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Based on scientific and professional understanding of how to make quality alcohol in considerable quantities, this book is filled with detailed articles on distillation principles, how stills are designed for optimum production and several recipes for mashing corn. Other articles cover the complete process of making alcohol fuel. Also featured are plans for making several experimental stills, an 8-inch packed column still, mash cookers and other equipment for production of alcohol fuel. Detailed charts answer the many questions sure to be asked by the novice distiller.

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In her newest book, Hand Spun, art-yarn pioneer and Pluckyfluff creator Lexi Boeger offers yet another exciting collection of new and innovative spinning techniques. This well-rounded book also covers a handful of traditional styles for the spinner to master and then turn on their ear. The many uses of these beautiful one-of-a-kind yarns are demonstrated in Boeger's trademark, surprising, and inventive projects.

• Learn the basics of fiber prep, from washing raw fleece to carding techniques.
• Find out how to adapt basic spinning styles to create cutting-edge forms.
• Be inspired by a stunning gallery of hand-spun yarns that combine various techniques shown in the book.
• Get complete instructions for 20 fashion-forward, yet accessible, projects including chunky scarves, fabulous hats, a belt, a rug, boas, and more.

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This beautiful new book by 30-year-old writer and photographer Anna H. Blessing introduces readers to the story of the modern heartland farm. The book explores how sustainable practices--and close ties to high-profile chefs and restauranteurs--have propelled the "locally grown" culinary movement into a central feature of life in major cities like Chicago. Blessing lays out the rich histories of 25 midwestern farms through beautiful photography, fascinating anecdotes from farmers and chefs, and up-close looks at what makes each farm so unique.

Interest in sustainable farming has been growing rapidly across the country and around the world, emphasizing locally produced and grown foods in place of the mass-marketed offerings from corporate consortia. When inhabitants of major cities choose to purchase food raised in nearby farms, they not only support vital satellite economies, but also improve the social and ecological quality of life along with the environmental sustainability of the world around them.

Now there are also innumerable top-tier dining establishments, led by esteemed chefs like Charlie Trotter and Paul Kahan, who scour farmers markets for natural ingredients and develop personal business relationships with small-time farmers to supply their restaurants with the best and most sustainable foods. Locally Grown shows how both long-standing and newly founded farms, along with urban farms and metropolitan nonprofit organizations like Growing Power and City Provisions, are boosting the sustainable food movement throughout Chicago and its neighborhoods.

Each chapter profiles a different farm, outlining locale, scale, production, and inner workings while also revealing the captivating backgrounds of each farmer. Blessing shows how each farm and farmer are making efforts to improve sustainability, and describes the behind-the-scenes practices that have made locally grown food an increasingly important part of America's food culture.

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Jennie Grant is your average 40-something mother with a bungalow in Seattle's leafy Madrona neighborhood, a happy middle-school child, a tolerant husband, and a Pug named Eddie. She also happens to keep chickens and two goats, Snowflake and Eloise, and is regionally known as the passionate founder behind the Goat Justice League.

Since Grant began keeping goats several years ago, she has learned firsthand the remarkable benefits and beauty of keeping goats, how much healthier and easier to maintain a yard with goats can be, the tolerance levels of neighbors, the health benefits of non-industrial foods, and how interacting with goats inspires a connection to nature. City Goats: The Goat Justice League's Guide to Urban Goat Keeping is her step-by-step guide on raising a pair of dairy goats in your urban or suburban backyard, from city zoning and selecting goats to setting up your yard, building a shed, feeding and caring, kidding, and milking.

Practical and at times comical (just like a goat!), connected both to nature and city, and slightly rebellious- City Goats: The Goat Justice League's Guide to Urban Goat Keeping is a book for gardeners, people committed to eating locally, and anyone who has ever pondered joining the backyard goat revolution.

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Ever wanted to take a bicycle vacation? Go on a bike date? Convert your beater into a fixie? Or are you just curious about the anthropology of urban cycling culture? The Urban Biking Handbook teaches you the anatomy of your bike, how to dismantle it, how to reassemble it, how to make it pretty, how to make it ugly…and most importantly, how to make it yours. Bike your way through car-jammed cities, under overpasses, and over the hills and far away to a cyclist’s paradise.

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Winds sweeping through the Great Plains once robbed the Farm Belt of its future, stripping away overworked topsoil and creating the dreaded Dust Bowl of the 1930s. Today, those winds are bringing new hope to the declining rural communities of the central United States. Nowhere is wind’s promise more palpable than in Cloud County, Kansas, where the soaring turbines of the Meridian Way Wind Farm are boosting incomes and bringing green jobs to a community that has, for decades, watched its children drift away.

In Harvest the Wind, Philip Warburg brings readers face-to-face with the people behind the green economy–powered resurgence in Cloud County and communities like it across the United States. This corner of Kansas is the first stop on an odyssey that introduces readers to farmers, factory workers, biologists, and high-tech entrepreneurs—all players in a transformative industry that is taking hold across America and around the globe.

In this illuminating book, Warburg reveals both the remarkable growth of a breakthrough technology and the formidable challenges it faces. He visits epicenters of anti-wind opposition as well as communities that have embraced wind farms as neighbors. He guides readers through an Iowa turbine assembly plant that is struggling to compete in a global marketplace dominated by European and Chinese manufacturers. And he looks at the thousands of miles that wind-generated power will need to travel to reach American consumers.

Harvest the Wind is an earthly antidote to loftier treatises on global warming and green energy. By showing us how practical solutions are being implemented at the local level, Warburg offers an inspirational look at how we can all pursue a saner and more sustainable energy future—while at the same time investing in the nation’s infrastructure and jumpstarting its economy.

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Beekeeping equipment is expensive, but it's easy to make your own! Tony Pisano's step-by-step illustrated instructions show you how to build everything you need, including hive bodies, supers, covers, hive stands, frames, swarm catchers, feeders, and more. You can choose among different hive styles, and many of the 35 projects can be made using hand tools.

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Cycling Science tours readers through a wide variety of topics, from tire rolling resistance and the difference between yield strength and ultimate strength, to the importance of aerodynamics and the impact that shaved legs have on speed. Each chapter explores a different subject-fundamentals, strength and stability, materials, power, aerodynamics, and the human factor-and is organized around a series of questions: What is the ideal frame shape? What is the biggest source of drag? What keeps a bicycle from falling over? How much power can a cyclist produce? Which muscles does cycling use? Each question is examined with the aid of explanatory diagrams and illustrations, and the book can be used to search for particular topics, or read through for a comprehensive overview of how machine and rider work together.

Athletes have much to gain from understanding the science of their sports, and Cycling Science will be a must-read for cyclists of all stripes-professionals, recreational riders, and anyone seeking to enhance their enjoyment of cycling.