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Mar 13, 2010

Neligh rated it:

Mere nostalgia for a so-called “simpler time” is not enough reason for me to do anything; I have to know there is some modern benefit, something to justify its practice in the here and now. The author of Made From Scratch does an excellent job not only convincing me of this, but stoking my excitement for it.

Of 11 chapters, I loved 6:

Chickens. Eggs aren’t that expensive -they might be some of the cheapest sources of protein available- so why raise your own chickens? F More...

0 comments like (12 people liked it)

Nov 24, 2010

Brixton rated it:

Pathologically self-absorbed, undeservedly self-congratulating-- especially given her apparent special talent for neglecting animals to death-- and overwhelmingly under-helpful.

"Me. Memememememe, me!" x 184 pages = Made From Scratch by Jenna Woginrich

An open letter to the author:

Dear Jenna Woginrich,
I hate to inform you of this, but "pioneers" did not send animal hair to online retailers for processing into yarn, nor did they have la More...

3 comments like (6 people liked it)

Mar 08, 2009

Sally rated it:

"Plenty of people in suburbs and sublets all over the country are replacing their pansies with peas and putting up henhouses where the doghouses used to be. Knitters are casting on in subways, and homebrewed wine is fermenting in your neighbor's basement. A revolution is self-sufficiency is riding the L train, and we saved you a seat."

What begins with this sage observation continues to offer enough information to inspire and humor to educate. Yes, that's what I meant. T More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Dec 29, 2008

Audrey rated it:

THIS is what I wanted from the last book on homesteading / hobby farming that I read. Interspersed among the little anecdotes about homesteading is solid advice about raising chickens, planting a garden, cooking from scratch, and more. I thought the dogsledding/packdog section seemed a bit strange for inclusion, but the other topics were just what I wanted to find. This will definitely be taking a spot on my reference shelf, and I'll be heading to the library to check out some of the other books More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Dec 29, 2008

Chuck rated it:

About the most I can say for this book is that her enthusiasm for the subject was fairly infectious. Definitely made me excited for the sort of projects/ideas she was presenting. However, most of the projects unfortunately can't really be done if you live in a true urban setting (read: condo with no back yard). Other than her enthusiasm for growing her own food, raising chickens, bees, and rabbits, about the only thing I got from the book was that you should be prepared for these things to be More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Mar 02, 2009

amelia rated it:

oh, how i longed for this book to be more. while i guess it's interesting to hear tiny stories from a person's experiences with "homesteading," i was really hoping for some lengthy narratives and real advice/experiences from which to learn. this would have been much more compelling and useful if it was about twice as long/she focused on half as many topics with the same number of pages.

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jul 27, 2008

CJ rated it:

I know the feeling of making something yourself. Woginrich really takes it to a new level in that she not only knits and spins (like I do) she also raised hens, kept bees, and taught herself how to play both the mountain dulcimer and fiddle. While this book is essentially a shallow primer of all her accomplishments, it really provides an interested reader the highlights (and lowlights) of each task she took on.

I enjoyed the lighthearted take on everything and the book did make me w More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Mar 16, 2009

Jacqie rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 04, 2009

Krista rated it:

This was a Christmas gift from Lynn, and it kept me from completely losing my mind as I was stuck in the airport on my way back to the 'burgh. It was a quick, light, enjoyable read. However, I'm going to have a little trouble reviewing it. The book is one part "how-to" and one part "anecdotal evidence." I enjoyed the latter much more than the former. I appreciate that the author was willing to share her many missteps when learning to raise honeybees and angora rabbits, among More...

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Dec 26, 2011

Kathleen rated it:

I read this a while ago and never added it. Wendy described it as a collection of light and engaging essays, and I would agree. I think my beef with this was that she sometimes made things sound TOO EASY. Like, "Chickens are wonderful...they take up less time than a gerbil does." Well, I know I don't have to be a fifth-generation farmer to keep chickens, but I don't think it's as easy as having a gerbil. Mind you, I'd love to have chickens. I just think she oversimplifies at times.
More...

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Mar 23, 2011

Mic rated it:

I know this seems like a weird book for me to read. I don't know why, maybe it's my grand fathers genes in me, but I want to live on about 40 acres in the middle of nowhere with a small farm house with my wife, 12 kids (JK honey), 3 dogs, 2 cats and other crazy barnyard animals. So maybe thats why I picked up this book.

