Customer Reviews

The Self-Sufficiency Handbook

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In these times of international and domestic unrest, rampant increases in food and fuel prices and general discontent, the thought of leaving the rat race and setting up a small farm doubtlessly has appeal to nearly all of us. Before you do so however, I strongly recommend that you read this book. The authors having been living a self-sufficient lifestyle for decades and are well qualified to share their experience.

The book covers a wide range of topics and while certainly not exclusive (there have been entire books written on areas which they cover in a few pages) they do provide a nice overview of topics such as location selection, alternate energy options and water supplies as well as tasks such as home soap making, candle making, beer and wine making etc. The greater portion of the book is devoted to crop growing and a wide variety of crop choices and planting styles are covered. The specific care needs of each plant are covered as are harvesting requirements. The raising of farm animals, including though not limited to cows, chickens, goats, ducks and pigs are also discussed. Most helpful I think are the A-Z checklists for various herbs and crops and the "Planning the Year Calendar" which outlines the various farm related activities which must be done throughout the year.

While the Bridgewaters are residents of England and their book has a somewhat UK centric focus their helpful address section has many American companies and their advice is readily applicable to prospective self-sufficient types in the USA.

This is NO WHERE NEAR a "complete" guide! It gives you an overview, but you could never achieve self suffiency with this book alone. There is simply not enough detail in any of the areas. For livestock you get about 2 pages, maybe 3 that give no where near enough info. If you are just wondering about some basic stuff, it could be a interesting read. But if you are planning on trying to "live it out" skip this book altogether. One of the BEST is Carla Emery's Encyclopedia of Country Living. Now with that, you can become almost 100% self sufficient!

I bought this book as a source book for self sufficiency ideas, what I found was a book with a lot of ideas but not enough substance to even warrant the purchase. This book was written as an introduction to the basic concepts of farm and off grid living. The topics are covered in such a limited fashion that the detail needed to implement the concepts is not in the book. This book needs more technical information and needs to be about one hundred pages longer to cover all that is in the table of contents.

This book was everything it promised and more. I really enjoyed each section, even those for which I had no immediate plans. There is A LOT of information here that looks handy, including construction and retrofitting tips for your home and great recipes for household goods and preserving the bounty of your garden for future use. The best part is that they approach self-sufficiency as a lifestyle, not a fad or a DIY weekend warrior project. Therefore, their attitude toward simple living without hardship is reflected in every word. Add the fact that the whole book can be covered in a day or two, and I cannot recommend this book enough.

Don't get me wrong, this is a good overview of many helpful things, but it wasn't at all what I expected, which is my fault. I should have looked at how many pages there were and read the reviews first. I was looking for something much more in-depth and thought by the title that is would be a "handbook." It is a beautiful book with lovely illustrations and there is a lot of "overview" crammed in about a lot of things, but not a "how-to" book as I was looking for.

I will keep it, but I wouldn't recommend it to anyone looking for a source to actually help them on their journey to becoming self-sufficient.

I got this book as a gift from a friend, after reading the book to kill time it was much of which I have already
studied and decided to impliment myself for my own home, my grandparents and my company. It is a good book for
someone looking for 'self sufficiency'. This book will help get you started. It particularly opened my eyes
to something new I had never come across before. The Clivus system, if you read the book, you'll understand.
lol. Enjoy.

Basic farming technologies that could be very handy indeed if a bug or something else gets a big chunk of us humans and the survivors are left to fend for themselves from scratch.

Put it in my survival kit along with first aid and basic technologies books...

The Self-Sufficiency Handbook by Alan Bridgewater, Gill Bridgewater - I wanted cost saving information and hard times help for improving my lot, but it is not what I expected. I will not disparge the information in the book as it will surely be of use to some.

This is a book for the novice on self sufficency. Most of it we are doing so did not find any new info.

It is a great book.
Book has tons of information.
I am not a farmer, I am just entertaining an idea to became one, but I think that this book is extremely helpful.