The Apartment Farm

I speak a very basic level of French and I’d like to get back into it and become super fluent. So I stopped into our local foreign language bookstore (which is a great place) and picked up a few things. The children’s books (except the Wilder one) I’ll be passing along to my niece one of these days so I can start teaching her a little bit (she’s barely two - I’ll give her a head start on English first).

La Petite Maison dans le Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder

Le Chat Chapeaute by Dr. Suess

Le Sauvetage de Madeline by Ludwig Bemelmans

The United States of Arugula: The Sun Dried, Cold Pressed, Dark Roasted, Extra Virgin Story of the American Food Revolution by David Kamp

Plenty: One Man, One Woman, and a Raucous Year of Eating Locally by Alisa Smith & J.B. MacKinnon

Kitchens: The Culture of Restaurant Work by Gary Allen Fine

Eat My Words: Reading Women’s Lives Through the Cookbooks They Wrote by Janet Theophano

Yes, it’s all about the food for me lately! But what better topic to immerse oneself in!

Charcuterie by Michael Ruhlman & Brian Polcyn

This Common Ground: Seasons on an Organic Farm by Scott Chaskey

Abundantly Wild: Collecting & Cooking Wild Edibles in the Upper Midwest by Teresa Marrone

Breweries of Wisconsin by Jerry Apps

Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer

The Prairie Traveler: the 1859 Handbook for Westbound Pioneers by Randolph B. Marcy

The Modern Pagan by Brian Day

The Concise Guide to Self-Sufficiency The Concise Guide to Self-Sufficiency by John Seymour

It’s a Long Road to a Tomato by Keith Stewart

Better Off: Flipping the Switch on Technology by Eric Brende

The New Farmer’s Market

Heirloom Vegetables: A Home Gardener’s Guide to Finding & Growing Vegetables From the Past by Sue Strickland

Living at Nature’s Pace: Farming & the American Dream by Gene Logsdon 

More good reads here at Apartment Farm. I really must get another bookshelf…

 Merry Mixes by Gooseberry Patch

Sugar Creek: Life on the Illinois Prairie by John Mack Faragher

Manifestos on the Future of Food & Seed (featuring essays by Michael Pollan, Carlo Petrini, Jamey Lionette, Prince Charles & Vandana Shiva) edited by Vandana Shiva

Ordeal by Hunger: The Classic Story of the Donner Party by George R. Stewart

The Oregon Trail by Francis Parkman

Growing Midget Vegetables at Home by Grant & Holly Gilmore

Growing for Market: On a Few Acres or in Your Backyard by Roger B. Yepsen, Jr.

Make Something: An Anthology of Portland Zinesters

Americans on Vacation by the Henry Ford Museum & Greenfield Village

From the Prairie: A Child’s Memories by Joan Vibert & Linda Brannock

Through the Year: A Prairie Christmas by Joan Vibert

Fruits for the Home Garden by Ken & Pat Kraft

LL Bean Game & Fish Cookbook

Lonely Planet Road Trip: New England

French Dirt: The Story of a Garden in the South of France by Richard Goodman

Practical Beekeeping by Enoch H. Tompkins

The Homesteader’s Handbook by Martin Lawrence

Family Farming by Marty Strange

Country Living Handmade Candles

Hit By A Farm: How I Learned to Stop Worrying & Love the Barn by Catherine Friend

Robbing the Bees: A Biography of Honey by Holley Bishop

Garden Way Publishing’s Bread Book: A Baker’s Almanac by Ellen Foscue Johnson

The Big Oyster: History of the Half Shell by Mark Kurlansky

The Nasty Bits: Collected Varietal Cuts, Useable Scrap & Bones by Anthony Bourdain

JPod by Douglas Coupland

Locust: The Devastating Rise & Mysterious Disappearance of the Insect that Shaped the American Frontier by Jeffrey A. Lockwood

Junk Chic by Kathryn Elliott

Lonely Planet USA

Route 66 Adventure Handbook by Drew Knowles

Sublime Stitching: Hundreds of  Hip Embroidery Patterns & How-To by Jenny Hart

Old-Time Pickling & Spicing Recipes: 110 Small-Quantity Favorites for Today’s Homemakers by Florence Brobeck

Savoring the Past: The French Kitchen & Table from 1300 to 1789 by Barbara Ketcham Wheaton

I’m very excited to announce the creation of a new blog devoted to another my passions– travelling Historic Route 66! Please be sure to check it out at http://historyinthemaking.wordpress.com. It’s a work in progress, but I hope to add lots of content over the summer. The primary function of this new blog is to showcase photos and trip notes from our two week Route 66 road trip honeymoon back in 2005. But the site will also feature current Route 66 info and goodies. Stay tuned; hope you like it!

Ah books… my recent additions:

 Market What You Grow: A Practical Manual for Home Gardeners Market Gardeners & Small Farmers by Ralph J. Hills

Women’s Life in Colonial Days by Carl Holliday

Underground Guide to San Francisco

Balsamico: A Balsamic Vinegar Cookbook

From Kitchen to Market: Selling Your Gourmet Food Specialty by Stephen F. Hall

A Lost Lady by Willa Cather

Eleanor Rigby by Doulgas Coupland

Moving to a Small Town: A Guidebook for Moving from Urban to Rural America by Wanda Urbanska

I chanced upon an interesting “magazine” a couple of weeks ago called the Small Farmer’s Journal. It’s a larger-sized magazine that is jam packed with informative articles, charts, drawing, photos, etc. It’s published quarterly, and some of the articles in the Winter 2007 issue I picked up include “Horesepowered Vineyard”, “Bread Ovens”, “Open Pollinated Corn” and instructions for how to make a hog feeder, plant trees and windbreaks, and recipes. It also contains plenty of lore, reader letters, essays, cartoons and poetry. It’s a well-rounded read– definitely not a typical magazine that you flip through in 20 minutes and forget about. I’m sure they’ll prove to be valuable additions to my homestead library, and yours. Issue and subscription information can be had at www.smallfarmersjournal.com.