Ben Falk's *The Resilient Farm and Homestead* has profoundly transformed my perspective on preparedness and homesteading. Among the numerous permaculture books available, this is the first one I've encountered that integrates permaculture principles with a preparedness mindset. As the owner of the Whole Systems Research Farm in Vermont's Mad River Valley, Falk brings practical experience to the table, having successfully implemented these principles on his own property.
In the video embedded below, you can get a glimpse into the operations at Whole Systems Design. Falk doesn't shy away from addressing the unsustainability of modern societal structures and prepares for potential collapse. He describes his book partly as a preparedness manual, emphasizing the necessity of self-reliance at both home and community levels to achieve a peaceful, just society.
Despite the gloomy portrayal often associated with doomsday preppers and survivalists, Falk presents a more optimistic vision. He reminds us that amidst the challenges, life inherently seeks to thrive. Building life and community are central to his philosophy.
Having lived on a five-acre homestead since 2017, I've experienced some success with gardening and tending to chickens, but achieving true self-reliance has been elusive. I am now determined to create a cohesive system that sustains my family.
For beginners interested in survival gardening, there are valuable resources available, such as our beginner’s guide.
Although Falk’s book doesn't provide all the answers I seek, it has shifted my mindset significantly, offering clarity on the steps I need to take. This review barely scratches the surface of the book's depth, as Falk covers numerous topics related to homestead resilience.
**Summary:**
- Falk emphasizes regeneration—creating abundant life on your homestead—as a cornerstone of resilience.
- A significant portion of the book focuses on designing landscapes that enhance soil health and resist drought.
- He advocates reconnecting with nature through activities like sleeping outdoors, opening windows, and engaging with steep terrain.
- Falk recommends scything as a sustainable alternative to mechanized mowing for managing grass and harvesting hay.
- The book explores food preservation techniques, suggesting lower-energy methods like drying and fermenting over resource-intensive canning.
- An entire chapter is devoted to wood as a versatile fuel source for heating, cooking, and preserving food.
- The appendices are particularly noteworthy, offering practical lists to enhance personal and homestead resilience.
**More:** Falk suggests learning basic first aid and water filtration skills. These are essential skills that you can acquire through our Austere First Aid and Water Essentials courses.
## Regeneration and Resilience
The book’s two core themes—regeneration and resilience—are introduced early on, with Falk arguing that they are deeply interconnected. Regenerative agriculture aims to actively improve the environment by building soil and enhancing biodiversity, contrasting sharply with traditional mechanized agriculture, which continues to degrade topsoil at an alarming pace.
In simpler terms, regeneration involves fostering life from decay, such as using compost to enrich raised beds for gardening. Falk believes that greater biodiversity leads to increased resilience. Living systems can evolve in complexity over time, whereas dead systems succumb to entropy. A diverse mix of crops is less vulnerable to pests or diseases compared to monocultures.
Falk's ideas have inspired me to think of my land as my personal "shopping mall," where I can grow food, medicine, and even craft items. His vision has rekindled my interest in green woodworking and growing perennial plants.
Beyond regeneration, Falk promotes several practices to boost personal resilience, including creating water and energy capture systems, utilizing wood grown on your land for heating, and gradually acclimating yourself to nature through outdoor living.
Falk provides a comprehensive list of guidelines that underpin the book:
1. Empower Yourself: Reskill and Reattitude
2. Establish a Land Base and Community: Put Down Roots
3. Harvest and Cycle Energy, Water, Nutrients
4. Develop Passive Shelter
5. Learn to Cultivate and Wild-Harvest Food, Medicine, and Fuel
### Permaculture Principles and Land Design
Permaculture is challenging to define succinctly due to its interdisciplinary nature. Briefly, it centers on creating living systems that minimize reliance on external inputs. Falk offers a detailed list of 72 points for both homestead design and lifestyle transformation. Key principles include maximizing output with minimal input, transforming waste into resources, and prioritizing biological complexity over technological sophistication.
Falk dedicates considerable attention to homestead design, explaining how to identify goals, map your property, and create a resilient setup. Emphasis is placed on reducing soil erosion and conserving water to ensure drought resilience. Swales, ponds, and rice paddies are among the strategies he advocates.
While some concepts, like clearing forests to dig swales, seem radical, they merit careful consideration. I personally found the idea of creating a pond intriguing and plan to explore it further.
