photographs of over 250 wild berries, roots, nuts, greens, and flowers, this valuable...
The year-round vegetable gardener : how to grow your own food 365 days a year no matter where you live
Jabbour, Niki.
Paper Book
Even in winter's coldest months you can harvest fresh, delicious produce. Drawing on insights gained from years of growing vegetables in Nova Scotia, Niki Jabbour shares her simple techniques for gardening throughout the year. Learn how to select the best varieties for each season, the art of...
All new square foot gardening : the world's most popular growing method to harvest more food from less space
Paper Book
Over 3 million copies sold! This revolutionary gardening book gets a revolutionary update for its 4th edition--new plans, options, and advice herald a modern approach to this tried-and-true method. No digging, no tilling, no fertilizing, no machinery or heavy tools--less watering,...
The rooted life : cultivating health & wholeness through growing your own food
Rhodes, Justin
Paper Book
A permaculture expert and popular YouTube Homesteader shares the skills and the delights of becoming a part of your own food story in this inspiring, accessible, and beautiful invitation to a more abundant, healthy, and connected life. Have you ever wanted to experiment with growing...
Beginner's Guide to Self Sufficiency Projects for the Home : Grow Edibles, Raise Animals, Live Off the Grid & Diy
Cool Springs Press (COR)
Build a self-sufficient life with these 40+ photo-illustrated projects for growing and preserving your own food, keeping animals, harnessing alternative energy, and more. Learning to do more things yourself is healthy, rewarding, and fulfilling, and benefits the environment....
The climate change garden : down to earth advice for growing a resilient garden
Morgan, Sally
Paper Book
In this global gardener's guide to creating a resilient, climate-wise garden, learn how to adapt your garden to cope with volatile weather extremes and other effects of a rapidly changing climate. It's no longer gardening as usual. Heat waves, droughts, flooding, violent storms.....
To boldly grow : finding joy, adventure, and dinner in your own backyard
Haspel, Tamar
Paper Book
When Journalist and self-proclaimed 'crappy gardener' Tamar Haspel and her husband move from Manhattan to two acres on Cape Cod, they decide to adopt a more active approach to their diet: raising chickens, growing tomatoes, even foraging for mushrooms and hunting their own meat. Filled with...
Food storage for preppers : a week-by-week plan for surviving an apocalypse
Nash, David
Paper Book
Do you think that you and your family are self-reliant? If an apocalypse occurs, will you be able to provide for them and keep them safe? Will you be able to survive? The best way to prepare for the future is not through fancy tools, gadgets, or go bags--it's having the experience...
Attainable sustainable : the lost art of self-reliant living
Bordessa, Kris
Paper Book
Packed with delicious recipes, natural remedies, gardening know-how, homesteading advice, and more, this indispensable lifestyle reference makes earth-friendly, off-the-grid living approachable and fulfilling. Whether you live in a city, suburb, or the country, this essential...
The Women's Heritage sourcebook : bringing homesteading to everyday life : cooking, herbalism, canning, fermenting, beekeeping, natural beauty, keeping chickens, milking cows, raising pigs
Moore, Emma Rollin
Paper Book
Homesteading is a lifestyle of self-reliance and sustainability, characterised by home gardening and animal husbandry, food preservation, and even the small-scale production of textiles, clothing, and craftwork. This indispensable reference book is divided into three...
Gardening for everyone : growing vegetables, herbs, and more at home
Watkins, Julia
Paper Book
A guide to creating and growing a backyard garden simply and sustainably--from planning to planting to harvest, with profiles of essential vegetables and herbs, ecological tips, and fun and creative projects Growing food in your backyard (or even on a porch or windowsill!)...
The healing garden : cultivating & handcrafting herbal remedies
Blankespoor, Juliet
Paper Book
A comprehensive and lushly photographed guide to growing and using healing plants, including recipes, from the founder of the Chestnut School of Herbal Medicine This is the ultimate reference for anyone looking to bring the beauty and therapeutic properties...
The Family Garden Plan Grow a Year's Worth of Sustainable and Healthy Food
Norris, Melissa K.
Paper Book
Grow a Year's Worth of Food for Your Family Do something good for your loved ones by learning how to plant a garden that will yield wholesome, organic fruits and vegetables in surprisingly less space than you would think. Melissa K. Norris, fifth-generation...
