GIVEAWAY: Build Your Dream Homestead Library… Instantly and for FREE!
What if your entire homestead bookshelf arrived in one big box? 100% FREE.
Well to celebrate the harvest season, we’re giving away 20 of the best-selling homesteading books … from sourdough and cheesemaking to herbal remedies, soil health, and food preservation. Here’s the details:
- One Grand Prize Winner will take home the ultimate homesteader’s library: 20 timeless books from the leading voices in modern homesteading, delivered right to your doorstep.
- Plus, 10 Runner-Up Winners will receive our Homestead Living Collector’s Box, packed with Plated By Season, The Homesteading Guide, Invited, Collector’s Editions, and a Homestead Living tote.
These are the books that fill our shelves, shape our daily lives, and inspire the next generation of from-scratch living.
A Trusted Source for Homesteaders
The Homesteader’s Essential Reading List
Daily Sourdough by Lisa Bass
Make sourdough part of your everyday cooking. This friendly guide teaches you how to start and maintain a healthy starter, troubleshoot with ease, and bake over 80 breads, treats, mains, and sides. Perfect for beginners or seasoned bakers looking for fresh ideas.
Everything Worth Preserving by Melissa K. Norris
Your complete guide to preserving food the old-fashioned way—updated for today’s kitchen. With 80+ recipes and clear instructions, Melissa shows you how to safely can, dehydrate, ferment, freeze, and cure everything from garden produce to meats for year-round eating.
The Beekeeper’s Apothecary by Kaylee Richardson
Transform your kitchen into a natural apothecary. With over 100 herbs explained in plain language, this beautiful guide makes home herbalism simple and practical. From easing coughs to soothing skin, Kaylee shows you how to swap synthetic remedies for plant-based healing with clear, step-by-step instructions.
Cheese from Scratch by Robyn Jackson
Turn milk into magic. In this gorgeous book, Robyn demystifies cheesemaking with easy tutorials, tips, and recipes for everything from fresh cheeses to aged varieties. Learn the art, science, and joy of crafting artisan-quality cheese right in your own kitchen.
Freeze-Drying the Harvest by Carolyn Thomas
Master modern food preservation with step-by-step tutorials and easy charts. Carolyn walks you through the seven essential steps of freeze-drying at home so you can safely preserve fruits, veggies, and full meals for year-round enjoyment.
A Bold Return to Giving a Damn by Will Harris
A Bold Return to Giving a Damn is Will Harris’s memoir-manifesto: he abandons industrial farming, restores land via regenerative agriculture, while weaving six generations’ history and calling for food-system transformation.
The Apricot Lane Farms Cookbook by Molly Chester
In The Apricot Lane Farms Cookbook, Molly Chester blends stories of regenerative farming with 130+ seasonally inspired recipes, inviting home cooks to connect with land, flavor, and sustainable abundance.
The Prairie Homestead Cookbook by Jill Winger
Jill Winger, creator of the award-winning blog The Prairie Homestead, introduces her debut The Prairie Homestead Cookbook, including 100+ delicious, wholesome recipes made with fresh ingredients to bring the flavors and spirit of homestead cooking to any kitchen table.
Old Fashioned on Purpose by Jill Winger
Creator of The Prairie Homestead blog and the Old-Fashioned On Purpose podcast Jill Winger reveals that the secrets to finding happiness today is by turning to the lost arts of the past
The 2026 Old Fashioned on Purpose Planner by Jill Winger
The 2026 Old-Fashioned on Purpose Planner is here to help you juggle the beautiful chaos of your old-fashioned life. Designed by a homesteader (our great friend Jill Winger) for homesteaders, this isn’t just a planner … it’s your partner in turning big dreams into reality, one checked-off task at a time.
The Independent Farmstead by Shawn and Beth Dougherty
Twenty years ago, when authors Shawn and Beth Dougherty purchased the land they would come to name the Sow’s Ear, the state of Ohio designated it “not suitable for agriculture.” Today, their family raises and grows 90% of their own food.
Grow Bag Gardening by Kevin Espiritu
Grow Bag Gardening by Kevin Espiritu teaches you to grow abundant fruits, vegetables, and herbs using eco-friendly fabric planter bags … no digging required. Learn setup, care, and harvest techniques for thriving, space-saving gardens.
The Heritage Pantry by Bevin Cohen
In The Heritage Pantry, Bevin writes about a variety of preservation techniques: canning, dehydrating, fermenting, freezing, pickling, and smoking, as well as making jams, jellies, and marmalades.
This is Your Mind on Plants by Michael Pollan
In This Is Your Mind on Plants, Michael Pollan dives deep into three plant drugs – opium, caffeine, and mescaline – and throws the fundamental strangeness, and arbitrariness, of our thinking about them into sharp relief.
The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan
This acclaimed bestseller and modern classic has changed America’s relationship with food. It’s essential reading for kids who care about the environment and climate change.
Homestead Tsunami by Joel Salatin
This broad cultural book explores the why of America’s exploding interest in homesteading. From physical health to adolescent self-worth and responsibility, HOMESTEAD TSUNAMI explains why participating human provenance fundamentals solves many of modern society’s dysfunctions.
The Complete Guide to Seed & Nut Oils by Bevin Cohen
The Complete Guide to Seed and Nut Oils teaches how to grow, forage, and press over 40 nuts and seeds into high-quality oils, covering equipment, techniques, benefits, and small-scale production.
Saving Our Seeds: The Practice & Philosophy by Bevin Cohen
A seed saving guide unlike any other available! Seed activist Bevin Cohen takes a deep dive into the hows and whys of the modern seed saving movement.
Really Very Crunchy by Emily Morrow
Are you tired of being bombarded by toxins at every turn? Do you want a more natural, “crunchy” approach to the world (with or without the beige aesthetic)? Well, grab your kombucha and join Emily Morrow on a journey to a more wholesome existence
The Made From Scratch Life by Melissa K. Norris
Are you concerned about the rising costs of feeding your family, where your food comes from, or what’s in the cleaning products you use every day? Melissa K. Norris, host of the popular Pioneering Today podcast, wants to help you embrace a simpler, more natural lifestyle.
* Plus a Homestead Living Canvas Tote to carry around your books!
Strong enough for a few of your new books, stylish enough for the farmer’s market. The Homestead Living Canvas Tote blends beauty and practicality in one great little bag.
And our 10 runner-up winners will receive a Collector’s Box with…
Plated By Season by Melissa K. Norris
Home-Cooked. Home-Grown. On Your Table in 30 Minutes or Less. Seasonal Cooking, Made Simple. Fresh. Fast. From Scratch.
The Homesteading Guide
The ultimate primer for starting (and growing) your homesteading life. The Homesteading Guide features dozens of articles from homestead legends like Joel Salatin, Lisa Bass, Jess Sowards, Melissa K. Norris, Rory Feek, Carolyn Thomas, Anne Briggs, and Justin Rhodes.
Invited
Stories of Faith Centered Simple Living. Invited is the anthology of Plain Values first 12 years most impactful stories.
Collector’s Editions 001, 002, and 003
More than just a magazine; our Collector’s Editions are compendiums of wisdom, stories, and practical advice from renowned, working homesteaders. They contain the very best writing from our publications. This heirloom-quality print edition is an absolute treasure trove of hard-won wisdom, inspiring stories, and lush, beautiful imagery.
* Plus a Homestead Living Canvas Tote to carry around your books!
Strong enough for a few of your new books, stylish enough for the farmer’s market. The Homestead Living Canvas Tote blends beauty and practicality in one great little bag.