A Year in an Off-Grid Kitchen: Homestead Kitchen Skills and Real Food Recipes for Resilient Health
By Kate Downham
This beautiful and informative book is like a match made in heaven of Sally Fallonβs Nourishing Traditions cookbook and Jessica Prenticeβs Full Moon Feast, with a twist of surΒvival handbook. Woven amid all the clear and practical recipes to nourish your body is homage to natureβs beauty, which will nourish your soul. Each organized-by-season section begins with a stunning full-page photo and lyrical writing that effectively transports you into that time of year. I can just imagine her Australian accent as I read from the introduction to Early Spring:
βThereβs a lightness stirring the air. The ice-cold winds still chill us, but on the ground, life is stirring as the sun grows higher in the sky each dayβ¦ In the wild and in the garden, leaves are growing. Lush, green, nutrient-dense growth is found everywhereβ¦ The hens respond to the lengthening daysβ¦ And eggs taste at their best at this time of yearβrich, creamy, full of flavour, and so fresh. The nourishment from these eggs is needed for the next few months of garden work, and eating these eggs I can almost feel the goodness flowing through me, energisΒing me for the next tasks at hand and giving us hope that we can do this.β
Throughout this book, Downham invites you into her simple existence in her simply beauΒtiful world. Built on a foundation of permaculΒture principles, she has created an autonomous life that is fueled by grass-fed animal fat and dedicated to reliance on nutrient-dense foods. Her seasonally appropriate eating suggestions entice us into this way of living with her βreΒsilient recipesβ that are simple to follow, use local and staple foods, nourish good health and energy, and delight the taste buds.
Anyone attempting to follow WAPF lifeΒstyle recommendations will find something valuable. βWays to Make Real Foods Work in Real Lifeβ includes topics like saving time, avoiding burnout, saving money, and a thought-provoking perspective on meal planning. Throughout, other recipes and suggestions offer ways to use up leftovers, tips for making apple cider or vinegar from apple cores, and everyΒthing you need to know about perpetual broth.
Her passion for independent living will apΒpeal not only to those interested in an off-grid lifestyle, but anyone who wants to be prepared for emergency situations and inevitable periodic power outages. Practical and instructive secΒtions on βFridge-Free Livingβ and βCooking on a Wood Stoveβ invite us into her world that is refreshingly free of an over-consumption mindset. She says, βItβs a wonderful feeling to work with the patterns of nature and live in a seasonal wayβ¦ When we expect nature to be at our beck and call, and for technology to serve all our whims, something special is lost.β Thereβs even a section on foraging that focuses on the most common and easiest to identify edible and nutritious weeds and seaweeds. This includes pictures, harvesting and drying tips, and recipes.
For those with access to local farm food, this book is a treasure. Even as a twenty-five year veteran of making cheese from my own Jerseyβs milk, the section on cheese making and using fresh dairy had useful information for me. Downham covers making yogurt, kefir and simple cheeses; traditional canning and preserving and lacto-fermentation. And while this may not be for everyone, the Late Autumn section gives a step-by-step process of butcherΒing a pig!
The one downside to this book is that the sweetener often used is honey. This is underΒstandable because itβs a great local option. HowΒever, as a beekeeper and student of Ayurvedic medicine, I would not endorse destroying honeyβs precious enzymes with heating. That said, this beautiful cookbook and practical homesteading guide gets a big thumbs up!
This article appeared in Wise Traditions in Food, Farming and the Healing Arts, the quarterly journal of the Weston A. Price Foundation, Summer 2025
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