Robin Wall Kimmerer has been trained to ask questions of nature with the tools of science. As a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, she embraces the notion that plants and animals are our oldest teachers. In Braiding Sweetgrass , Kimmerer brings these two ways of knowledge together. Drawing on her life as an indigenous scientist, a mother, and a woman, Kimmerer shows how other living beings - asters and goldenrod, strawberries and squash, salamanders, algae, and sweetgrass - offer us gifts and lessons, even if we've forgotten how to hear their voices. In a rich braid of reflections that range from the creation of Turtle Island to the forces that threaten its flourishing today, she circles toward a central argument: that the awakening of a wider ecological consciousness requires the acknowledgment and celebration of our reciprocal relationship with the rest of the living world. For only when we can hear the languages of other beings will we be capable of understanding the generosity of the earth, and learn to give our own gifts in return.   

More and more consumers are seeking a healthier, greener, and more self-reliant lifestyle. There is also a growing movement of people interested in quality, handcrafted, local products. These introductory handbooks for the fast-growing self-sufficiency movement are now being published in paperback for the first time, at a lower, attractive price point. They offer accessible, practical advice on what to do, how to do it better, and how to save money. Food writer and culinary stylist Kathryn Hawkins covers all the basics readers need to start baking bread, including essential ingredients and their role in bread making, useful equipment, basic techniques, and 40 delicious recipes.