No, you don't need to make your own applesauce, if what you produce enables you to afford to buy applesauce (and you want it; I'm not overfond of it, personally), and you can use the time you might have spent making it on things that help you better and that you care more about. Urging people not to use industry (because industry supposedly is destroying the planet) leaves me cold. (At best.)

From their own description: "Variously defended by its advocates on personal, social, humanitarian, and ecological grounds (discussed below), voluntary simplicity is predicated on the assumption that human beings can live meaningful, free, happy, and infinitely diverse lives, while consuming no more than a sustainable and equitable share of nature."

Sounds a lot like enviro, socialism, and denial of gains from the efforts of the mind. I don't see any compatibility with Objectivism, only a life of denial of selfishness and human accomplishment.

A comment in another thread led me to ask. I read a couple of books (and a LOT of websites) on the subject several years ago. A lot of it is common sense (don't buy stuff you can't afford) but as with many things, some of the people involved can be a little over-enthusiastic. I'm not into making my own applesauce, for instance.