Made from Scratch: Discovering the Pleasures of a Handmade Life
This book is lovely memoir written by 20-something web designer Jenna Woginrich. Working as a web designer, Jenna longed to have a homestead and become self-sufficent. With the help of farming friend, Jenna chronicles her journey of trying to create an urban homestead. Her honest accounts are humorous, entertaining and at times, poignant. She contiues to work a full time job while bee-keeping, raising angora rabbits for fiber to spin and egg-laying chickens, planting a vegetable garden and sewing clothes from scratch. Each chapter looks at a different aspect of homesteading, and offers Jenna’s personal account, as well as some advice on how to get started yourself. There’s tons of fantastic resources listed in the back for those who get the urge to homestead themselves.
Jenna now has her own farm in New York state, and a blog about it: Cold Antler Farm. Personally, I still love city life, but I can live out in the country vicariously through this book and her blog. While I’ll probably never adapt all the aspects of homesteading she discusses in my life (sled dogs in Florida anyone?) I found great inspiration through reading about Jenna’s journey, and I even got inspired to bake my first ever loaves of bread from scratch:
Even if you can only incorporate a few aspects of the handmade life into your own life, it really, truly is so deeply satisfying.
Note: I was not compensated in any way for this review. I borrowed the book from my local library and loved it, thus I’m reviewing it here.
