Resources to Learn Homesteading Skills and Products

Rural Living Today Resources are simply a place to learn how to do things.

We talk about how to grow veggies, raise livestock, cook with cast iron, and do other “homesteady” things.

We are all about cooking from scratch – homesteader style.

We write comprehensive reviews on kitchen equipment that makes our lives a bit easier as well as sharing tips, recipes, and great ideas for food preparation, cooking, and preserving the harvest.

Over the years, we have found many different resources and products that have helped us on our rural living journey.

Here we have listed just a few of them, and we hope you will find some helpful new favorites among them.

Resources to Learn Homesteading Skills, Homesteading Products, Tools and Equipment

Here are a few products that we heartily endorse – things that make it a little easier to live rural, whether it’s a kitchen appliance, instructional book, or website.

Homesteading Product Reviews: Honda EM6500S Generator

Tools and Equipment for Farm and Garden

GreenHouses
Mantis Tillers
Best LED Grow Lights
Trailer Winches
Tractor Cart
GreenWorks Lawn Mower
Shop vac
Axes
Air compressors
Welder
Wood working Tools
Plows
Hedge trimmers
Rotor Tillers
Wood Splitters
Pruners]

Durable clothing for outdoor chores

Carhartt WorkwearJolly Garden Shoes by Alpro
Survival Belts
Muck Boots
Work Gloves

Food Preparation and Preservation

Ninja Kitchen System
Ninja Pulse Blender
Excalibur Dehydrator
FoodSaver Vacuum Sealer
Dutch Cheese Press

Survival Living and Prepping

KaBar Knife
Review of the Best Survival Knives So You Can Survive
Survival Knife Buyers Guide So You Survive Extreme Environments
Survival Kit for The Ka-Bar Survival Knife
Ka-Bar Becker BK7 Knife Review and Field Test

Small Greenhouse ~ Find the Best for Your Gardening

Misc Homesteading Items and Books

Fire pits
Bird Houses
Raising Chickens (5 Important Tips on Raising Roosters)
Bees

University of Massachusetts Soil Testing Lab: just mail in your sample and payment, receive a report by email–no matter where you live.

Homesteading Books (Non-Fiction)

Gardening

The Year-Round Vegetable Gardener by Niki Jabbour (Read our review here.)

Homegrown Herbs by Tammi Hartung (Read our review here.

The Fruit Gardener’s Bible by Lewis Hill and Leonard Perry (Read our review here.)

The Vegetable Gardener’s Bible by Edward C. Smith

Storing Apples: How To Store Apples

Livestock

Storey’s Guide to Raising Pigs by Kelly Klober (Read our review here.)

The Backyard Homestead Guide to Raising Farm Animals edited by Gail Damerow (Read our review here.)

The Backyard Cow by Sue Weaver (Read our review here.)

What Do Bulls Eat

Silkie Chicken: Getting to Know the Breed

Homesteading, Country Life, Rural Living Skills

How to Move to the Country by Patrice Lewis (Read our review here.)

The Backyard Homestead by Carleen Madigan (Read our review here.)

Your Custom Homestead by Jill Winger (Read our interview here.)

Storey’s Basic Country Skills by John & Martha Storey (Read our review here.)

Any Storey Publishing books including Storey’s Guides

The Encyclopedia of Country Living by Carla Emery

Any Joel Salatin books, including:

You Can Farm

Pastured Poultry Profits

Salad Bar Beef

Family Friendly Farming

Living with Wildlife/Landscaping for Wildlife by Russell Link

Homesteading Books (Fiction)

Pioneer- and early west-era novels often have descriptions of how life really was in days gone by, and one can learn a lot by reading about everyday life.

Some of these are great for giving kids an idea of the self-sufficient lifestyle.

(*Items also have TV series or movies based on the books.)

Centennial* by James Michener

Little House on the Prairie series* by Laura Ingalls Wilder

Lonesome Dove series* by Larry McMurtry

Louis L’Amour books* : Many describe pioneer life, trapping, foraging, and ranching/farming. Movies include Sackett series.

Love Comes Softly series* by Janette Oke

Red River and Dakota Plains series by Lauraine Snelling

My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George (Bethany’s favorite!)