What better way to celebrate the new look and feel of NW Edible than with a chance to win the best new urban homesteading book on the market?
When Annette Cottrell, co-author with Joshua McNichols of The Urban Farm Handbook and author of the site Sustainable Eats, asked me if I’d like to host a giveaway of her book, I was in the middle of reading it and I jumped at the chance.
But in truth, I have mixed feelings about The Urban Farm Handbook.
It’s not that there’s anything wrong with the book. On the contrary, it’s wonderful. Annette and Joshua managed to cram planning guides, seasonal recipes, inspirational photos, beginner-to-advanced tips and techniques for all things urban homesteading into an easy-to-read sub-400 page book filled with honest and compelling prose. All this and nothing ever feels rushed or truncated. It’s quite the accomplishment.
No, my reservation about The Urban Farm Handbook is entirely and exclusively personal: this is the book I would have written, and it’s better than I could have written it. It is everything a primer on urban food self-sufficiency should be, written by two authors who know their stuff and have complementary gardening and literary styles. So it’s a little bittersweet for me, knowing I’m going to have to go back to the drawing board for ideas if I want to write my own book one day. And it’s also a little intimidating, because Annette and Joshua have set the bar pretty damn high with this work.
So you want The Urban Farm Handbook? Here’s your chance to get it for free, and signed by Annette to boot! Leave a comment below telling me what your big Urban Homesteading goal is for 2012. Entries will be accepted until Monday, January 16th at 8:oo pm Pacific Standard Time. Winner will be selected by random number drawing and announced on Tuesday, January 17th. Contest only open to residents of the U.S. – sorry international friends!
Good luck!
1
Wow, this is an awesome giveaway! Count me in! Goals for 2012? Man, let my try and narrow this down… I want to go vertical. I have many more vegetables I want to grow, and UP is the only way I will get this accomplished. Beans are something (just one thing on my UP list) that have been on my to-do list for sometime, and this is the year! I recently got a pressure canner, so My next goal will be to “put up” as much food as I can possibly stand that isn’t all pickles. Oh, did I mention that I need to keep my chickens OUT of the garden? Last year, they decimated my peppers and tomatoes. However, even with my chicken problems, and my a-hole groundhog, I was still able to get over 100 pound of produce. This year, I would like to double that. I will have to employ some animal control, namely by way of fencing… Perhaps I should make a new list for next year?
Thanks again for this awesome giveaway!
My big urban farm goals (there are two) is to build a living fence for tomatoes and squash and to plant my first ever grain crop. I seem to be the fearless leader of urban farming around here so I get to try everything first 🙂
Love the new look! And what a great book to give away!!!
Big goal – start raising chickens for eggs. Intimidated by it and husband is VERY reluctant, so the goal includes educating myself and him about how and what fun it would be!
Second goal – get tomatoes right! Grow more, preserve more, glean more.
Third goal – blog about it (already started, but I wouldn’t say it’s a sure thing yet). Not that I’m looking for brownie points here (but I’ll take them if you insist!) but your blog inspired me ALOT to get my experiences out there to share.
Thanks for giveaway and great blogging!!
My big goal for 2012 is to actually START our garden. My husband and I, married for a year and 3 months, just bought our first home 2 months ago. We made sure to get a home with a yard not only large enough for our 3 dogs, but so we could start our love of all things fresh and colorful: gardening! We’re using this winter as a chance to read up on techniques and figure out exactly how we want to plan everything, build the beds, etc, but this book sounds like a perfect guide to what we’re trying to do! I sure hope we find some success in our first garden and are able to look at this as a learning experience (so, not to get disheartened when things don’t work out right the first time! haha because I know they sure won’t, especially moving to a new state where the climate is different from what I’m used to.) Wish us luck!
This is a pretty awesome giveaway Erica! I have this book on my wish list. My biggest 2012 homesteading goal is to plan my dream homestead out from chickens to fruit trees. I’ve got one year before our dream property is ours to get it all planned out so we can literally grab the keys and get to work. I’m pretty excited.
That looks like a great book, with loads of good info. I’d love to have it. My biggest goal for 2012 is to start keeping chickens.
My big goal is to move back to land. We had to sell our farm a few years back and are finally almost in the position to get another piece of land. I can’t wait!!
The other goals include doing more companion planting, increase what I can, dry and smoke, make beer and start making cheese again.
