Is home-grown sustainability possible? Rachel Kaplan and K. Ruby Blume offer a textbook-like reference in Urban Homesteading – everything you need to know from growing your own food to strengthening community connections with practical ideas for better use of resources. Kaplan and Blume offer pictures, graphics, short quizzes, instruction, and information – not expecting a complete revolution, but at least a start…

“…no one has a handle on every aspect of homegrown sustainability, (because) each place is marked by the limits of space and time and skill and affinity.”

The Green House

From bees to goats to growing your own herbal medicine chest, and more, the book not only provides information but also describes the urban homesteading movement, identifying those who are successfully working at sustainability. Although not mentioned in the book, the Green House in Hawaii is a local model of sustainable living.

Not everyone will pour over all the ideas or want to try all the suggestions. This is not a book to be read in single sitting, but Urban Homesteading is digestible slowly – a chapter or a topic at a time – and you might find something you can do to start to save the planet.