**This giveaway is now closed. Congrats to Emily (emjay…)! Sure wish I could have given a copy to everyone who entered. Better luck next time!!

Storey Publishing has come out with a wonderful new book titled The Chicken Encyclopedia. If you own chickens, or are thinking of getting them anytime soon, this book is an absolute MUST HAVE.

Have a chicken question?  The Chicken Encyclopedia has your answer!  From addled to wind egg, crossed beak to zygote, this A-to-Z reference guide provides everything you ever wanted to know about chickens in a browsable format with visually informative full-color photos and illustrations throughout.

Covering everything from breed descriptions to behaviors, in-depth entries by best-selling author and highly respected chicken expert Gail Damerow go beyond simple definitions to include instructions, explanations, solutions to common problems, and even fun, historical breed stories.  At a time when interest in raising chickens is skyrocketing and backyard chicken coops are popping up across the country, The Chicken Encyclopedia is destined to become the go-to resource for anyone who wants to “talk chicken” – beginner, chickophile, owner, and enthusiast alike.

I have learned so much already just browsing this book. I know you’ll love it as much as I do!

Wanna win a copy of your own? Thanks to the generous people with Storey Publishing, I have an extra copy to giveaway to one lucky reader! Yay!

Here’s how to win…

Simply leave a comment letting me know you’re interested!!

*Bonus entries: For extra chances to win…

1. “Like” New Life on a Homestead on Facebook

2. “Share” this giveaway on Facebook

3. Tweet about the giveaway

4. Blog about the giveaway

Please leave a separate comment letting me know each of the additional entries completed.

I’ll choose one random winner on Wednesday, April 18th at 9pm EST. Open to US only.

Good luck!

*This giveaway is now closed. Congratulations to Leah L! And a big thanks to everyone who entered.*

Have you ever looked at those table scraps and vegetable trimmings and felt a pang in your gut like you knew you could be using them for something, but just didn’t know how?

Author and mother, April Patel from An Apple a Day Wisdom, has written a new ebook Don’t Compost It, Cook It,  in which she shares some great tips for using up those discarded peels and scraps to make new meals!

This 40+ page ebook is packed with recipes and inspiration to help you transform your habit of tossing trimmings into getting the most you can from that food before sending it in the bin.

AND… April would like to kick off her publication by offering one of you the chance to win your own downloadable copy for free!

Of course, if you don’t win you could always go to her site and order the book yourself. From April 15th-21st you can even snag a copy for a special introductory price of only $3.99!

Want a copy?? Here’s how to win:

Simply leave a comment here letting me know you’re interested!!

*Bonus entries: For extra chances to win…

1. “Share” this giveaway on Facebook

2. “Like” An Apple a Day Wisdom on Facebook

3. Subscribe to April’s Newsletter

I’ll choose one random winner on Sunday, April 15th at 9pm EST. Open to anyone. Good luck!

**This giveaway is now closed. Congratulations to Kimberly in NC, you’re the lucky winner!

There are definitely perks that come along with blogging my life to the world. Like this one:

Would you like to sample our delicious gourmet brownies?

Um. I’ll just be camping out at the mailbox for the next few days. Thank you.

And yes. They were SO worth it. They were gone by the next afternoon. Sorry hubs, you snooze you lose!

And because I love you so much… and because the generous people at Gourmet Gift Baskets offered… one of you will get to enjoy your very own sampler of six UH-MAZING brownies as well.

You’ll wanna grab a glass of cold milk for these…

• Belgian Chocolate Chunk
• White Chocolate Macadamia Blonde
• Butterscotch Blonde
• Cheesecake
• Peanut Butter
• Fudge Walnut

Try not to eat them all in one sitting.

Here’s how to win:

You must complete one of the first three entry methods to get your name in the hat.

You may complete any of the additional options for extra chances to win.

Please be sure to leave a separate comment for every entry method you complete. If you only leave one comment where you list every method you completed, it will be counted as one entry.

1. “Like” Gourmet Gift Baskets on Facebook

2. Follow Gourmet Gift Baskets on Twitter

3. Go to their website, find a product you love, then click on the Google+ icon

*Bonus entries: Share this giveaway on Facebook, Twitter, or your blog! Each share is worth an extra entry.

