Slice of Organic Life [Hardcover]

Sheherazade Goldsmith (Author), Alice Waters (Foreword), Anne Gatti (Contributor), Daphne Lambert (Contributor), Erica Bower (Contributor)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 4, 2007

Featuring over 90 self-contained projects, from growing your own food organically, cooking home-grown produce, keeping selected livestock, and leading a more sustainable lifestyle, this down-to-earth, yet practical guide is the perfect start for someone looking to go "green." The team of experts offer options for city dwellers with little space, for those living in the suburbs with a bit of land, and for those who have acres of land and no ideas on how to use them. The book includes a foreword by alice Waters. AUTHOR BIO: Concerned by the poor quality of food on offer, Sheherazade Goldsmith started up an organic delicatessen that soon began to specialize in home-cooked food for babies and young children.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This smorgasbord of organic recipes, tips and suggestions has something for everyone, but like a Jack-of-all-trades, it's a master of none. With an emphasis on food, from gardening and buying to preserving and preparing, it also covers household hints on such subjects as conservation (turn down the thermostat), safe cleaning products (baking soda) and the three R's of green living: reduce, reuse and recycle, with recipes for such products as baby food, sauerkraut and exfoliating skin scrub. Some of these slices of organic living are appealing and accessible, like instructions for growing potted herbs, making compost and drying tomatoes. Others, like the information on renewable energy and keeping honey bees, are too sketchy to be of real use. The six pages devoted to raising pigs (with one entire page on selecting your breeds) borders on the absurd for most people. The selections are randomly ordered, with churning butter next to Make Organic Drinks. Profusely illustrated, the book may make an inspiring gift for those wishing to make their lives greener, but it's apt to frustrate and confuse novices trying out organic, and those seeking in-depth information will have to look elsewhere. (June)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

About the Author

Sheherazade Goldsmith is a wife, mother, and environmental activist. She is the editor-in-chief of DK's A Greener Christmas. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 352 pages
• Publisher: DK Publishing; First Edition edition (June 4, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0756628733
• ISBN-13: 978-0756628734
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 8 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (26 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #822,314 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Terrible waste of paper..., September 6, 2009

By 

J. Cooney - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Slice of Organic Life (Hardcover)

Not only is this book a completely shallow coffee table book, it gives actively bad advice. For example, taking a cruise is in no way an environmentally-friendly alternative to flying (pg. 74). Furthermore, I wouldn't be surprised if a few people get botulism or other kinds of food poisoning after following her lackadaisical advice about canning - jar sterilization gets half a sentence in a sidebar. The author cheerfully offers 2-4 page guides on buying chickens, bees, ducks, geese, and goats when any livestock purchase requires significantly more research - not a fact she mentions; it all sounds very easy and pleasant.

I guess it's pretty, though. Just make sure you actually get some proper instruction on things that are a bit more serious than "buying natural fabrics".

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A nice place to start, September 8, 2007

By 

Anyechka (Rensselaer, NY United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Slice of Organic Life (Hardcover)

This book does exactly what it sets out to do, bring the reader a slice of organic life. While I did wish that some of the sections had been a bit more detailed, the point of the book isn't to provide an exhaustive thoroughly-detailed resource on all facets of an organic natural green lifestyle. And there's a nice appendix in the back providing websites, phone numbers, and addresses of businesses and organisations that can give the reader more information on the areas s/he's most interested in, such as growing herbs, raising livestock, or starting a hobby farm. Divided into the sections "No Need for a Yard," "Roof Terrace, Patio, or Tiny Yard," and "Yard, Community Garden, or Field," it presents numerous projects and lifestyle changes the reader can implement based on the amount of personal space s/he's got. For example, someone with only an apartment can be more selective about one's food products, make fruit cordials, and grow salad leaves, someone with a small yard can make compost, grow tomatoes in a pot, or make one's own barbeque, and someone with a large yard or field can become a beekeeper, keep geese, or plant a vine. There's also a bit of overlap with some of the suggestions; for example, anyone can use cloth diapers, buy natural bath products, use reclaimed furniture, make jam, or make berry popsicles. It gives the reader a lot of ideas, some of them things which most people are already aware of, such as raising a garden, and some which one might not have known about before, such as having a truly green Xmas tree. It also doesn't really preach to the reader and tell him or her to do all of these things; besides the fact that everyone should transition to a greener lifestyle at one's own pace instead of jumping in whole hog all at once, some of them won't be practicable for everyone, for whatever reasons. For example, some of these things seem really hard-core or evenly potentially dangerous for a beginner, like making one's own paint, foraging for mushrooms, and creating one's own cleaning and bath products. The sections on raising animals for meat and other byproducts also rather surprised me; it seems as though most people into a natural organic lifestyle would be promoting getting food from the resources we already have instead of using up even more resources to raise farm animals and contributing to an animal overpopulation problem just to get a regular supply of pork or so that a cow or goat can have a continual supply of milk (dairy animals need to be pretty much pregnant every year in order to keep producing milk). Overall, though, there are a lot of good interesting suggestions on how to make a greener lifestyle a reality instead of just a dream.

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Great book for your coffee table, July 26, 2007

By 

Lilac Lily (Florida, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Slice of Organic Life (Hardcover)

"A slice of organic life" is yet another book of the back to basics movement. The author gives you a broad overview on what you can do to become part of the organic life. Along with that the book has tons of beautiful pictures which makes it very nice to look at and will probably have you wanting to start your own farm today. Nevertheless the author assures you that you don't have to live in the country to put at least some of her ideas into practice.
Some of the topics covered include:

Energy Saving

Natural Cosmetics

Support local businesses

Reduce, reuse, recycle

Bake Bread

Beekeeping

Grow your own herbs, fruit & vegetables

Raise pigs, chicken, ducks and cows

Although it's a bigger book with 352 pages, the author only touches briefly on every topic. For the beginner this would make a great introduction into what's possible in the organic world. If you are, however, looking for more in depth and How-To information you should look for a different book.