Growing your own food has become popular for several reasons; price, knowing the source of your food, or wanting to return to how it used to be done. Regardless of why, this book has information that you can use. It covers topics that will help you prepare for planting, making the garden and growing the food, and then what to do with the produce afterwards. It includes tips on keeping pests at bay and making sure pollinators visit your plants.

No matter your interest level in gardening, you can find something useful in this book.

I received a free copy from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

*received for free from netgalley for honest review* This book set isn't in my opinion meant to be used, most of it is obviously outdated, other things are down right dangerous but entertainment wise these are good books to have lying around

This book was a really enjoyable read. It was very well thought out with great tidbits and old-timer wisdom. Fasinating read for any history lover and those that enjoy reading of a simpler time.

This is the second book written by Jerry Mack Johnson that I’ve been given the opportunity to review. Like the other book, Home and Hearth, I enjoyed this one very much. The presentation is the same and the content just as interesting and informative.

This has been an enjoyable books. All the different things they have put is very intriguing and things that will come to mind when needed. I appreciate the old-timers wisdom and being reminded of the simple living that was once here. Highly recommend to have for information you might not find anywhere else and all together.

Old-Time Country Wisdom and Lore for Garden and Trail is a reformat and re-release of almanac information from the 1970s originally written by Jerry Mack Johnson and edited/curated by Jeff McLaughlin. Originally released in the 70's, this re-release from Quarto on their Voyageur Press imprint 12th Oct 2021 is 176 pages and is available in paperback and ebook formats.

This is a wide-ranging collection of "Old Farmer's Almanac" type of wisdom and trivia. The tips and tricks are very roughly arranged thematically: nature trail (weather wisdom, moon lore, and water watching), flora & fauna (trees, flowers, creatures, birds, and bugs), and finally fishing hunting & leisure pursuits (fishing, hunting, and gear).

There are some good science based tips and observations included here but they are blended willy-nilly with old wives & farmers tales without regard to the veracity of any of the claims.

The graphics are simple with old fashioned monochrome illustrations and line drawings throughout. This would be a good selection for the smallholder's winter home library reading, allotments, fans of old farmer's almanac type publications, and similar.

Three and a half stars. It's of limited practical use, but will be enjoyed by people who remember the old almanacs fondly.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

Filled full of wonderful almanac information. Many old school hacks that I never heard of until now.

A book pretty much all about the outdoors (and about pretty much all the outdoors) that could easily leave you housebound with its welter of trivia, curious elements and esoterica. We start with weather lore, and despite lots of agreement about 'rain before seven, fine after eleven' and 'red skies in the morning' I cannot see this American book being dead accurate for the UK, or vice versa. Once we've been told what we can and can't plant, harvest or expect due to the phases of the moon and our star signs, and see a calendar of when migratory birds should turn up and leave, we get the feel this is a hunter/farmer's almanac, but we're soon back on the more historical side of things, being told the uses of all the trees and reminded of agrimony lemonade. Someone here has certainly considered the armadillo more than I ever would have expected (quails and small birds would thank you for them, as the ants the beasts eat only get on the gamebirds' nerves). This being such a sort-of Victorian advice book, there are no embedded links to buyanarmadillo.com, mind, so more fool me for not knowing a breeder of them.

All told this has to go down as a major success, however perfectly accurate (or not) all the advice is. How to make snowshoes, a large essay on water dowsing, and turtle soup recipes are all here – and that's the breadth you cannot mock.