One winner will be chosen at random on Thursday, April 12th at 9pm EST. Open to US only.

Good luck!! And you’re welcome.

*This giveaway is now closed. Thanks to everyone who entered! Congratulations goes out to Todd (toddaoli…)!

Wonderful news! In light of my recent review of this book, the wonderful Chaya at Pantry Paratus has so generously offered to giveaway one copy of The Edible Front Yard to one of my loyal readers!

I know you’ll love this book.

Here’s how to enter:

You must do one of the first three entry methods. Each additional method completed will count as an extra entry.  The more you do, the better chance of winning!

*Please remember to leave a separate comment for each completed entry.

1. “Like” Pantry Paratus on Facebook

2. Subscribe to their newsletter (via their website or Facebook)

3. Tweet or post on FB a link to www.pantryparatus.com

4. Share this giveaway on your Facebook wall.

Open to US only. I’ll choose one random winner on Wednesday, April 11th at 9pm EST. Good luck!

Put the fruits of your labors front and center! With plentiful sun, open space, and an audience of appreciative passersby, the front yard has all the ingredients for a beautiful and bountiful garden. Let famed blogger and garden designer Ivette Soler show you how to make over all or part of that space — too often simply unused or purely decorative — into a gorgeously designed oasis of fruits and vegetables that will be the envy of the neighborhood.

The Edible Front Yard combines the loveliest and tastiest edibles and ornamentals in a garden that is a year-round feast for the eyes. Soler teaches all the tricks, from laying out the design and choosing the best front yard plants, to clear instruction for a bounty of exciting projects like a fragrant carpet of herbs, a trellis privacy screen using runner beans, and an eye-catching raised bed that turns your “hell strip” into a little patch of paradise. From the curb right up to your front door, the information in these pages includes everything you need to have a beautiful front yard and eat it too!

The wonderful people at Timber Press recently supplied me with a copy of one of their new books, The Edible Front Yard, for review. And I was super excited to get my hands on it, seeing as my pitiful front yard doesn’t at all resemble the Eden I imagine it to be one day!

Forget plain ‘ole grass you have to mow once a week… I wanna be able to walk amongst a jungle of beautiful foliage, nibbling at this and that as I go. I want an edible front yard!

Unfortunately, I have no talent whatsoever for arranging plants. It’s all a bit overwhelming to me. I have no idea what plants will do the best where, and I am completely at a loss when it comes to designing the layout.

And so you can imagine how eager I was to stick my nose in this book and read it from cover to cover! That is, after I flipped through it, drooling over all of the gorgeous full-color photos first.

What an inspiring read!!

I am completely motivated to start working my edibles into my landscaping design. I’ve been wanting to do something like this for as long as we’ve lived here, I just had no clue where to start.

What I loved the most about The Edible Front Yard was that Ivette spends a lot of time highlighting many particular plants, explaining the best way to grow them, how to harvest them, and what you can expect the mature plant to look like. She also gives helpful examples of which plants go well together.

But chapter five was my absolute favorite. I literally squealed with excitement when I came upon the page titled, Edible Front Yard Garden Designs. This was exactly what I needed to get an idea of how to arrange things in my front yard.

This book truly covers everything you need to get started with your own edible landscape. Highly, highly recommend it.

It isn’t often that I link to another giveaway… but this one is too awesome not to share with you guys.

Timber Press is celebrating their recently released book Free-Range Chicken Gardens by hosting a giveaway where one lucky person will win a complete chicken garden start-up kit! This includes:

• $50 gift card for chicken feed or supplies from McMurray Hatchery
• One chicken coop plan from The Garden Coop (a $20 value)
• 1 lb. of organic chicken forage blend and seeds for chicken-friendly plants from Peaceful Valley Farm & Garden Supply (a $20 value)
• A copy of Free-Range Chicken Gardens

In this essential handbook, award-winning garden designer Jessi Bloom covers everything a gardener needs to know, including chicken-keeping basics, simple garden plans to get you started, tips on attractive fencing options, the best plants and plants to avoid, and step-by-step instructions for getting your chicken garden up and running.

This promo ends Feb. 17th, so head on over to Timber Press and enter for your chance to win!