What a great giveaway! My lofty homestead goal is to successfully maintain the tiny 2’x8′ garden plot our landscape-negligent landlord has allowed us, our first attempt beyond a couple potted tomatoes and herbs, and hopefully helping my mother in law with her first chicken harvest.
My goal this year is to try to produce a little bit of grain to feed my chickens and lower the cost of eggs. The new look is nice, thanks Erica
Our goal is to increase vegetable production and to decide on our next livestock adventure: goats or sheep!
Install the water/sprinkler system early enough in the year to not lose growing time. And get ripe watermelons (in Boise).
This year I want to double the size of my garden – right now I have 112 sq.ft. in raised beds. I plan to rearrange them and double the space as part of my 5 yr., get rid of the lawn plan. I hope to get a blackberry trellis going too!
my gardening goal this year is to find a way to keep the goats and chickens and peacocks out of my garden… okay, i’m not an URBAN farmer.. lol.. but i still have my issues… lol
We are going to try to plant our garden more intensively this year, and build a chicken coop!
I would love a copy. My original goal was to get bees but now I’m thinking that I need to spend this year learning about them and get the bees next year. So, my current goal is figure out what to plant in my new greenhouse and do it. I’m also adding three new beds – two for tomatoes, peppers and heat loving veggies and one in the shade to try and grow lettuce and other greens in the summer.
Our 1st flock of hens are 4 months old now and we just got our 1st egg 2 days ago! This year we’re adding a vegetable garden. Will be my very first time ever trying to grow vegetables. Wish me luck! We’re also looking into some way to harvest rainwater.
My biggest goal this year is to be a better gardener. Well, to be more attentive. I know what to do, I just have to do it.
My goal is moving to the country this summer when my dh finishes his master’s degree. We want at least a 1/2 acre where we can have a huge garden and a few chickens. We’ve lived in a tiny duplex with no yard (but I have 2 plots at a community garden) for two years, so we are ready to gain some space. Another goal is to start composting, which I just did this weekend, building my own bin out of a 20 gal storage bin from Target. Yay!
I really want to read this book! My urban homestead goal for 2012 is to work with what I have got, share resources and growing space with my neighbor, and share gardening with children.
The biggest goal for 2012 will be to help my parents start a rural homestead when they retire later this year, but for my immediate goals I want to build a window farm project in my home to see how well I can grow indoors without adding additional light.
What a great giveaway! my goals for this year include doubling the number of raised beds and adding fruit to the garden. I’d also like to try my hand at preserving more from my garden and try to cut back on on the processed foods my family is eating.
Since we already grow most of our own veggies, our big goal this year is to plant a ‘mini-orchard’. Some trees will go in half-barrels, some in the ground, but the goal is to be completely self-sufficient when it comes to fruit and berries.
Since getting chickens probably isn’t going to happen this year, our big goal is to build a greenhouse, attached to the foundation of our house, using almost all rescued and recycled materials.
My goals are to maximize the garden. Keep ontop of putting in a new crop once one has been harvested. Do enough canning and freezing so we can avoid the grocery store as much as possible. Work on my bread making skills.
Last year was my first attempt at anything-self-sufficiency, a tomato garden. I am so in love with the idea of homesteading, especially having chickens to eat those nasty hornworms and not have to go to the store when I need eggs!
My goal is going to be composting.
my goal is to get our aquaponics unit up and running. we already have 3 chickens and are doing some outdoor gardening, but by using aquaponics, it would allow us to grow year-round in the sun-room… and PERHAPS one day, tilapia. it is a big goal, but we already have the equipment for it and just need to put it into action. (wish us luck)
I have two goals:
1)utilize my hoophouse more than I have before. There are several heat loving crops I haven’t tried yet and will this year.
2)help my Mom start a veggie garden at her house, which has ample space and fantastic exposure.
Love the new look for your blog!
I would love to get this book! My main goal is to get my yard productive this year. We moved a year ago (yay!) and last year just sort of felt things out, saw what grew (grass, quinoa) what didn’t grow (pretty much anything useful) so now I have a real plan of action. I am very excited.
oh, I have this book on hold at my library, but I’m 4th in line for it!! would love to have it for keeps 🙂 Our goal for this year is to supply 100% of our fresh produce needs over the summer (if we do, it will cut our food bill by 70%!) AND have enough to put some up. This will be the first year for me to do any canning, so I’m a bit nervous, but excited! We’ve worked hard all winter hauling truckloads and truckloads of horse manure and already-composted wood chips to add to our humongous compost pile so that we’ll have enough soil for the 8 raised beds we are planning, as well as filling up the greenhouse which we finished building just a two months ago. Our biggest challenge has been keeping deer, raccoons, and our own happy chickens OUT of the garden so we’re going to add some fencing and perhaps an electric fence. Our seeds are ordered, we have four new fruit trees arriving this week, now all we need is some SUN!
