Series

Bring mushrooms into your life as you dive into the practice of home-scale mushroom cultivation.

With applications in permaculture, urban farming, cooking, natural medicine, and the arts, interest in home-scale mushroom cultivation is exploding. Yet many beginners remain daunted by the perceived complexity of working with fungi.

DIY Mushroom Cultivation is the remedy, presenting proven, reliable, low-cost techniques for home-scale cultivation that eliminate the need for a clean-air lab space to grow various mushrooms and their mycelium.

Beautiful full-color photos and step-by-step instructions accompany a foundation of mushroom biology and ecology to support a holistic understanding of the practice. Growing techniques are applicable year-round, for any space from house to apartment, and for any climate, budget, or goal. Techniques include:

• Setting up a home growing space
• Inexpensive, simple DIY equipment
• Culture creation from mushroom tissue or spores
• Growing and using liquid cultures and grain spawn
• Growing mushrooms on waste streams
• Indoor fruiting
• Outdoor mushroom gardens and logs
• Harvesting, processing, tinctures, and cooking.

Whether you hunt mushrooms or dream about growing and working with them but feel constrained by a small living space, DIY Mushroom Cultivation is the ideal guide for getting started in the fascinating and delicious world of fungiculture.

Series Information
This book is part of the Homegrown City Life Series:

You’d like to be self-sufficient, but the space you have available is tighter than your budget. If this sounds familiar, the Homegrown City Life series was created just for you! Authors of this series will help you navigate the wide world of homesteading, regardless of how big (or small!) your space and budget may be. Topics range from cheesemaking to gardening and composting—everything the budding urban homesteader needs to succeed!

Increase your self-reliance:

• Take back DIY skills
• Work with the space you have, apartment balcony or suburban backyard
• Learn about fermenting, crafting, growing, preserving, and other skills for the urban homesteader.

Additional Information
208 pages | 7.50" x 9.00"

Your go-to guide for everything from cultivation to wine-making with one of humanity's oldest plant friends

Once a staple in homes across the world, and found along every highland, highway, and hedgerow, the forgotten elderberry is making a comeback. Its popularity as medicine is surging, its choice as an edible landscaping plant is growing, and its use for wine-making and crafts is being rediscovered.

Spanning history and geography, The Elderberry Book takes you on an adventure, deepening your appreciation of a plant that has played a crucial role across the world for thousands of years. Through this fun, inspirational, and educational resource, discover:

• Elderberry's amazing history
• Cultivating and foraging, from the balcony to the backyard
• Various traditional food and medicine preparations
• Simple wine-making techniques
• Traditional crafts and tools.

This is the definitive guide to the many uses of elderberry; no matter where you are, one of humankind's oldest plant friends can provide you with anything from syrup to wine to dyes, and more.

This book will be of interest to homesteaders, gardeners, herbalists, and people interested in folk history and crafts.

Educator & Series Information
Elderberries trees are widespread and naturalized in temperate Canadian regions including the Maritimes, British Columbia, and Ontario.

Useful, fun, inspirational and educational book that covers history, cultivation, foraging, traditional use, medicines, herbal remedies and tools from the elderberry tree.

Includes:

• Recipes
• Plans for crafts made from elderberry wood including a flute, a pencil, and even a bug hotel.
• Professional illustrations and full-colour photographs.

This book is part of the Homegrown City Life Series:

You’d like to be self-sufficient, but the space you have available is tighter than your budget. If this sounds familiar, the Homegrown City Life series was created just for you! Authors of this series will help you navigate the wide world of homesteading, regardless of how big (or small!) your space and budget may be. Topics range from cheesemaking to gardening and composting—everything the budding urban homesteader needs to succeed! 

• Increase your self-reliance
• Take back DIY skills
• Work with the space you have, apartment balcony or suburban backyard

Learn about fermenting, crafting, growing, preserving, and other skills for the urban homesteader.

Additional Information
128 pages | 7.50" x 9.00"

Fertilize your garden naturally--a guide to growing your plants in healthy, happy soil

People want to know where their food comes from, who grows it and how it is grown. Interest in permaculture, backyard composting, and gardening in general, is growing. So how does the budding gardener ensure that his soil is healthy and nutrient-rich enough to support all the produce he intends to grow? Here's a hint--think worms! Vermiculture is the healthiest and most cost-effective way to ensure that your soil receives the nourishment that it needs. A simple vermicompost bin can produce the completely natural , nutrient-rich fertilizer that can be used to boost soil health and, in turn, increase your crop yield.

In true Crystal Stevens' fashion, Worms at Work is a practical, easy-to-implement guide to fertilizing your garden naturally. It discusses the vital role worms play in boosting soil health, and the reasons why every gardener should use vermicompost in order to decrease reliance on toxic synthetic fertilizers. Coverage includes:

• Simple designs to build your own vermicompost bin
• Caring for your worms
• Garden applications for your worm castings
• Lesson plans to incorporate vermicomposting into the school science curriculum
• Whether you're tending to a small backyard garden or managing a large farm, Worms at Work can show you how to start vermicomposting today in order to grow healthy plants in healthy, happy soil.

Educator & Series Information
Useful for incorporating vermicomposting into the school science curriculum and school gardens.

This book is part of the Homegrown City Life Series:
You’d like to be self-sufficient, but the space you have available is tighter than your budget. If this sounds familiar, the Homegrown City Life series was created just for you! Authors of this series will help you navigate the wide world of homesteading, regardless of how big (or small!) your space and budget may be. Topics range from cheesemaking to gardening and composting—everything the budding urban homesteader needs to succeed!

Increase your self-reliance

• Take back DIY skills
• Work with the space you have, apartment balcony or suburban backyard
• Learn about fermenting, crafting, growing, preserving, and other skills for the urban homesteader.

Additional Information
224 pages | 7.50" x 9.00"