Exploring the Nature of... Dirt.

Community farms. Mud spas. Mineral paints. Nematodes. The world is waking up to the beauty and mystery of dirt. This anthology celebrates the Earth's generous crust, bringing together essays by award-winning scientists, authors, artists, and dirt lovers to tell dirt's exuberant tales.

Geographically broad and topically diverse, these essays reveal life as lived by dirt fanatics--admiring the first worm of spring, taking a childhood twirl across a dusty Kansas farm, calculating how soil breathes, or baking mud pies. Essayists build a dirt house, center a marriage around dirt, sink down into marshy heaven, and learn to read dirt's own language.

Dirt

A Love Story

by Barbara Richardson

ForeEdge, 2015

The Nature Pages
Nature Writing and Natural Histories
Farm and Garden Books

Review: The Illustrated Guide to Cows.

Written for backyard farmers and smallholders interested in pasturing cows, this book describes some 50 breeds and their temperaments, giving basic advice on selecting animals and their husbandry. Nicely illustrated, the volume is certainly not encyclopedic in its coverage, but is rather more a friendly homage to keeping cows.

"Cattle are one of the most undemanding and rewarding domestic animals to keep, being in the main healthy and temperate. They are the smallholder's staple, providing the essentials of milk and beef. There are numerous breeds to choose from...," author and illustrator Celia Lewis explains.

A practical volume with useful advice on how to milk a cow, acquire stock, feed, tan a hide, and even make a cow horn, this handsome guidebook will make a decorative addition to the ranch-style decor of any living room or library.

The Illustrated Guide to Cows

How to Choose Them, How to Keep Them

by Celia Lewis 

Bloomsbury USA, 2014

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Animal Husbandry Books
Outrider Reading Group

Exploring the Nature of... Four Fields.

In this book, Tim Dee tells the story of four green fields spread around the world: their grasses, their hedges, their birds, their skies, and both their natural and human histories. These four fields—walkable, mappable, man-made, mowable, knowable, but also secretive, mysterious, wild, contested, and changing—play central roles in the sweeping panorama of world history and in the lives of individuals.

In Dee’s telling, a field is never just a setting for great battles or natural disasters, though it is often this as well. A field is the oldest and simplest and truest measure of what a man needs in life, especially when looked at, contemplated, worked in, lived with, and written about.

Four Fields

by Tim Dee

Counterpoint, 2015

The Nature Pages
Nature Writing and Natural Histories
Book Notes Wild

Farm and Garden Picks: The Illustrated Guide to Cows

Keeping cattle as a smallholder can be a rewarding enterprise, supplying you with food and milk and helping with the management of grassland on your property. This delightfully illustrated and informative book is ideal for anyone interested in keeping a cow or two, who would like to choose the best breed for their circumstances.

The Illustrated Guide to Cows by Celia Lewis covers the 58 most familiar breeds of cattle in Europe and North America.

The Illustrated Guide to Cows

How to Choose Them, How to Keep Them

by Celia Lewis

Bloomsbury USA, 2014

Animal Husbandry Books
Husbandry
Outrider Reading Group

A New Guide To... Artisanal Foods.

Artisanal foods are making a comeback as more and more people seek to stock their pantries, and their bellies, with handcrafted or locally grown and made foods. Specialty markets and sections at grocery stores are catering to this new desire for the special, the unique, the carefully made foods.

This book colorfully details the landscape of the newest wave of the artisanal food revolution by looking at four foods that whet our appetites for specialty.

Small Batch

Pickles, Cheese, Chocolate, Spirits, and the Return of Artisanal Foods

by Suzanne Cope

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2014

Outrider Reading Group
Guidebooks and How-to Titles
Specialty Foods
Farm Kitchen

Book Stall Review: The Five Seasons

This is a self-help guide to achieving an enlightened, enjoyable life by establishing balance with nature in your mind, body and spirit. Based on the idea that each season has its own unique natural energy, it offers holistic techniques for balancing your emotions, creativity, productivity, decision making and more.

The holistic and non-pharmaceutical techniques, are familiar: using music, meditation and breathing exercises, positive thinking, walking outside.

The Five Seasons

Tap Into Nature's Secrets for Health, Happiness, and Harmony

by Joseph Cardillo

New Page Books, 2013

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Outrider Reading Group
How To Do It Books

Book Stall Review: Mrs. Wheelbarrow's Practical Pantry

Preserving the foods of summer to enjoy in winter saves a household money, especially during the cold months when the fresh pickings are slim and local produce almost impossible to find. There's also the advantage of knowing where your food came from and how it was prepared; and there's the satisfaction of doing it yourself, taking control of your food supply.

This book explains four types of preserving: water-bath canning, pressure canning, curing meats and making cheese. A separate chapter is devoted to each type of preservation and the instructions are organized seasonally, from spring to winter, and from the easiest to the most difficult. Dozens of canning, smoking, curing and cheesemaking recipes are complemented by "bonus recipes" that make use of what's been preserved.