I don't agree with some of the philosophy espoused in the pages (I think the writer is a buddhist) but I did realize just how attached I am to stuff. OK I will admit it. More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Mar 17, 2011

Robin Marie rated it:

I'll start by stating that I grew up on a working farm (as in a really broke all the time, long, miserably cold hours, stuff always breaking kind of farm) so I used to have an instant aversion to what I thought of as overeager "yuppie farmers". That is, until I moved off the farm into an apartment with NO LAWN AND NO GRASS and realized just how miserable life was without some form of self-sufficiency. Now I'm one of those "yuppie farmers" desperately trying to build a little More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jan 26, 2011

Melissa rated it:

A wonderful mix of how-to and storytelling, this book is a testament to the simple pleasures in life. Cunningly split into several chapters, it encompasses many aspects of farm life as seen through the authors eyes and performed by her hands.

The first chapter, Chickens, is exactly that. From her own experiences with chickens, to a basic guide on caring for them, this encompasses all of what it means to have a small flock of chickens. I enjoyed the stories of her chickens and their anti More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 28, 2010

Eileen rated it:

A quite basic but worthwhile book on homesteading. The main difference between this and many of the other contemporary homesteading/farming books I've read is the calm tone. While Woginrich certainly doesn't ignore the problems of farming, and gives many anecdotes of her failures, she also projects a "you can do this" attitude that actually pairs quite well with the simplicity of the discussion. Now, ok. I would definitely prefer to get far more information on a big swath of the su More...

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Jul 22, 2010

ICPL added it

Made From Scratch is a story about the author, Jenna, and her desire to do more things for herself–things such as growing and preparing her own food, making her own clothes, and creating her own music. She teaches herself about homesteading, and plunges in when she relocates to northern Idaho.

This is not a hippie commune in the backwoods—Jenna is a 26 year-old who is commuting five miles into the city to work at a graphic design job in a large corporation. She stresses that you do More...

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Oct 27, 2009

Jenna rated it:

Read this book if you check three more of the following:
__You want to raise hens and lay awake at night imagining how good their eggs will taste.
__You have untapped desires for shopping antique malls and acquiring old things.
__You are jealous of fancy-pants farmers who spend all day in their gardens and all winter spinning wool from sheep, but work a 40 hr. a week job.
__Reading about a flopped bee hive in this woman's backyard sounds interesting to you.
__You want to More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Jul 02, 2009

Andi rated it:

A couple of months ago Mother Earth News ran the introduction to Jenna Woginrich’s Made from Scratch: Discovering the Pleasures of a Handmade Life. I read the article as I sat in the eye doctor’s office waiting for my pupils to dilate. I can’t imagine a more pleasurable way to lock my eyes into a position that makes everything else foggy. Woginrich’s style and sensibility really stuck with me.

So last week, I went looking for her book, and lo and behold, my local library had several c More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jun 03, 2009

jess rated it:

I picked this up because Krista saw it somewhere and thought it looked good. Usually, by the time I end up reading a book I have no idea where the recommendation originated from, but in this case, I know it was definitely my wife. We got in queue at the library for this book, and waited for months. I guess it's pretty popular in Olympia lately.

I was pleased to find that this book is an accessible, clear, forthright memoir of one lady's efforts to become more self-sufficient. From cu More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Apr 20, 2009

Maya rated it:

The book is light, but infectious. Jenna Woginrich is so excited about all the self-sufficient and sustainable aspects of her life that you absolutely want to join her.

As a child my parents raised chickens and rabbits, and the occasional other animal (a duck, a flock of turkeys--turkey eggs have such a thick inner sac you have to cut it with a knife, but they are BIG). I loved it. I love fresh eggs, and I liked hunting around the yard for them. We raised big New Zealand rabbits, More...

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Apr 19, 2009

Jeannen rated it:

Let me preface this by saying that I grew up in a family of women making their own clothes and people singing and playing instruments. Also, I live in Seattle, where keeping chickens is not uncommon, there are enough beekeepers to support a beekeeping association, and gardening is rampant. So, many of the things Woginrich talks about as somewhat uncommon steps towards a more sustainable life just feel like parts of people's normal lives to me.

