Hostessing and food prepping have been gaining popularity speed with this uncertain times so this book is really hitting this popularity trend. It's full of information about all that requires diving into homesteading and offers many helpful tips providing useful information for their readers proving this book is a powerful and essential tool. I liked that it was easy to read and understand, and that it even provides great visuals and guidelines.

I did not expect this to be so comprehensive and rich.
Think of basic cooking, conserving, baking skills and couple them with some more nuanced advice and techniques on more about being a self-dependent household.
If you can ignore some health advice or double-check them before you take them as accurate, this is a wonderful book that has great recipes for sauces, information about produce, and how to run a house and how to make it home.

This is a good cookbook, gardening guide and preservation guide if you are brand new to the topics. There are basic recipes for things like tortillas, bagels, pancakes, roast chicken and mashed potatoes, along with basic instructions for making homemade versions of things like yogurt and hot cocoa mix and a fair amount of standard canning recipes. Keep in mind that these tend to be very high in sugar, often more sugar than fruit since she doesn’t use pectin. There is also information about keeping chickens for eggs, stocking a survival pantry and a few other homestead topics.

The recipes tend to be for SAD (standard American diet) cooking –– lots of breads, cake, meat and potatoes kind of stuff, especially for bread products.

She recommends einkorn flour and erroneously says that it is safe for people with celiac disease, which is absolutely untrue and dangerous advice. While this kind of flour is more easily digested it still contains gluten and I double checked on the celiac association website and they say it is definitely not safe. She writes:

“As a result, it’s been my experience that even those with Celiac disease can easily tolerate and process einkorn flour! Over the last twelve years, we have been blessed to help more than sixteen million people with Celiac disease or gluten sensitivity learn how to bake with einkorn flour, including three diagnosed Celiacs in our own family. While I have only ever heard from people with Celiac disease that they were able to enjoy einkorn without consequences, it is possible that some with the disease may not be able to tolerate it fully. However, I have watched customers hold an EpiPen, due to their past severe reactions to wheat, while taking a bite of an einkorn pastry and they had no reaction to einkorn!”

I don’t even know where to start with this. How has this woman interacted with 16 million people with celiac and gluten sensitivity???? Verywellhealth says about 2 million people in the USA have celiac and while we know that more people have sensitivity, I’ve never even heard of this woman who claims she’s seen 16 million allergic people eat einkorn wheat. And people with celiac disease are not even helped by EpiPens, since it is an autoimmune disease and not an anaphylactic reaction.

All that aside, this is a great starter guide for those new to urban homesteading, baking, canning, etc and there were sections I really enjoyed. Recommended specifically for newbies who enjoy a traditional American diet and would like to start living a more self sufficient lifestyle.

I read an advance copy of this book via netgalley.

Creating a Modern Homestead is a great read for anyone who is considering growing their own food or wanting to limit preservatives in their families diet. Full of the basics including; from scratch cooking, how to can/preserve food, and making sourdough. Everything is broken down into manageable steps.

There are so many useful recipes in this book!! Things that I had never thought about like homemade condiments.

I really enjoyed the questions listed before getting started and the mentioning of trial and error! Not everything will work out the first time perfectly for everyone.

Thank you to NetGalley & Globe Pequot for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

For anyone who has ever dreamed of slowing down, growing their own food, or just ditching processed stuff for a more intentional way of living, without having to move to a 40 acre farm in the middle of nowhere, this book is for you.

Victoria Pruett does such a great job of breaking down homesteading into manageable, real life steps that feel accessible no matter where you live (yes, even in a small backyard or an apartment). Her tone is friendly and encouraging, never judgmental, and she’s honest about the fact that most of us don’t have eight hours a day to bake bread or grow tomatoes.

From sourdough tips and scratch recipes to gardening basics, canning, and raising backyard chickens, she covers a lot of ground without making it overwhelming. I especially loved the deep pantry tips and the reminder that food security doesn't have to mean prepping for the end of the world, but it can just mean peace of mind for your family.

If you're even a little curious about how to bring more simple, self-sufficient habits into your life, whether it’s growing herbs on a windowsill or trying out your first loaf of homemade bread, then this book is a great place to start. It’s both practical and inspiring, and I’m definitely bookmarking a bunch of sections to return to.

Highly recommend for anyone craving a slower, more grounded lifestyle without having to go totally off grid.

Thank you to NetGalley, Victoria Pruett, and Lyons Press for the eARC of this book.

Thank you so much to NetGalley, Victoria Pruett and Lyons Press.

Creating a Modern Homestead shows us that we can go back to a slower way of life, a more self-sufficient way of life, a healthier way of life, even if we can’t live in the country. This book is a must have for anyone wanting to learn the basics of from scratch cooking, preserving food, stocking a pantry, making your own sourdough, or even raising your own chickens.