The Urban Homesteading Cookbook: Forage, Farm, Ferment and Feast for a Better World By Michelle Nelson

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With food culture in the midst of a do-it-yourself renaissance, urbanites everywhere are relishing craft beers, foraged ingredients, sustainable seafoods, ethically raised meats and homemade condiments and charcuterie. Inspired by the delicious creativity of local artisans, chefs, brewmasters and mixologists, Michelle Nelson began urban homesteading in her downtown apartment. Armed with a passion for food and farming, and a PhD in conservation biology and sustainable agriculture, she shares her hard-won knowledge and recipes with readers interested in collecting, growing and preserving sustainable food—even when living in an apartment or condo.

In The Urban Homesteading Cookbook , Nelson explores the worlds of foraging wild urban edibles, eating invasive species, keeping micro-livestock, bees and crickets, growing perennial vegetables in pots, small-space aquaponics, preserving meats and produce, making cheese and slow-fermenting sourdough, beer, vinegar, kombucha, kefir and pickles. Nelson fervently believes that by taking more control of our own food we will become better empowered to understand our relationships with the environment, and embrace sustainable lifestyles and communities.

With 70 fabulous recipes, including sesame panko-crusted invasive bullfrog legs, seaweed kimchi, rabbit pate with wild chanterelles, roasted Japanese knotweed panna cotta and dark and stormy chocolate cupcakes with cricket flour— this exciting new book is sure to inspire readers to embark on their own urban homesteading adventures.

Generously illustrated with gorgeous colour photography and complete with useful how-to chapters, The Urban Homesteading Cookbook is an invaluable guide for all those seeking ethical and sustainable urban food sources and strategies. The Urban Homesteading Cookbook: Forage, Farm, Ferment and Feast for a Better World

Some of this book felt very inaccessible to me in inner city Toronto. Although some of these things can be done in an urban setting the author now lives in a slightly less urban setting than what I inhabit. However all things I wish I could incorporate into my life... for future dreaming! 9781771620819 It's half cookbook and half how-to Mother-Earth-News lifestyle in an apartment. With instagram-sensibility pics.

The recipes are the inspirational and maybe aspirational stuff that you'll probably never do because they require extremely rarefied ingredients that would be hard to replicate unless you were replicating this person's lifestyle to a creepy degree of exactitude. I'm hyperbolizing, but they use what they have access to, and that is very different from what I have access to. There's probably a few of the recipes that I could/would do in time, but the ones that are most accessible aren't particularly original either with analogs all over the internet.

The Mother-Earth-News type homesteading bits were interesting. Though I know there are lots of other, more comprehensive references available on the subject, the way the author explained how to do these things on an apartment scale was pretty amazing. The city and apartment she lived in when she practiced those things must have been incredibly lenient. I have a backyard and my city won't let me have any kind of fowl or rabbits not intended as pets.

On the flip side, all the photos of them cuddling the rabbits juxtaposed with the very specific slaughter and butchery explanation was hard for my citified brain to reconcile. If I were keeping animals intended for dinner, I don't think I could cuddle them. Just saying, which is it? Pet or dinner? Or was the cuddle session just for the photoshoot? I was uncomfortable with that part, though I don't think I would have been bothered by the descriptions if it weren't for the cuddly pictures. I actually thought the descriptions of how to slaughter various animals for dinner was pretty interesting, because I haven't seen a lot of that in other survey-of-animal-husbandry guides and unless you grew up with livestock, how would you know? She also seemed determined to find the most painless death for each animal, which I also appreciated.

I appreciated how comprehensively the author seemed to have embraced the ethos of raising her own food regardless of space limitations. The diversity of life in their apartment/terrace really does seem quite inspirational, if not practical for most people. It kind of makes me want to start an aquarium tank of edible fish. That would be pretty cool, and I don't think my town has thought to legislate that possibility out of existence.

I've already got lots of fermenting/microbiota things going on and have been researching that extensively. So the section on sourdoughs, sauerkrauts, kefir, and yogurt seemed right in line with everything I've been reading lately. I hope this book can be people's gateway into curiosity about fun with kitchen microbes.

This was a library book. Not one I'm interested in buying, but glad to have read it. 9781771620819 I was really excited for this book. Sadly, it just wasn't what I was hoping it would be.

This is a very detailed book for people who are more advanced in all the areas mentioned in the subtitle. Most of the forage items aren't available in Ohio, many of the farm animals mentioned are not allowed in my city, and the fermenting and feast items really didn't appeal to me. I love kombucha and do make my own, but that was about the only recipe I was able to take away from this book. I guess I was looking for something where all the elements foraged or made could be used together, but a lot of these recipes called for ingredients that aren't readily available or are a bit expensive. The pictures are beautiful though and there is a lot of information in this book. It's more like a piece of nonfiction that includes recipes in it. 9781771620819 Seemed to go into a lot of different practices, like most people raise chickens, but these people raise rabbits, quail and they raise mussels through aqua-horticulture. But I couldn't really find a reason as to why these methods are practical or why they are worth the effort. 9781771620819 I wish I could give this book negative stars. This is every hipster stereotype of young people farming/gardening/foraging/etc. There are seriously recipes for eating bugs and making insect flour - um, no thanks! There is also a lot of talk about urban homesteading for the betterment of global warming and our planet. While that should be a concern, that is NOT why I garden and can my own food and support local farmers - I do it because you get BETTER QUALITY FOOD that way. Seriously, don't waste your time with this cookbook. There are MUCH better resources out there if you're interested in being more self-sufficient even in an urban environment. 9781771620819

I was going to give this a two star rating because of the lack of items I would actually cook from this cookbook. I'm just not evolved enough or emotionally ready to cook with cricket or mealworm flour.

I bumped it up to a 3 stars though because for those who do want to forage for their food or eat bugs, I think this is a pretty good resource. Michelle references other books to read for more information (which I like) and created charts for input costs and time required for different micro livestock endeavours. While I might not be ready for this kind of living, there are plenty of people out there who could benefit from this book. 9781771620819 There were some unique and interesting ideas that I have not read in other homesteading books. A large portion of this book is irrelevant for those of us who do not consume animals. While this is common for homesteading books I did deduct one star, otherwise I thoroughly enjoyed the book! 9781771620819 Sooo many unique ideas that aren't found in other books. A must read for anyone wanting to homestead, but have little to no space to do it. 9781771620819 Beautiful pictures & a wide array of options to expand your self-sufficiency while living in a city.
Some of these options are way outside my comfort zone - like harvesting meal worms & crickets to make your own flour with.
Great tips on foraging & full colour photos to help with identifying some plants.
Sadly a little vague in aspects which makes for a frustrating guidebook. Eg Sourdough - easier to buy starter but you can make it yourself using items in your kitchen to feed it.
Ummmm yes - which items? How?
Oh. Not included in the recipe? Thanks.
9781771620819 Fit exactly what we do in our home with fresh recipes to mix things up a bit for us! Loved it 9781771620819