Growing plants and flowers : all the know-how you need to plant and tend outdoor areas using eco-friendly methods
McManus, Sean
Paper Book
There are no stupid questions here. Everyone has to start somewhere, after all. In The First-Time Gardener: Growing Plants and Flowers, Sean and Allison McManus, the gardening pros behind the popular website and podcast Spoken Garden, answer all of your questions and...
Field Guide to Urban Gardening How to Grow Plants, No Matter Where You Live: Raised Beds ; Vertical Gardening ; Indoor Edibles ; Balconies and Rooftops ; Hydroponics
Espiritu, Kevin.
Ebook
Growing under cover : techniques for a more productive, weather-resistant, pest-free vegetable garden
Jabbour, Niki
Paper Book
Increasingly unpredictable weather patterns and pest infestations are challenging today's vegetable gardeners. But best-selling author Niki Jabbour has a solution: Growing Under Cover. In this in-depth guide, Jabbour shows how to use small solutions like cloches, row covers, shade cloth, cold...
Our little farm : adventures in sustainable living
Wohlleben, Peter
Paper Book
From Peter Wohlleben, the New York Times-bestselling author of The Hidden Life of Trees, and his wife, Miriam, comes an inspired, practical memoir of creating a sustainable homestead amongst the trees. Called "a veritable tree whisperer" by the Wall Street...
The bushcraft essentials field guide : the basics you need to pack, know, and do to survive in the wild
Canterbury, Dave
Paper Book
Learn everything you need to know about outdoor survival so you can make it through any situation from top bushcraft expert and New York Times bestselling author Dave Canterbury. For years, Dave Canterbury has been teaching outdoor enthusiasts how to survive in the wild,...
Plant partners : science-based companion planting strategies for the vegetable garden
Walliser, Jessica
Paper Book
Discover the benefits of companion planting with this comprehensive guidebook. Plant Partners delivers a research-based rationale for the ever-popular growing technique of companion planting, offering dozens of ways you can use scientifically tested plant...
The growing season : how I built a new life-- and saved an American farm
Frey, Sarah
Paper Book
"A gutsy success story" (The New York Times Book Review) about one tenacious woman's journey to escape rural poverty and create a billion-dollar farming business--without ever leaving the land she loves The youngest of her parents' combined twenty-one children,...
Hand made : the modern woman's guide to made-from-scratch living
Norris, Melissa K.
Paper Book
Homemade Shouldn't Be Hectic Do you wish you could slow down and create a home you and your family love and enjoy spending time in? Melissa K. Norris, author of The Made-from-Scratch Life and voice of the Pioneering Today podcast, offers down-to-earth tips and guidance...
DIY hydroponic gardens
Baras, Tyler
Paper Book
With practical information aimed at home DIYers, author Tyler Baras (Farmer Tyler to his fans) shows exactly how to build, plant, and maintain over a dozen unique hydroponic systems, some costing just a few dollars to make. No soil? No sunlight? No problem. A...
The MeatEater guide to wilderness skills and survival
Rinella, Steven
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER . An indispensable guide to surviving everything from an extended wilderness exploration to a day-long boat trip, with hard-earned advice from the host ofNetflix's MeatEater For anyone planning to spend time outside, The MeatEater Guide...
The essential book of homesteading : the ultimate guide to sustainable living
English, Ashley
Paper Book
All the information you need to homestead--gathered in one ultimate, essential book!   In barnyards and backyards, on rooftops and in alleyways, a movement is happening--the modern homesteading movement. Whether it's turning a lawn into a vegetable...
Beekeeping For Dummies
Blackiston, Howland.
Paper Book
Everything you need to 'bee' a successful backyard beekeeper If you've ever thought about becoming a backyard beekeeper--or have already tried a hand at it and want to be better one--then this is the book for you! In Beekeeping for Dummies, 4th Edition you'll find everything...
Beekeeping for beginners : everything you need to know to get started and succeed keeping bees in your backyard
Flottum, Kim
Paper Book
With this absolute beginner's guide, learn how to set up your backyard hives, select and raise bees, and harvest honey, with the added bonus of bringing pollinators to your yard and garden. You've decided to try beekeeping--so where do you start? Beekeeping for...
Fermented vegetables : creative recipes for fermenting 64 vegetables & herbs in krauts, kimchis, brined pickles, chutneys, relishes & pastes
Shockey, Kirsten
Paper Book
Master the techniques for making sauerkraut, kimchi, pickles, and other savory, probiotic-rich foods in your own kitchen.This easy-to-follow, comprehensive guide presents more than 120 recipes for fermenting 64 different vegetables and herbs. Learn the basics, and then refine your technique...

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