User:Elizmichael/Homestead Book Company

The Homestead Book Company is a wholesale book and magazine distributor, publisher and mail-order company located in Seattle, Washington. The company, founded in 1972 by David Tatelman, claims to be the world's oldest counter-cultural book distributor. It specializes in books on growing marijuana, psilocybin mushrooms, and other counter-cultural subjects.

Origins
Homestead started with underground comix from Rip Off Press, publisher of the Freak Brothers Comix and the Print Mint, publisher of Zap Comix. Every week David would pile his entire inventory into his Chevy Vega station wagon and drive from Olympia to Bellingham, Washington, servicing his accounts.

The biggest boost to the fledging business came with the publication of High Times Magazine. With this monthly source of income, Homestead became a successful business. Homestead has had a great relationship with High Times Magazine over the years, being one of High Times’ largest distributors, and also its longest running advertiser with the full-page EZ-Gro Mushroomkit advertisement every month.

The first book Homestead distributed and the very first marijuana growing book was, The Complete Guide to Growing Marijuana, by Dave Fleming, which sold for $1 and has been out of print for decades. Shortly after that Murphy Stevens published his perennial best seller, How to Grow the Finest Marijuana Indoors Under Lights, a book Homestead continues to sell, in its latest edition. Another one of the early Homestead distribution inventory included the book, The Field Guide to Psilocybin Mushrooms, by F.C. Ghouled, now out-of-print.

Homestead has also published its own books over the years, starting with the Magickal Mushroom Handbook by Richard Alan Miller. Homestead was the first publisher of Paul Stamets, publishing Psilocybe Mushrooms and Their Allies by Paul Stamets. Other books Homestead published over the years include: Growing Wild Mushrooms, the Poor Man's Guide to Seattle Restaurants, the Good Beer Guide, and Seattle Laughs.

Today, Homestead Book Company is also the national distributor for several books, including The Mushroom Cultivator by Paul Stamets and Jeff Chilton.