Oh, how I would love this! We will be moving into our new-to-us house this month and the back yard (about 1/8th of an acre) is a blank canvas! It’s difficult to focus on finishing the house when I have so much planning to do in the yard!
This is a lovely giveaway. In 2012 I want to 1) try gardening in gutters and 2) plant more vegetables in hanging baskets. An experiment with pickling cucumbers was a huge success last year and I want to try other vines.
More greens and fewer chickens (underestimated the space they needed!). Strawberries and a few more blueberry bushes.
This is a great giveaway. We live in a rental which restricts us from really taking our garden where I want to but this year I’d like to spend more time improving the soil so I have less crops fail.
We moved into a new house in late summer so my original goal was to get some raised beds up and get in a small garden. Then came the deer! There is hardly any fence around our yard so my main goal for 2012 is going to be fencing and deer proofing. I think I’ll still try to get some stuff in containers on our deck and barricade them.
I am really working on season extenders. We are also expanding our flock of chickens.
Seems like I have lived all over the US: Seattle, Orcas Island, Eugene, Dutch Harbor, Maui, San Diego, Santa Cruz, SW Colorado, Berkshires, Miami – and now Kirksville, Missouri. Why? UNDESIRABLE is affordable. In July 2011 I bought my first home. I immediately planted a privacy screen because you can take an ecological designer out of the country but you can’t get the country out of me and I feel boxed in. Next, I had a truck load of wood chips dumped and began working them into windrows and using them as compost. I planted 30+ dwarf fruit and nut trees the week it began snowing.
Though the weather is extreme here – freezing winter, sweltering summer – and the soil is heavy clay, in 2012 I intend to practice preserving foods. I started 2 calendars, one labeled PLAN and the other ACTUAL. Integrating shiitake logs and some other odd mushrooms into the landscape is part of the plan. Culturing cheese and yoghurt, raising chickens as layers and broilers as well as rabbits for fur and meat while making the most of their droppings, taping the 20′ well and exploring cost/techniques for deepening it. This 50′ x 100′ lot has a 2/1 house where the dog, fish and I live.
Then there’s JWPowell Studio. Mr Weemer’s wood shop in the 1930’s/40’s, a duplex until 1970, then apartment until 1981. The studio was falling down. I rebuilt the south wall and replaced sheathing and roofing. At the top of the To Do List is install rain gutters & barrels. After reading J Salatin’s, “You Can Farm” converting the building into a commercial kitchen (with root cellar in the partial basement) may be wise. Basil and melons were prolific in the first raised bed. I planted berry canes and asparagus in a second raised bed. 2012 will see the development of more beds: rhubarb and perennial herbs, plus veggie beds (greens, roots, fruits and shoots).
Please send me the book 😉
I am determined this year to fully use the land that I have- a farm with loads of property and a house with a large backyard. Different veggies and fruits are going to be grown on the two and the leftovers will be bartered for those that I don’t grow. A friend and I have created our own support network for our sustainable goals for the year- our significant others aren’t so into the idea…I also am going to be selling the excess eggs that my layers have been so generously providing- I should have done the math (30 chickens = 30+ eggs/day)!
This year is spent converting all of the over-landscaped yard from the previous owner into productive growing space, including some woodpiles for mushroom cultivation in the shady areas. The city won’t let me keep chickens, yet (I’m bringing this to the city council), but I’ll get the hutch going for the Angora bunnies. I’d love to get a sod roof going over my asphalt shingles as well, but this is also something that needs to be cleared with the city. My hops and raspberries are going strong into this year as well!
My girlfriend and I have a home in coastal Humboldt County, CA. It’s a 1/4 acre property right across the street from a large elementary school. Every action we take here on our house, yard, and garden is witnessed by hundreds of children, in real time. Even our next door neighbors homeschool their kids.