## Seaberry: A Thorny Challenge
Falk champions seaberry bushes, highlighting their nutritional and ecological benefits. These bushes produce citrus-flavored berries rich in vitamin C and other health-promoting compounds. Unlike typical citrus plants, seaberries can thrive in harsh climates and enrich poor soils. However, Falk somewhat overlooks the significant drawback: the bushes are densely thorny. Kevin Wallace shares his frustrations, noting the thorns' ability to puncture tires, making them ideal for natural fencing but requiring caution in placement. Harvesting is also labor-intensive, as evident in Falk’s video.
## Grazing, Scything, and Mowing
Falk discusses animal husbandry extensively, sharing his experiences with goats and chickens. While interesting, these insights might not translate directly to everyone’s context. Silvopasture, combining livestock with fruit and nut trees, is appealing, but fencing must be robust.
Falk stresses the importance of regular mowing to maintain biodiversity. Letting fields revert to forest can reduce plant diversity and make reclaiming pastures difficult. Initially skeptical of mowing, Falk learned this lesson the hard way.
He recommends scything as a resilient mowing technique. European-style scythes require minimal maintenance, relying on peening and sharpening rather than grinding. Although I initially viewed scything as impractical, Falk’s advocacy convinced me otherwise. I recently purchased a Canadian-made scythe from Scythe Works, Falk’s recommended vendor. This decision proved wise after breaking my old American-style scythe.
## Food Preservation Beyond Canning
Falk briefly addresses food preservation, but his insights were transformative. Previously, canning was our primary method, but Falk highlights its drawbacks: it’s energy-intensive, time-consuming, and best suited for summer, when you'd rather be outdoors. Instead, he advocates for drying and fermenting, which are low-effort and energy-efficient. We’re experimenting with these methods this season, given our newborn and my wife’s limited time.
Falk isn’t entirely dismissive of canning, using it occasionally for pickles and hot sauces. Still, it’s not his go-to approach.
## Wood Heat
Another resilient system Falk recommends is a wood stove, serving multiple purposes: heating, cooking, and even heating water. He also mentions biochar production and food drying as additional uses.
The chapter on wood heat is thorough, covering everything from splitting and stacking wood to efficiently operating a stove. Falk advises planting fast-growing species like black locust for fuel. While growing your own fuel is appealing, concerns remain about safety, especially in my current home with combustible materials and rambunctious kids. If I ever build anew, though, it will definitely be considered.
For now, we rely on a propane heater, which we recommend in our guide to portable space heaters.
## The Appendices
The appendices are some of the most valuable sections of *The Resilient Farm and Homestead*. Unlike many books where appendices serve as an afterthought, these feel like a roadmap for another book. Falk hints at a future preparedness-focused book, but *The Resilient Farm and Homestead* remains his sole publication on the topic thus far.
There are seven appendices:
**Appendix A** is a resiliency aptitude quiz assessing physical and mental states alongside homestead skills like animal husbandry and construction. It’s a helpful tool for self-assessment and improvement.
**Appendix B** offers a concise curriculum for homestead design, guiding you through inventorying plants, identifying sunny spots, and planning layouts. Beginners overwhelmed by design tasks should start here.
**Appendix C** is a critical skill list for emergencies, covering food growth, hunting, wildcrafting, first aid, and more. Falk identifies the “durable ten,†essential skills for survival:
1. Making and maintaining fire
2. Finding and securing water
3. Germinating seeds and growing vegetables
4. Building soil
5. Storing food without electricity
6. Planting and raising trees
7. Felling and processing wood
8. Basic carpentry: framing, masonry, structures
9. Building stone walls
10. Hunting, fishing, and foraging
**Appendix D** lists recommended tools and materials for individual homesteads and communities, including brand suggestions.
**Appendix E** is a homestead vulnerability checklist and strategy summary, offering tips on survival crops, long-term food storage, generators, and more.
Falk demonstrates his homestead’s resilience in a video showing him living comfortably despite a power outage in freezing Vermont conditions.
**Appendix F** is a glossary of specialized terms used throughout the book.
**Appendix G** compiles resources, including daily practices like outdoor exercise and recommended books, essays, and videos for further learning.
Referencing these appendices frequently, along with the foundational principles on pages 32–45, will aid your resilience journey and help fortify your homestead.
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