This book and its newly released companion are based on books that the original author wrote in the 1970's. He is long dead, and most of the "wisdom" in here is squarely in the old wives tale camp. Despite the name, very little of it pertains to gardens other than quite a bit about planting by the moon and astrological signs. A lot of it has to do with trapping, hunting, fishing, etc. but it's not real advice there on how to do it but more like old timers' supposed tricks like for best hunted squirrel taste you're supposed to shoot the bark from right below squirrels in the tree and kill them from fall, but otherwise shoot them directly in the left eye. Or if you reach right into a skunk's den and pull it out by its tail and club it in the head quickly, it's not likely to scent or attack you. Likewise, after gutting your freshly killed deer (no information on how to actually do this), let the blood coat the inside of the carcass so it makes a thick layer that flies can't lay eggs in. 🤢

There is some good scientific information on types of clouds and there's a ton of weather lore, but it's all mixed up between actually accurate stuff and old wives' tales that are utter nonsense like if it rains on a Sunday it will rain more the rest of the week. Some of it is accurate but he doesn't ever tell you why, like when there's a lot of humidity in the air it's likely to rain and a hundred tips are just variations of things that happen when it's damp, but mixed in with hundreds more like if a cat cleans herself then bad weather is coming (so does this mean bad weather is always coming? had he met cats?), especially if she cleans "against the grain," or if a dog shuns meat, digs holes, or eats grass in the morning then rain is coming. Then there's detailed information on things like understanding barometers which is actually valid and educational. The result is that if you actually take the time to read this book you will come away mostly full of nonsense but feeling like you know it all.

Like its companion, it gives some advice that's dangerous and lots of advice that's ridiculous. This one offers a lot less advice that will kill you or your family since it doesn't focus on "healing." It does talk about plant uses and this was a terrible disappointment to me because I love using herbs and other plants. The "uses" here were more along the lines of superstition and there is next to no real herbal information.

It's obvious that the author collected a lot of the "wisdom" from other sources rather than really growing up doing it, because a lot of it is just wrong. For instance, he says that acorns make a good coffee substitute if you roast and then boil them, with no mention at all of the basic step first of leaching out the bitter tannins. Anyone who's actually made acorn coffee knows this. Again and again, I saw mention of things I knew about that were obviously just repeated without the full information of someone who actually used the information. And the best information on every subject was generally missing. The paragraph on elderberries dealt with making a tea from the "buds" for colds (actually, this should be the flowers) and then dealt with superstition and a recommendation of using the berries for wine, with nothing about elderberries most popular historical use in treating ailments like the flu. The same could be said on most of the other herbs that he gives short bits of information on, from nettles to ground ivy.

The author's biography says "Jerry Mack Johnson grew up on a ranch in West Texas and worked as a cowboy, rodeo clown, professional bull rider, miner, prospector, merchant seaman, oilfield worker, catfish farmer, salesman, and school teacher. He was the author of numerous books of lore, including Down Home Ways, Country Wisdom, and Country Scrapbook." He seems like he was an interesting man but these are not books to use if you want to actually learn how to do most traditional skills. Even the small print at the start of the book says its offered for historical information and that the publishers aren't liable for any harm that comes to you if you actually try any of it.

The really sad thing is that real old time wisdom is often so helpful and valid, and there really is a need for it these days. Unfortunately, Johnson's books offer little more than entertaining folklore wrapped up with a bit of accidental truth.

I read a temporary digital ARC of this book for review.

I loved this! It made me feel very much Barbara Good from the old BBC sitcom. I will definitely be buying these for my mother as a Christmas gift. So many fab hints & tips. Great book

Covid 19 and all the unpleasantness surrounding it, has made many of us dream of being more self sufficient. Now, almost two years into a pandemic that seems to have no end, we are still suffering from breakdowns in supply chains that result in empty shelves at the grocery store. Here, readers will learn how to grow and preserve their own food, reducing waste, carbon emissions and pesticides. An informative and enjoyable read

Thoroughly enjoyed this book, fantastic tips to try, nature at her finest, along with memories of old wives tales and woodland advice., remembrance of bygone times. Long forgotten, but now remembered I will be trying them out again. A great collection.

I received this book for free for an honest review from netgalley #netgalley

Such great information! It really helped my family with how we love to live.

I'm a fan of gardening and I loved old time almanac. This book was a pleasant read, informative and I loved the illustrations.
It was a bit hard to read in electronic format and I think I will buy a paper copy.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine