This handbook teaches the full range of crafts and skills necessary to producing food from the garden, and how to store and preserve the resources you have. There is a dedicated chapter on energy production and conservation and on building and craft skills, such as basketry and working wood.

"Nothing should be wasted on the self-sufficient holding. The dustman should never have to call," wrote John Seymour. This book leads the reader on the first steps to that more sustainable life "It is time to cut out what we do not need so that we can live more simply and happily. Good food, comfortable clothes, serviceable housing and true culture - those are the things that matter".