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Product Description
Product Description
Hard times aren't just coming, they are here already. The recent economic collapse has seen millions of North Americans move from the middle class to being poor, and from poor to hungry. At the same time, the idea of eating locally is shifting from being a fringe activity for those who can afford it to an essential element of getting by. But, aside from the locavores and slow foodies, who really knows how to eat outside of the supermarket and out of season? And who knows how to eat a diet based on easily stored and home preserved foods?
Independence Days tackles both the nuts and bolts of food preservation, as well as the host of broader issues tied to the creation of local diets. It includes:
Better food, plentiful food, at a lower cost, and with less energy expended, Independence Days is for all who want to build a sustainable food system and keep eating - even in hard times.
Independence Days tackles both the nuts and bolts of food preservation, as well as the host of broader issues tied to the creation of local diets. It includes:
- how to bulk buy and store food on the cheap
- techniques from canning to dehydrating
- tools: what you need and what you don't.
Better food, plentiful food, at a lower cost, and with less energy expended, Independence Days is for all who want to build a sustainable food system and keep eating - even in hard times.
About the Author
Sharon Astyk is a former academic who farms in upstate New York with her husband and four children, raises livestock, grows vegetables and writes about food and peak oil.
Inside This Book
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Most helpful customer reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
More People Ought to Grow Their Own Food,
By
This review is from: Independence Days (Paperback)
A most enjoyable book. Excellent bed-time reading. Covers pantry-stocking from the supermarket plus preserving your own foods you grew and raised yourself. The answer to food security and security in general is to rely more on our own local food supply and to get away from the over-priced and over-chemicalled convenience foods which have become the norm. I especially appreciated the focus away from canning (although this is included) to more simple preservation methods - root cellars, dehydrating, fermenting, salting and preserving in oil and alcohol. These are skills that are rapidly being lost in our ever-advancing world but are the link to our very survival and independence. Well-written, enjoyable reading with inspirational ideas of community-building and includes recipes.
4.0 out of 5 stars
Read, take action and feel better,
By
This review is from: Independence Days (Paperback)
Independence days is not your regular 'cook book' or reference guide on preserving food. Even if you don't believe the experts and critics who are warning us that there is a food crisis coming you will find something in this book that will make you pay attention. Sustainable is the key in Astyk's totally readable reference guide. She touches on several preservation methods and gives her readers a few good reasons why we should be doing this "anyway". There are some recipes sprinkled though out the book that I tried and they proved to be delicious as well. Her writing style is informative not preachy - well maybe not too preachy - she has a point to make and is evidently totally convinced. After you read her reasons you might be as well.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta) Amazon.com:
3.8 out of 5 stars (14 customer reviews) 52 of 54 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Not just about the canning jars,
By Story Circle Book Reviews - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Independence Days (Paperback)
Independence Days is a book about food security. Like Sharon Astyk's two previous books (Depletion and Abundance; A Nation of Farmers), this one focuses on the need to assume personal responsibility for food self-sufficiency and for shortening the supply chain from farm/garden to table. Unlike Asktyk's previous books, this one is also a how-to, as well as a why-we-should, complete with helpful instructions for creating and managing a food storage pantry, preserving fresh foods, and cultivating a frugal and self-reliant life style.
Astyk's arguments for the importance of personal food security ("one of the central issues of our time") are compelling. A looming energy crisis, soil and water depletion, and the threat of global warming--these are all reasons to be concerned about the reliability of our food supply and the need to take personal control, as far as possible, over the food we put on our family's table. "Independence days" (a concept Astyk borrows from Carla Emery) are days when we're eating food we grow ourselves or obtain locally. For Astyk, true independence is freedom from the industrial food system that feeds most Americans. Hence this book, which recommends various methods for food preservation (canning, pickling, dehydrating, fermenting); for purchasing, stocking, and storing food in pantry, root cellar, and freezer; for acquiring tools and equipment, in addition to adequate supplies of water, medicine, and other necessities; and for creating and using community resources. All of this advice is sound, helpful, and inspiring. It is also very credible, for Astyk practices what she preaches, and it's good to know that she has tried the methods that she advocates. The various sections are also illustrated with recipes, more or less effectively. Some of the recipes contain non-local foods--coconut milk, quinoa, salmon--which I found distracting in a book about shortening the supply chain, and not all of them illustrate the principle she'd like to teach: baked apples and cranberries are good comfort food but the recipe doesn't fit very comfortably in a section on medicines. Recipes/formulas for home-grown herbal remedies would have been a better choice. But these are minor quibbles. I like Sharon Astyk because she always tells me why I should do something, before she tells me how, and this book continues that practice. "This isn't just about the rice or the garden or the canning jars," she says. "This is a small but important step in making a better way of life." Yes, truly. I learned from Independence Days, and it strengthened my desire to be as independent as possible. If you're concerned about food security, this is a good book to read and use. If you're not, read it anyway. You'll learn why the American food supply should be at the top of your list of things to think about. by Susan Wittig Albert for Story Circle Book Reviews reviewing books by, for, and about women 17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
preparedness,
By seed saver - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Independence Days (Paperback)
Great book on being prepared for any emergency that may arise - without hitting the panic button. Easy and fun to read with great advice on getting started with food security for yourself and hopefully expanding to your neighbors and beyond. She is pragmatic about the learning curve, with a good sense of humor. I would recommend this to friends.
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
It's not really a guide to preservation...,
By Paige Costner - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Independence Days (Paperback)
It's not that I didn't like this book, or find some of the information presented useful. I'm all for preservation and sustainable eating, buying from farmers and growing your own if possible. That's why I was interested in this book. However, I was looking for a preservation how-to, which, based on the title, this book seems it would be. It's not. It's mostly telling you why you should store six months worth of food for everyone you live with ... ok ... moving on. Or not, in the case of this book. I think that food preservation stands on its own merits, and shouldn't need the threat of impending doom to make people interested in it, which the author clearly does. By the third time she had mentioned that children and the elderly can die from the shock of dietary changes in the event of the apocalypse, I was a little weary of the impending doom, myself. If you are looking for a practical guide to preservation and storage, look elsewhere. If you are looking for the political motivation for said storage, read on.
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