I love personal essays, and what I th More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jul 20, 2010

ebnewberry rated it:

While I agree with some of the reviews that the enthusiasm of the author is infectious, this book left me unsatisfied. Her anecdotes about how she got started in various parts of homesteading were very entertaining reading. I appreciate that she gives the good with the bad. I came out of this realizing that she's not very good at taking care of living creatures (except for her dogs). She killed two whole hives of bees, 5 chicks, and a rabbit. I therefore didn't feel that she was particularly aut More...

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Jun 23, 2010

Stacy rated it:

This was such a fun, informal read. Jenna’s writing style is loose, and the book is structured somewhat like reading a series of blog entries. She covers all of the different ways in which she has learned to be self-reliant while living in a rented house in Idaho: raising chickens (for eggs), baking bread from scratch, beekeeping (which she has yet to get the knack of), knitting with angora yarn spun from her own rabits, gardening in raised beds, buying old stuff (to be green and unique), playin More...

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May 19, 2010

Inder rated it:

After an amusing, promising start, this devolves into disorganized rambling about a variety of disconnected and increasingly ridiculous DIY projects, none of which seemed to be done particularly well. The author gets excited about but then fails at chickens, bees, and sewing, shares a recipe for basic (boring) white bread, and then goes on pointlessly about her antique cheese grater ... blah blah blah, who cares?

I skimmed a bit, and then I gave up entirely. I could really care less More...

0 comments like (5 people liked it)

Dec 16, 2009

Colleen rated it:

In Made from Scratch, Jenna Woginrich writes in simple, yet beautiful prose about her life as a homesteader: baking, raising animals, growing vegetables, keeping bees, even making music on a fiddle.

What I liked best about the book is her honesty. She's never done any of this before, but is willing to "Research, Son" and ask questions(and for help)like nobody's business. As she writes about her experiences, we learn that, while there are many, many joys to a more earth drive More...

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Feb 10, 2010

Matt rated it:

I enjoyed this book, but it was not exactly what I had hoped for. The sections where she talked about her experience with a topic were too short, in my opinion, and I wish they would have had better ties to the other chapters in order to give a better picture of what it was like to uproot your life like that. They seemed disjointed and out of order.

The book seems to place more importance on the "how to get started" sections after each chapter. The "resources" sect More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Apr 05, 2010

Happyreader rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

2 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jul 14, 2011

Jenn rated it:

although i did like this book, i really wish there were more to it. not quite a memoir, not quite a how-to guide, the book combines aspects of both. and i really think it would've been more compelling to focus on one or the other. in a lot of ways it was just way too superficial a treatment. but, i still enjoyed it and it wasn't nearly as pretentious as i'd feared and it did inspire me to seek out some similar reads.

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

May 04, 2011

Melissa rated it:

This was a pleasant and amusing read, but Woginrich's youth stuck me as a pivotal factor in my reaction to this book. First and foremost, she wrote it when she was 26. 26 now is so, so young to move from PA to TN to Idaho and set up camp on a farm, start raising chickens, rabbits, bees, and have a big garden while working a 9-5 job. I'm bowled over by her enthusiasm, stick-to-it-iveness, and frankly, her drive to live the life she wants to live. I have some similar goals, but at 36, living i More...

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May 22, 2009

Mo rated it:

I read most of this book during my work breaks, and it inspired endless hours of cubicle-bound daydreaming about sewing my own clothes, raising rabbits, and keeping chickens, all things that seem vastly more satisfying than spacing out in front of a computer all day in exchange for a paycheck.

The book is organized as a series of homesteading projects couched in Woginrich's own experiences with, for example, beekeeping or training dogs to pack, and she's hilarious and refreshingly ho More...

2 comments like

May 08, 2009

Sahara rated it:

I enjoyed this book very much, but I don't think its for everyone interested in the world of homesteading and DIY sustainability. I think the best audience for this book is young adults like the author herself and those who have almost no experience in homesteading topics. This a memoir with some how-to thrown in here and there. Because its a memoir, the author includes very specific hobbies and skills (dog packing and dulcimer playing) that may not be on everyone's to-do list. Its an inspirati More...

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