Attainable Sustainable by Kris Bordessa – Book Review

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.

About Attainable Sustainable:

• Hardcover: 320 pages 
• Publisher: National Geographic (March 24, 2020)

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

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