We are concerned here about our food sovereignty here and are doing what we can to build really excellent soil, harvest rain water, and grow as much food as we can, as well as produce herbal medicines to sell. Some of our projects are to build a top-bar beehive that will go on the roof, renovate the carport into a workshop that we will remodel the house from, finish a 3 bayed combination doghouse/composter/soil bin, design and implement a small food forest in the backyard incorporating espaliered fruit trees on our south facing fence, expand the laundry room into a sunroom/greenhouse, and many other things. So far projects we’ve completed are building/tiling a beautiful hearth and installing a wood stove in our living room, extending both ends of the house roofing to create storage for firewood/tools, etc, dugout a small bucket based root cellar, made our own bio-char, and made coldframes, combination composter/wormbin/planter/birdbath units that utilize the heat of the sun to reach thermophylic composting temps in a small space even in winter. And getting started on our raised vegetable beds.
We have years of work left to do here and its all in plain view of the local youth so we are taking it seriously. We would love to have more ideas and expertise to make this happen and from what I’ve read about your book its exactly what we could use.
Ooo. I want a copy! I’m still pretty new at this edible garden stuff. My goals for the year are: 1) Always have something edible available in the garden, even if it’s just herbs. 2) Grow seedlings successfully — so far, the only thing I can make work is starts from the nursery. 3) Espalier my new apple trees against my fence. 4) Can vegetables from my garden (or from the farmer’s market) for the first time.
My goal this year is to get some edible natives in my landscape/garden. I looking at a few Evergreen Huckleberries and some Thimbleberries right now. I remember eating the soft, red Thimbleberries as a kid walking through the woods at my Grandpa’s house.
What a great giveaway! Our garden goals for 2012 include finishing the new garden beds (the old beds finally rotted away), add more edibles to the landscape of our city plot, add a hoop house, and actively help others to garden more.
I’d love the book. My goals are to launch the new school garden. We put in 12 beds at the end of November and i want to get the trellising and arbors in and have all the beds producing fun interesting things. Personally I want to establish some designated walk ways through my in-ground beds and get my soil up to snuff. More compost! Also, want to start planning the garden with eating in mind and produce enough to supplement a couple meals a week, year round. 🙂 I’m going to start tucking edibles into the front yard to take advantage of my sunniest spots.
My goal is for good tomatoes this year, which means starting them in the garage NOW. Ack.
I’m already a fairly accomplished urban farmer. My goal this year is to lobby our local City Council and have them amend their atavistic Municipal Code that currently prohibits the keeping of urban chickens. I’ve also “adopted” two neighbors who are widows and now that I am fully retired, have promised to help them start and to maintain their own edible landscapes.
Wow hoo, I love giveaways, specially when it comes to urban garden!
This year I actually decided to make resolutions and to write them down just so I can stick to them.
1) Blog about urban gardening/cooking and my experiences.
2) Add more raised to go from amateur garden to big time gardener…I guess I got very inspired by people just like you and if you can do it, I can too! right?
3) Add more fruit trees, I am planning on making a Belgian Fence with 9 fruit trees, it is going to be a fun project (I hope) over the next few years.
4) Get more chicken, I started raising chicken last year (4 for now) and enjoy it very much. I want to add to the flock in order to get even more eggs and spread the love to my friends and neighbors.
5) Learn about beekeeping, I have a great interest in adding bees to my garden within the next couple of years but want to educate myself first in order to be well prepared.
6) Enhance my skills at cheese and yogurt making.
7) Record my experience better and plan on crop rotation for the next year.
8) Teach my daughter (who’s 4) about gardening…I built a special raised bed just for her where she can plant whatever she wants.
I am looking forward to a fun 2012!
I have two goals for this year:
1. Increase the calcium in the soil (by adding crushed egg-shells) so that I can get the zuchini to fruit.
and
2. Increase our holdings. Our next door neighbour has offered me their back yard which they never use and I’m trying to decide what to do with it. I’m not going to add raised beds there this year (although I have them in mine) but I am planning on planting it, tending it and growing more.
I would love a copy of this book. My goals for this 2012 are to get my strawberry patch filled in, to finally smother all of the grass on the lawn, to get my espalier in order, and do something about the bloody squirrels who are decimating my bulbs!
2012 shall see an increase in gardening and the addition of CHICKENS! Woo-hoo!
Being a college student in a dormitory, it’s hard to work on anything homesteady.
The best I can manage is to put in a salad greens garden in my south dancing window.
Not really Urban homesteading but I hope to get a vermicomposting program running for students to do their own composting.
Also as soon as I get home to my little chunk of soil in Winnipeg I’ll be growing all the leafy greens I can fit and giving my compost pile some serious lovin after a year away from it. 😛
I am hoping to move to a new home where I will have room for a vegetable garden
of my own!