Mrs. Wheelbarrow's Practical Pantry

Recipes and Techniques for Year-Round Preserving

by Cathy Barrow

W. W. Norton & Company, 2014

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Cookbooks
Outrider Reading Group

Good Old Books: Ski Touring

This timely panoramic introduction to the joys of ski touring enhances the overall winter recreation prospect for downhill skiers and beckons to the fireside winter "sportsman" to leave the nest and join the flock. All the dos and don'ts that can make a saunter on skis out into the winter wonderland an exhilarating and memorable experience are authoritatively and sometimes humorously set forth.

Chapter One sets the scene, and the ensuing chapters consecutively cover the essentials of the planning stage, paraphernalia, basic skiing techniques, safety and first aid, and the setting up of a winter camp if an overnight tour is planned.

Ski Touring

An Introductory Guide

by William E. Osgood and Leslie J. Hurley

Charles E. Tuttle Company, 1969

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Guidebooks and How-to Titles
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Book Stall Review: Wild Rice Goose.

A hundred years ago, the kitchens of the Upper Midwest swelled with fresh-caught fish and locally harvested game. The woods were thick with deer and cottontails, the lakes were rich in whitefish and other wildfoods.

Changes in culture and population altered  that scene, but today's Midwesterners have retained and revived their appreciation of venison and other wild game. Wildfoods are back in many eateries as well as home kitchens. Game farms and commercial fisheries are making these delicacies more accessible to appreciative palates.

A sportsman and forager as well as a writer, author John Motoviloff conducts wildfoods cooking workshops throughout the region. In this volume, he shares his knowledge of how to harvest and prepare the wildfoods of his homeland.

Wild Rice Goose

and Other Dishes of the Upper Midwest

by John G. Motoviloff

University of Wisconsin Press, 2014

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Kitchen Supply
Cookbooks
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A New Guide To... Preserving.

Food preserving expert Cathy Barrow presents a beautiful collection of essential preserving techniques for turning the fleeting abundance of the farmers’ market into a well-stocked pantry full of canned fruits and vegetables, jams, stocks, soups, and more.

Beyond the core techniques of water-bath canning, advanced techniques for pressure canning, salt-curing meats and fish, smoking, and even air-curing pancetta are broken down into easy-to-digest, confidence-building instructions.

Mrs. Wheelbarrow’s Practical Pantry shows you how to create a fresh, delectable, and lasting pantry—a grocery store in your own home.

Mrs. Wheelbarrow's Practical Pantry:

Recipes and Techniques for Year-Round Preserving

by Cathy Barrow

W. W. Norton & Company, 2014

Outrider Reading Group
Guidebooks and How-to Titles
Cookbooks
Farm Kitchen

A New Guide To... Pickles, Cheese, Chocolate, Spirits.

Artisanal foods are making a comeback as more and more people seek to stock their pantries, and their bellies, with handcrafted or locally grown and made foods. Specialty markets and sections at grocery stores are catering to this new desire for the special, the unique, the carefully made foods.

Small Batch: Pickles, Cheese, Chocolate, Spirits and the Return of Artisanal Foods colorfully details the landscape of the newest wave of the artisanal food revolution by looking at four foods that whet our appetites for specialty..

Small Batch

Pickles, Cheese, Chocolate, Spirits, and the Return of Artisanal Foods

by Suzanne Cope

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2014

Outrider Reading Group
Guidebooks and How-to Titles
Cookbooks

Book Stall Review: The Molecular Biology and Biochemistry of Fruit Ripening.

The science of fruit ripening has advanced greatly in recent years, from investigations of single genes and enzymatic reactions to complex studies of the regulatory networks controlling the process. This volume covers these advances and presents them in context with general fruit biology.

Herein the molecular and biochemical basis for the ways colour, flavour and texture are effected in ripening fruit is explained.

The Molecular Biology and Biochemistry of Fruit Ripening
by Graham B. Seymour, et al
Wiley-Blackwell, 2013

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Outrider Reading Group
Science Writing

Book Stall Review: Drink More Whiskey.

This guide to whiskey is for a new generation of drinkers venturing far beyond the staid whiskey sours and Manhattans of their grandfather's day.  It is a book for urbanite men and women eager to experiment, try new things, and play with their taste buds.  

"The 1970s and 1980s were marked by a surge of vodka consumption because people didn't want to taste their alcohol," claims author Daniel Yaffe. "Things are changing."

Today, the universe of flavored liquors - including vodkas and whiskeys - is exploding. The Big Bang of fine spirits is circling the globe and seeping into nightclubs, bars and private homes everywhere.

Drink More Whiskey

Everything You Need to Know About Your New Favorite Drink

by Daniel Yaffe

Chronicle Books, 2013

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Good Spirits Online
Whiskey

Good Old Books: Christmas Make-It Book

Here is a new book about an old holiday, glowing with ideas for family fun and family savings.

Step-by-step illustrations and clear directions show how to make hundreds of unusual decorations, gifts, and ornaments.

You will delight your family, impress your friends, and enjoy Yuletide more than ever with this gay book to help. And the things you make with the Christmas Make-It Book will save its purchase price many times over!

Christmas Make-It Book

by Barbara Baer

Hearthside Press, 1954

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Christmas Ornaments, Stockings and Decorations