What are the best homesteading and off-grid magazines

[canfossi]

I am thinking of getting a homesteading magazine or an off-grid magazine, can you tell which would be the best 2 magazines. Thanks Chris

[Darren]

Homesteading means different things to different people. Following is a list of agriculture/self sufficiency magazines I've read over the past 30 years. Home Power is the off the grid magazine, I'd recommend. For "homesteading" topics the best is Countryside. Recognize that after a period of time any magazine will become somewhat stale as similar articles appear. Countryside isn't a slick magazine with more ads than written material. That's one of the reasons I look at it every month on the news stand. If I see something interesting that month, I buy it. I no longer subscribe to it. The only magazines I subscribe to now are Acres USA and Home Power.


The following is entirely my own absolutely biased opinion.

Small Farm Today http://www.smallfarmtoday.com/
Oriented to actually making a living off a small farm. The publisher is a farmer in Missouri.

Countryside http://www.countrysidemag.com/
Articles written by readers. A must have. The absolute best choice if you only get one. Best content month to month by far.

American Small Farm http://www.smallfarm.com/
This was Hobby Farm before the Hobby Farm magazine was published. Much closer to the bone than Hobby Farm. Factual articles.

Backwoodsman Magazine http://www.backwoodsmanmag.com/
Primitive arts and survival.

The Stockman Grass Farmer http://stockmangrassfarmer.net/
Making money by grazing animals on grass. Excellent for large stock operations. Useful for small operations too if you're raising livestock for sale.

ACRES USA http://www.acresusa.com/magazines/magazine.htm
Organic, biodynamic, anti-chemical. Again oriented to livestock operations. Their book catalog has titles you probably will not find elsewhere. Order a free copy. It will surprise you.

Backhome Magazine http://www.backhomemagazine.com/
This magazine was started by the original Mother Earth News magazine staffers when Mother Earth News was sold the first time. Somewhat like Mother Earth News.

Small Farmer's Journal http://www.smallfarmersjournal.com/
Farming with horses. Articles on old equipment and anything horse or oxen related to use non-tractor power.

Backwoods Home Magazine http://www.backwoodshome.com/
Somewhat like Mother Earth News with a survivalist tilt.

Hobby Farm http://www.hobbyfarms.com/
Slick magazine for newbies to farming with lots of money. Articles I read had factual errors. Writers seem to be assigned topics about which they have no experience.

[stargazer]

Another is Mother Earth News http://www.motherearthnews.com/

[Timberline]

We subscribe to Backwoods Home and Countryside. Have taken a lot of the others over the years, but these are the two we stick to. If I could afford only one, it would be Backwoods Home, because of Jackie Clay. She's awesome!!

[firegirl969]

I like Backswood Home and Countryside. I also get MEN, because the sold it last year on a fundraiser for $9 for the year and have read Backhome. I prefer the first two though.

[NWMO]

I truly enjoy Countryside magazine. It has such a wide variety of topics and regular columns that I enjoy reading. I would have to agree with the earlier post about Hobby Farm......very slick and glossy......but limited content and yes, factual errors.....very much geared toward "gentlemen farming"....it almost looks like an advertisement for John Deere or Kubota or Cub....pick the monthly advertiser. Great photos though.

[salmonslayer]

Farmshow is the best magazine for those that like to tinker and repurpose things. I also like Countryside, BackHome, and Grit.

[Vashti]

Thanks for this thread. I agree with the other posters about Hobby Farm...yuck. I have all the older Mother Earth News on disk and I love those older issues. The newer ones, not so much. I'm going to look into Countryside and Backwoods Home though, thanks to this thread.

We get MEN and it is getting very repetitive. same stories, same people, same ideas we are subscribed until April ... 2012...oops... may have to try some of these others.

[Nature Man]

Countryside & Small StocK Journal paid subscriber for past 30+ years. This is, in my opinion, the very best magazine for homesteaders, written by folks out there doing it. They also have a bookstore that sells homesteading and related books.

Bill

[Runestone]

Small Farm Canada...it's full of info for farming AND it's Canadian

www.smallfarmcanada.ca

[DW]

Countryside & Backwoods Home are the best. I've tried out most all others, too.

[Fae]

I subscribe to BackwoodsHome, Countryside, BackHome, Mother Earth News, Hobby Farm and Hobby Farm Home. I am letting the two Hobby Farms ones expire and if I could only have one it would be BWH. If I could have two it would include Countryside. I know a lot of people don't like MEN but they have a lot of good info IMO even though it is nothing like it was years ago.

[7thswan]

Countryside. Our local library sells all their mags. at the end of the year. You might want to try that for the ones you don't minding waiting to read.

[ronbre]

i like Mother Earth News and Mary Janes Farm is another good one..the latter is more for the ladies.

[Cabin Fever]

We subscribe to both Backwoodshome and Countryside. Of these tow, Backwoodshome is far superior in my opinion. Most of the articles in Countryside are wrtten by the readers, some are good and some are terrible and should never have been printed. For instance, two issues ago someone wrote an article about modifying a mauser rifle. In the last issuie, Countryside staff was blasted by several people saying the article should never of been printed because of safety concerns.

[Darren]

It goes without saying that no one should regard something in a magazine as a Bible so to speak. I read for ideas, different viewpoints, and something that shows vast experience. I read the Mauser article. That got a WTH! out of me.

Some of the publishers will send free copies. I know Acres USA will. For those of you that haven't seen it, get a free copy. I also suggest Permaculture Activist for specific topics. I recommend anyone reading this to go to their site and if you see a topic in their back issues that interests you, buy it. I've found some of my most useful books through those two publications. Depending on your viewpoint, you may find they make you feel uncomfortable. On the other hand you will find information you never knew existed.

[SolarGary]

Originally Posted by idigpotatoes

We get MEN and it is getting very repetitive. same stories, same people, same ideas we are subscribed until April ... 2012...oops... may have to try some of these others.

Hi,
I deal with Mother Earth News quite a bit. They are always looking for new ideas and new authors. If you have a good idea for an article, or want to take a cut at writing one, I guarantee they will give it a good look and use it if it fits with the magazine. They will even pay you for it!
They are a nice bunch of people to deal with.

Gary

[Beeman]

I go to the library and have access to all of them. None of them are worth the subscription price. I read National Geographic, it teaches more about life then anything.

[Harry Chickpea]

Magazines have a life cycle, and they also recycle old story ideas on an ongoing basis. If you pick up the CDs of the old Mother Earth News, The anthologies of the first Backwoods Home Magazines, and the CDs from the first few years of Homepower, you'll have more than enough solid reading material.

The current issues of TMEN tend to be more green politics, Homepower has become a magazine more designed for solar installers, and Backwoods has been primarily rehashing for the past few years.

I'm not sure what the survival rate of any of the magazines is going to be. A lot of the printed media is going belly up.