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Book Review ~ TLC Book Tours

Attainable Sustainable by Kris Bordessa – Book Review

by
Patty
-
March 25, 2020

The hubby and I try to live a sustainable life here on a our little farm but I am always looking for all the help I can get so I was very happy when TLC Book Tours sent me a copy of Attainable Sustainable by Kris Bordessa from National Geographic at no charge for my honest review.

Attainable Sustainable by KKris Bordessa

About Attainable Sustainable:

  • Hardcover: 320 pages 
  • Publisher: National Geographic (March 24, 2020)
Packed with delicious recipes, natural remedies, gardening tips, crafts, and more, this indispensable lifestyle reference from the popular blogger makes earth-friendly living fun.Whether you live in a city, suburb, or the country, this essential guide for the backyard homesteader will help you achieve a homespun life–from starting your own garden and pickling the food you grow to pressing wildflowers, baking sourdough loaves, quilting, raising chickens, and creating your own natural cleaning supplies. In these richly illustrated pages, sustainability-guru Kris Bordessa offers DIY lovers an indispensable home reference for sustainability in the 21st century, with tried-and-true advice, 50 enticing recipes, and step-by-step directions for creating easy, cost-efficient projects that will bring out your inner pioneer. Filled with 340 color photographs, this relatable, comprehensive book contains time honored-wisdom and modern know-how for getting back to basics in a beautiful, accessible package.

About the Author:

KRIS BORDESSA launched in the hit blog Attainable Sustainable in 2011 to create a community focused on more self-reliant living. She encourages readers to tackle one actionable step each day to embrace simpler living through a DIY lifestyle. Bordessa grew up on a small apple farm in Northern California and is a 2nd generation 4-H member. These days, she lives in Hawai’i with her family, strives for an abundant vegetable garden, and raises a thriving — and often humorous — chicken flock.

Find out more about Bordessa at her website, and follow her on Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, and YouTube.

My Opinion:

Attainable Sustainable is basically a guide for living more like people did before the advent of packaged food and the throw away society we now inhabit.  Grow your own food, preserve it, learn to reuse what you have, can you sew? knit? crochet? Many of these skills used to be taught in school but no longer are – back in the dark ages when I went to high school I was required to take Home Ec. Now it’s an elective. Skills like canning and fermenting are fun to learn and can lead to a lifestyle that feels safer in troubled times.

The book is broken down into chapters; {Indoors) Eat, Make, Clean, (Outdoors) Grow, Farm Trek. The Eat section goes into the different ways to preserve food with recipes. As soon as I am able I want to try to make my own pickled ginger. It’s a condiment I love and being able to make it whenever I can get some ginger would be wonderful. There are also tips on bread baking (it’s really not hard. I’ve been making our bread for probably 30 years.) Make shares skills that many have forgotten like candlemaking, wool felting, leatherwork and more. Clean shows you how to make your own soap (been there) and skin care products along with household cleaning products, laundry soap, etc.

Grow starts you with the basics of beginning a garden from starting your seeds, preparing the space, what to grow, different ways to grow, etc. Farm goes the next step up with keeping animals like chickens, bees, and perhaps other small livestock like goats – Pricilla would be proud. There are also explanations of composting and why it’s so important. The final chapter, Trek takes you outside of your little corner of the world into the wider space and provides info on outdoor cooking, foraging, plant identification, how to tap trees for syrup (if you have hardwoods) and more.

The chapters are color coded so it’s easy to look at the side of the book and see where each one breaks. Now, as with any book like this, it’s not going to answer every question or go super deep into each topic but it is a wonderful reference guide to have available as you work towards a more sustainable life. The book is packed with information and once you do have the basics you know how to find what you need to learn even more.

I have been canning/freezing/dehydrating the harvest here on our little farm for about 12 years now but I was still reading the chapters on said with interest. You can never stop learning when it comes living this kind of life. You do’t have to go all in all at once – even if you start by making a batch of jam you will feel the joy of knowing you filled those jars for your family to enjoy. Start a container garden with tomatoes – there is nothing as delicious as a freshly picked tomato, still warm from the sun. Baby steps can lead to bigger changes.

This book was written in a very easy to read, entertaining way. It is full of very useful information on so many practical topics.

Rating:

5

Any purchase links are affiliate links which means if you buy anything through them I will receive a small commission (at no additional charge to you)


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Happily living in the small city of Brattleboro, Vermont, Patty Woodland is navigating the urban life of sidewalks and neighbors in New England. She will share life in her small city, the books she reads, and as always, the delicious food she cooks and bakes.

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