Sharon Astyk

This book gets an extra half-star from me for its positive mentions of extended family and multi-generational family living situations. We've begun to retrench and are already living this reality, for many of the reasons the author mentions in the book, and it's gratifying to be made to feel that we are "on the cutting edge in social trends" instead of merely "low income". Her treatment of heating and cooling alternatives was well-considered, and she suggests some creative alternatives for appliances that I had not considered (use your fridge as an icebox? brilliant!).

2020 update of my 2015 review: Sheltering in place for the Covid-19 pandemic makes me appreciate the wisdom of this book more than ever.… (mehr)

Having just finished Astyk's [Making Home], I had high hopes for this book. This did not live up to my expectations. It seems to be a collection of writings (could these be copies of her blog entries?) which would have been greatly improved by editing to removed repetition. Of course, that would make it much shorter.
I like her basic premise, that we need to be prepared to provide for our food and water needs, as food security is not a given any longer, whether due to disruption of basic services during recent climatic events despite the efforts of FEMA and Red Cross or due to oil shortages disrupting transportation systems.
She does have some good ideas that I hadn't thought of, and for people with less experience she may be very enlightening. But she does not give details on how to accomplish most of the storage/preservation methods, instead referring the reader to specific books.
I like her topics "The Welcome Pantry", which encourages sharing, "The Theory of Anyway", which she admits she got from another blogger, "What does 3 months of food look like?" and reviving the concept of chatelaine.
She includes a few recipes, which I view as a way to get people thinking about meals they could fix with a limited supply of food rather than a being a book you would actually use for recipes. She has tried to suggest foods to store which would be available to just about anyone and provide high energy and protein.
She frequently reminds us to store water, which most people won't think about when they consider food security. It makes sense, given that water supply is interrupted during hurricanes, floods, and blackouts. One suggestion, to store water containers in the garage is not smart--your water will freeze & burst the container if you live in upstate NY (as she does) or quite a bit of the US. If we assume that her intended audience is city dwellers, she can be forgiven for not putting more emphasis on harvesting rainwater or dew. Yet I think that including some information from wilderness survival resources would be more fruitful than her repeated suggestions to refill our water storage containers regularly & add chlorine to ensure a good supply. While many suggestions are followed with outside resources for more information, she just brushes off solar water distillation with "solar distiller plans are out there" which tells me she hasn't tried this & can't make any recommendations.
Besides the tiring repetition, I also take issue with her frequent suggestion to dry orange zest/peels for flavorings. First, this is not going to make much of a difference in a family's food supply. Second, she never mentions that only organic oranges should be used--see http://www.cropwatch.org/pesticidesdbase.htm for a reminder of how many poisons can be found on citrus peels.… (mehr)