REVIEWS AND RECOMMENDATIONS - OURS AND YOURS
THIS SPACE IS FOR YOUR TAKE or ours - on classes, programs, books, junkets, retreats, equipment, sources - reviews and opinions that may be helpful to other homesteaders / off grid people - on any topic. For instance, it seems to us that DuckDuckGo is a far less biased (bought) search engine than the most popular one. Result - more honesty! And that makes a difference off grid!
You already know, searching for anything online opens thousands of doors - to both information and sales pitches. Yikes. And it's difficult to know which is the most helpful and trustworthy. But we can sort through that all together. So please let us know what you have found that we all should know about! Send to: kellyann@offgridcentral.org
And now we dive in - we are going to start this collection randomly - as it grows we will look at dividing it into categories, multiple pages, etc.
Our favorite lately! - The Need To Grow is a documentary film, and free online at the time of this writing. We wager that even the most experienced food producers as well as absolute beginners can all learn helpful and valuable things from this film. Narrated by Rosario Dawson. 
The story of two tremendous food and energy projects in California. " The difference between dirt and soil is the difference between life and death." We recommend seeing it and sharing it. Side note: There will need to be paid ads on this site. And, you may see an ad for this film on this site sometimes - but we will never charge them for that. As often as we can, we'll do that for some projects - because this kind of valuable information should be free whenever possible.
Film. 1 hour 30 minutes. 5 stars out of 5.
The Independent Homesteader is an e-book, for sale online. We bought it ( and others) specifically to see what's in it - and to review it here. It comes as a pdf that you can print out if you want a hard copy. It is very basic and conceptual. For beginners. Or pre-beginners. For example, there is a fair explanation of what people mean by the term 'grey water'. And a method for making homemade soap. Basic stuff. It is well-intentioned, and probably an ok introduction to some concepts. A quiet Sunday afternoon read for a city dweller. It is not a comprehensive or in-depth study of homesteading.
Printable e-book. Conceptual - for beginners only. 3 stars of 5
Van conversion. Skip this one unless you are interested in an off grid van conversion video. But, if you might want to see it - this is excellent for a lot of reasons - concepts, method details, and still very entertaining. And it's brief! Click here to view.
Off Grid Van Conversion. Youtube 14 minutes. 4.5 stars of 5
More book reviews below but first a note regarding those FREE vs PAID information sources:
If you are searching any aspect of homesteading / off grid living, you are presented with a minefield of rabbit holes to fall into.
We have tumbled into more than a few of those time wasters too. In years of research a whole bushel of them at least. But on our pages we will only mention the sources we feel great, or at least good, about. For instance: We look everywhere and we found a gardening site in Europe that looked very promising at first. The people behind it seem very knowledgeable. But once past the 'free' info hook, there wasn't much there except an enticement to spend.
Worse, our email inbox was bombarded with further sales pitches. Every day. "Special time limited offers!" It seemed to us there nothing there without spending a significant amount of money to find out. And the pushy pushy pitching was annoying. We are leaving that one and many others like that, off our review pages. If you care to send in any reviews, please do the same - let's spend our time exposing positive things.
Randomly again, another garden/food book! Growing Gardens of Grace. - by Samantha Walker. We bought this one too - again, specifically to check out and review. It's a very encouraging and upbeat look at producing food in outside gardens. Samantha is very experienced and sincere: She provides lots of thoroughly detailed info. We say... highly recommendable. Although it was a little bit hard to find - until we used the title, her name, and DuckDuckGo.
4.8 starts out of 5
Cold Weather Greenhouse . In really cold weather., this man uses the Earth's heat to keep his greenhouse growing all winter ... in any temperature. Seems like it could work anywhere you can get a backhoe and dig. Amazing! Very Interesting video, right here.
For concept and practicality. For cold Regions.
5 stars of 5
Greenhouse Gardening for the Absolute Beginner
Jaden Rivers
This book is very well organized and well written. Perhaps stretched out in a few places. But it is incredibly comprehensive. We wager not just beginners but anyone could learn and find value in this work. If that sounds like something you're looking for ... 5 stars out of 5.
That's a start, enough for now. As time allows, we will present many more reviews out of our own experiences. But we stress, would love to consider yours too - on any subject related to homesteading / off grid living. If you care to do that with a 'username' or anonymously your choice, thank you! send to : kellyann@offgridcentral.org