Put your backyard to work! Enjoy fresher, organic, better-tasting food all the time. The solution is as close as your own backyard. Grow the vegetables and fruits your family loves; keep bees; raise chickens, goats, or even a cow. The Backyard Homestead shows you how it’s done. And when the harvest is in, you’ll learn how to cook, preserve, cure, brew, or pickle the fruits of your labor.

From a quarter of an acre, you can harvest 1,400 eggs, 50 pounds of wheat, 60 pounds of fruit, 2,000 pounds of vegetables, 280 pounds of pork, 75 pounds of nuts.

What time of day is best to collect eggs? What is the correct way to milk a goat?  What does a duck eat?  When is the right time to shear a sheep?  Is there a market for manure?  Can a cow and a sheep share the same pasture?

The perfect book for anyone who has ever dreamed of keeping small livestock, Barnyard in Your Backyard offers tried-and-true, expert advice on raising healthy, happy, productive farm animals: chickens, geese, ducks, rabbits, goats, sheep, and cattle. Each chapter focuses on a different animal, discussing the pros and cons of raising the animal, housing and land requirements, feeding guidelines, health concerns, and a schedule for routine care.

No home, whether in the country, the city, or somewhere in between, should be without this one-of-a-kind encyclopedia. For more than 30 years, people have relied on Carla Emery’s practical, step-by-step advice on basic self-sufficiency skills such as how to cultivate a garden, buy land, bake bread, raise farm animals, make sausage, milk a goat, grow herbs, churn butter, build a chicken coop, cook on a wood stove, and much, much more. This updated 10th edition includes expanded and updated mail-order information, including e-mail addresses and Web sites, while adding more of Emery’s personal advice, reflections, and anecdotes to ensure that this incredibly detailed, diverse book is as enjoyable as it is useful.