Book picks similar to
Building Soils Naturally: Innovative Methods For Organic Gardeners by Phil Nauta
gardening
homesteading
non-fiction
nature
How to Start a Worm Bin: Your Guide to Getting Started with Worm Composting
Henry Owen - 2015
Do you want to learn to turn food scraps into valuable compost? Do you believe in taking responsibility for the food waste we create? Worm Composting is the Solution! People all over the world are using worm farming to turn their food scraps into nutrient-rich vermicompost by starting their own worm compost bin. Check out a few of the reviews for “How to Start a Worm Bin” to see what readers say about the book. ”How to Start a Worm Bin” will teach you how to: Start a Worm Compost Bin Care for Composting Worms Harvest the Worm Compost (vermicompost) Use Worm Compost in your garden soils Scroll back up and click ‘Buy Now’ to Start your Worm Bin today! “How to Start a Worm Bin” also includes: A FREE gift from the author: “Inside my Worm Composting Toolbox” Vermicomposting FAQ Worm Compost Bin Troubleshooting
Storey's Guide to Raising Poultry: Chickens, Turkeys, Ducks, Geese, Guineas, Game Birds
Glenn Drowns - 2012
Stressing humane practices throughout, Glenn Drowns provides expert advice on breed selection, housing, feeding, behavior, breeding, health care, and processing your own meat and eggs. With tips on raising specialty species like doves, ostriches, and peafowl, you’ll be inspired to experiment with new breeds and add diversity to your poultry operation.
Self Sufficiency for the 21st Century
Dick Strawbridge - 2010
This haven of ecologically friendly practices has been the focus of BBC Two's popular series It's Not Easy Being Green, a title at least somewhat belied by the simplicity of the practical changes suggested in Self Sufficiency for The 21st Century. (Hand-selling tip: It's important to realize that low impact living isn't generally a one-jump leap. The incremental changes recommended in this book can help people take their first major steps in that direction.)
The Permaculture Handbook: Garden Farming for Town and Country
Peter Bane - 2012
Imagine how much more self-reliant our communities would be if thirty million acres of lawns were made productive again. Permaculture is a practical way to apply ecological design principles to food, housing, and energy systems, making growing fruits, vegetables, and livestock easier and more sustainable.The Permaculture Handbook is a step-by-step, beautifully illustrated guide to creating resilient and prosperous households and neighborhoods, complemented by extensive case studies of three successful farmsteads and market gardens. This comprehensive manual casts garden farming as both an economic opportunity and a strategy for living well with less money. It shows how, by mimicking the intelligence of nature and applying appropriate technologies such as solar and environmental design, permaculture can:Create an abundance of fresh, nourishing local produce Reduce dependence on expensive, polluting fossil fuels Drought-proof our cities and countryside Convert waste into wealthPermaculture is about working with the earth and with each other to repair the damage of industrial overreach and to enrich the living world that sustains us. The Permaculture Handbook is the definitive practical North American guide to this revolutionary practice, and is a must-read for anyone concerned about creating food security, resilience, and a legacy of abundance rather than depletion.Peter Bane is a permaculture teacher and site designer who has published and edited Permaculture Activist magazine for over twenty years. He helped create Earthaven Ecovillage in North Carolina, and is now pioneering suburban farming in Bloomington, Indiana.
Gardening Without Work
Ruth Stout - 1961
The Stout System of mulch gardening will allow you to throw away your weeding tools, pesticides, and fertilizers, and will conserve and replenish the soil to make plants thrive. (6 X 9, 226 pages, illustrations)
Natural Beekeeping: Organic Approaches to Modern Apiculture
Ross Conrad - 2007
Readers will learn about non-toxic methos of controlling mites, breeding strategies, and many other tips and techniques for maintaining healthy hives.
No Nettles Required: The Reassuring Truth About Wildlife Gardening
Ken Thompson - 2006
This book shows how easy it is to fill our gardens with everything from foxes, frogs and mice, to butterflies, ladybirds and thousands of fascinating creepy-crawlies.
Turn Here Sweet Corn: Organic Farming Works
Atina Diffley - 2012
She’s a farmer. It’s “as big as a B-size potato.” As her bombarded land turns white, she and her husband Martin huddle under a blanket and reminisce: the one-hundred-mile-per-hour winds; the eleven-inch rainfall (“that broccoli turned out gorgeous”); the hail disaster of 1977. The romance of farming washed away a long time ago, but the love? Never. In telling her story of working the land, coaxing good food from the fertile soil, Atina Diffley reminds us of an ultimate truth: we live in relationships—with the earth, plants and animals, families and communities.A memoir of making these essential relationships work in the face of challenges as natural as weather and as unnatural as corporate politics, her book is a firsthand history of getting in at the “ground level” of organic farming. One of the first certified organic produce farms in the Midwest, the Diffleys’ Gardens of Eagan helped to usher in a new kind of green revolution in the heart of America’s farmland, supplying their roadside stand and a growing number of local food co-ops. This is a story of a world transformed—and reclaimed—one square acre at a time.And yet, after surviving punishing storms and the devastating loss of fifth-generation Diffley family land to suburban development, the Diffleys faced the ultimate challenge: the threat of eminent domain for a crude oil pipeline proposed by one of the largest privately owned companies in the world, notorious polluters Koch Industries. As Atina Diffley tells her David-versus-Goliath tale, she gives readers everything from expert instruction in organic farming to an entrepreneur’s manual on how to grow a business to a legal thriller about battling corporate arrogance to a love story about a single mother falling for a good, big-hearted man.
