Another fine resource for the city-dwelling homesteader is Make the Bread, Buy the Butter by Jennifer Reese (Free Press, New York, 2011). Ms. Reese is a professional journalist and home cook. After being laid off from her job in 2008, she was concerned about living frugally, and assumed that making everything from scratch would help. Or would it? This kicked off an ongoing project to find the sweet spot between buying and making. And she tried it all - raising chickens, making cheese, baking bread, canning, and preserving.
The book includes twenty chapters, with names like Breads and Spreads, From Beak to Tail, Cured Meats, Goats, Canning, and Having People Over. In each chapter, Reese reviews several items (such as bread, French fries or applesauce), and then recommends whether to make or buy the item. Her criteria are flavor, hassle, and cost. She typically has strong make or buy opinions, but sometimes recommends doing both. Other times she recommends getting the item from a deli or food truck instead; or even making it once for the experience, and buying it thereafter. In the backmatter, Reese summarizes her experience (hint: it's OK to buy), shares a recipe from her mother (Skippy's Apricot Cake), and provides resources for cheesemaking, meat curing, and baking supplies.
I really enjoyed Reese's warm and funny writing style, and her thorough. hands-on approach to research. Not only does she experiment in the kitchen, but she turns their urban lot into small farm raising chickens, ducks, and goats. I especially enjoyed her thoughts on entertaining in Having People Over, and agree with her take in Breakfasts that you should make yogurt and not buy it (see Homesteading: Making Yogurt). As planned, I made her butterscotch pudding recipe in Desserts, and agree with Reese's assessment - it is definitely a recipe to make if you have a few extra minutes to spare!
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