The do-it-yourself guide for converting your home to solar power Solar energy is clean, efficient, sustainable—and expensive. Or is it? Many homeowners simply assume that the cost of solar panels is out of their reach, but in reality, the technology is quickly becoming attainable for the middle class. Rather than leasing panels from one of those home solar startups (and letting them reap the financial benefits), why not join the thousands who are doing it themselves? In Solar Rooftop DIY, sustainable energy expert Mike Sullivan offers five design plans—ranging from a few simple panels to a complex, roof-covering array—for building a rooftop PV energy system for any home. Each plan has clear and detailed step-by-step photographs showing the installation process. Many of them require no additional labor—just a few days' commitment for the average weekend warrior. With energy costs only set to increase in the future, now is the time to make the switch to solar and start selling power back to the grid.

The do-it-yourself guide for converting your home to solar power Solar energy is clean, efficient, sustainable—and expensive. Or is it? Many homeowners simply assume that the cost of solar panels is out of their reach, but in reality, the technology is quickly becoming attainable for the middle class. Rather than leasing panels from one of those home solar startups (and letting them reap the financial benefits), why not join the thousands who are doing it themselves? In Solar Rooftop DIY, sustainable energy expert Mike Sullivan offers five design plans—ranging from a few simple panels to a complex, roof-covering array—for building a rooftop PV energy system for any home. Each plan has clear and detailed step-by-step photographs showing the installation process. Many of them require no additional labor—just a few days' commitment for the average weekend warrior. With energy costs only set to increase in the future, now is the time to make the switch to solar and start selling power back to the grid.

Here is the very best of backyard building: Popular building authors Jeanie and David Stiles—whose treehouse once garnered a spread in Architectural Digest—have gathered dozens of original plans for treehouses, playhouses, and sheds, as well as a summer house, tea house, garden arbor, and functional workroom. Backyard Building will cover backyard accessories, the fundamentals of tools and materials, and useful tips based on real-life questions from the couple’s popular website. Its unique style, with hand-drawn illustrations to guide the reader through the building process in a user-friendly way, stands out from the crowd. The clear, detailed drawings are not only easy to follow but a pleasure to look at; they are supplemented by irresistible color photographs.

Make your own dry-cured pork delicacies at home with the know-how you’ll learn from this book. Over the centuries, dry-cured pork has evolved as a food of the changing seasons. Its flavors are truly a taste of the landscape and climate, and they have served as a crucial, long-lasting food source for many cultures. Dry-cured pork is the ultimate slow food. It doesn’t need to be complicated but it’s important to have clear, step-by-step instructions. That’s where Hector Kent comes in. Kent, a science teacher by trade, has written the book he wished he’d had when he made his first prosciutto: One that brings together the critical components of curing in the simplest form possible, with photographs and illustrations to assure the reader of safe and delicious results. In addition to basic recipes, Kent offers readers interviews, advice, and recipes from several trend-setting dry-curing operations across the country.

The ultimate guide to putting up food. How many ways can you preserve a strawberry? You can freeze it, dry it, pickle it, or can it. Milk gets cultured, or fermented, and is preserved as cheese or yogurt. Fish can be smoked, salted, dehydrated, and preserved in oil. Pork becomes jerky. Cucumbers become pickles. There is no end to the magic of food preservation, and in Preserving Everything, Leda Meredith leads readers—both newbies and old hands—in every sort of preservation technique imaginable.

The complete guide to maintaining your own personal woods. Who owns our forests? We do. And it’s up to us to care for them. More than 10 million ordinary citizens own over half of the forestland in America. The vast majority of landowners want to do right by their land, but until now, there’s been no single resource to help them do so. Backyard Woodland is a comprehensive guide to nurturing the land in your care, from soil and water protection to fostering wildlife diversity and keeping the land whole. Backyard Woodland also features tips for the financial considerations that come from land-owning, including how to save money on your taxes and how to make some extra income from responsible timber sales and viable farming. Owning a piece of the forest is a rare privilege, and this complete guide will help you get the most out of the experience.

A comprehensive guide to selecting, cooking, and serving dozens of beans and legumes. Beans. Affordable, full of high-value protein, with a long-lasting shelf life, beans are versatile—equally delicious in stews or salads. And now we are learning to appreciate their worth as sustainability staples. Once pushed aside by Whole30 and Plant Paradox dieters, legumes have been rediscovered by home cooks everywhere. From common classics like black and pinto to heirloom beans like Appaloosa and Dapple Greys, The Mighty Bean, written by author Judith Choate, provides a never-ending collection of recipes to showcase these plant-based powerhouses. Including vegetarian, vegan, and meat-friendly recipes, The Mighty Bean inspires a new outlook on legumes. Enjoy them as appetizers such as a Spicy Bean Dip, savor nourishing mains like Ayocote Negro Chili, and delight in desserts including White Bean-Orange Cake. No matter the dish or time of day, the flexibility of beans is undeniable and, with vibrant color photography, irresistible.