Scientist/gardener Carol Deppe combines her passion for gardening with newly emerging scientific information from many fields--resilience science, climatology, climate change, ecology, anthropology, paleontology, sustainable agriculture, nutrition, health, and medicine. Here, Deppe extends these principles with detailed information about growing and using five keystone crops that are especially important for anyone seeking greater self-reliance: potatoes, corn, beans, squash, and eggs. This is both a conceptual and a hands-on gardening book, suitable for gardeners at all levels of experience. "Resilience" here is broadly conceived, and encompasses a full range of problems, from personal hard times to regional and global disasters. In the end, though, this is an optimistic as well as a realistic book.--From publisher description.