The Hands-On Home

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A Seasonal Guide to Cooking, Preserving & Natural Homekeeping

by Erica Strauss

Discover a practical, modern guide to sustainable living with The Hands-On Home—perfect for families, beginners, and anyone ready to build real life skills at home.

Whether you’re interested in homesteading, simplifying your routines, or creating a meaningful home school experience, this hands-on resource helps you take control of everyday essentials.

What you’ll learn:
• Cook with confidence
Stock your kitchen, plan meals, and prepare simple, family-friendly recipes using seasonal ingredients.
• Preserve food the practical way
Master water-bath canning, pressure canning, and fermentation with a clear, seasonal calendar—ideal for homesteading and reducing waste.
• Create natural home & body products
Make safe, non-toxic essentials like cleaners, bath items, and laundry solutions.

Why families love this book:
• A powerful tool for teaching life skills through hands-on learning
• Perfect for homeschooling or adding depth to a home economics curriculum
• Encourages independence, creativity, and real-world knowledge
• Helps save money while reducing reliance on store-bought goods

Designed for beginners and experienced makers alike, this guide blends inspiration with practical instruction you can use year-round.

Build confidence, self-sufficiency, and essential life skills—one season at a time.

Sep 29, 2015 | Price: $35.00

"A lifestyle guide for eco-conscious consumers."
—Publishers Weekly

"This title enables an easy start down the path to a homemade, fun, environmentally responsible lifestyle. Home cooks will discover fresh recipes and adopt techniques the author shared from her professional kitchen experience."
—Library Journal

"Offers tips for sustainability-minded modern homemaking. With recipes and instructions for 'urban homesteading,' this book explores reducing consumption and living healthfully."
—Alaska Beyond, Alaska Airlines magazine

"Strauss chronicles her homemade life in The Hands-On Home. The beginner-friendly book features 77 food recipes (think green herb lamb chops with preserved lemon oil) and 38 home and body-care recipes."
—Seattle Magazine

"[Erica Strauss is] something like a one-woman Sunset magazine for home cooks and gardeners in the Seattle region. In this "seasonal guide to cooking, preserving, and natural home keeping" she relays recipes and advice for making your kitchen and home as DIY as you like, from making your own tortillas to making your own toothpaste. An attractively photographed, empowering doorstop of a book, whether readers want to learn canning or want to change their lives."
—The Seattle Times

"The book is separated by season, offering simple tips and tricks for the quiet, cozy activism of taking back your home, from seasonal recipes and preserving tips to guides to making your own Bronners-style Castile soap, DIY oven cleaner, and lip balm."
—Portland Monthly

"The Hands-On Home by Erica Strauss is a practical primer for modern, natural homesteading with advice on cooking, preserving, cleaning, and personal care. Organized by season, it offers a years’ worth of do-able projects for DIY living, plus enticing recipes like Swiss Chard Gratin and Short Ribs in Red Wine."
—Yahoo! Food

"Erica Strauss acts as your seasonal guide to cooking, cleaning and caring for yourself and your family in a more active way, and making your house truly feel like a home."
—Red Tricycle

"[The] bath bombs are fun to make and the reward for your efforts is a long soak in a heavenly scented bath. Kids love them and if you can bear to give them away, they make great gifts."
—The Simple Things

"[The Hands-On Home] includes creative, money-saving tips covering just about every aspect of homekeeping."
—Allrecipes.com

"Pinterest-perfect craft[s] that are as useful as they are cute."
—Mother Earth News