The Backyard Beekeeper: An Absolute Beginner's Guide to Keeping Bees in Your Yard and Garden
Kim Flottum - 2005
No other book on the market provides an in-depth review of beekeeping and what honey is good for and how to use it. Beautifully illustrated,
The Backyard Beekeeper
is perfect for the health conscious person who wants to sweeten up their life by saying no to processed sugars and yes, to eating organic, natural healthy food.This book is the complete "honey bee" resource with general information on bees, a how-to guide to the art of bee keeping and how to set up, care for and harvest your own hives, as well as tons of fun facts and projects that are bee related. The second half of the book is the complete guide to honey. It reviews the different types of honey, health effects as well as provides 100s of ideas and recipes for using honey in recipes, cosmetically in facemasks and shampoos, and for medicinal uses.
The Organic Farmer's Business Handbook: A Complete Guide to Managing Finances, Crops and Staff and Making a Profit
Richard Wiswall - 2009
What's required is farming smarter, not harder. In The Organic Farmer's Business Handbook , Richard Wiswall shares advice on how to make your vegetable production more efficient, better manage your employees and finances, and turn a profit. From his twenty-seven years of experience at Cate Farm in Vermont, Wiswall knows firsthand the joys of starting and operating an organic farm-as well as the challenges of making a living from one. Farming offers fundamental satisfaction from producing food, working outdoors, being one's own boss, and working intimately with nature. But, unfortunately, many farmers avoid learning about the business end of farming; because of this, they often work harder than they need to, or quit farming altogether because of frustrating-and often avoidable-losses. In this comprehensive business kit, Wiswall covers: Step-by-step procedures to make your crop production more efficient Advice on managing employees, farm operations, and office systems Novel marketing strategies What to do with your profits: business spending, investing, and planning for retirement A companion CD offers valuable business tools, including easy-to-use spreadsheets for projecting cash flow, a payroll calculator, comprehensive crop budgets for twenty-four different crops, and tax planners. About The Author: Richard Wiswall started Cate Farm in East Montpelier, Vermont, where he has farmed since 1981. Known for his work on farm profitability and appropriate business tools, Wiswall consults with other farmers, and writes and speaks frequently on organic-farm business issues. To learn more about Wiswall and Cate Farm, visit catefarm.com.
The Third Plate: Field Notes on the Future of Food
Dan Barber - 2014
Instead, Barber proposes Americans should move to the 'third plate,' a cuisine rooted in seasonal productivity, natural livestock rhythms, whole-grains, and small portions of free-range meat.
Heirloom: Notes from an Accidental Tomato Farmer
Tim Stark - 2008
One evening, chancing upon a Dumpster full of discarded lumber, he carried the lumber home and built a germination rack for thousands of heirloom tomato seedlings. His crop soon outgrew the brownstone in which it had sprouted, forcing him to cart the seedlings to his family’s farm in Pennsylvania, where they were transplanted into the ground by hand. When favorable weather brought in a bumper crop, Tim hauled his unusual tomatoes to New York City’s Union Square Greenmarket, at a time when the tomato was unanimously red. The rest is history. Today, Eckerton Hill Farm does a booming trade in heirloom tomatoes and obscure chile peppers. Tim’s tomatoes are featured on the menus of New York City’s most demanding chefs and have even made the cover of Gourmet magazine.
Microgreens: A Guide To Growing Nutrient-Packed Greens
Eric Franks - 2009
Eaten alone, as a salad, or added to soups, entrees, sandwiches, burgers, or anything else, these tiny greens of nutrition will enhance everyday food and life!Only a small amount of space is needed to grow microgreens—a porch, patio, deck, or balcony, indoors or outdoors, will do. This allows anyone to easily incorporate microgreens into their daily meals, and the greens' nutritional potency make them a must-eat in a healthy diet, any time of the year!
Living with Sheep: Everything You Need to Know to Raise Your Own Flock
Geoff Hansen - 2005
A unique guide to sheep, for would-be farmers and people who simply love animals and the outdoors.
Epic Tomatoes: How to Select and Grow the Best Varieties of All Time
Craig Lehoullier - 2014
He also offers a comprehensive guide to the various pests and diseases of tomatoes and explains how best to avoid them. No other book offers such a detailed look at the specifics of growing tomatoes, with beautiful photographs and helpful tomato profiles throughout.