The Biological Farmer: A Complete Guide to the Sustainable & Profitable Biological System of Farming

The Biological Farmer: A Complete Guide to the Sustainable & Profitable Biological System of Farming
Average customer rating:

Great details

Accurate, scientific in a simple comprehensive manner

The Biological Farmer: A Complete Guide to the Sustainable & Profitable Biological System of Farming
Gary F. Zimmer
Manufacturer: Acres USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0911311629

Book Description

Biological farmers work with nature, feeding soil life, balancing soil minerals and tilling soils with a purpose. The methods they apply involve a unique system of beliefs, observations and guidelines that result in increased production and profit. This practical how-to guide elucidates their methods and will help you make farming fun and profitable.

A safe and sustainable system designed to keep production up. Biological farming does not mean less production; it means eliminating obstacles to healthy, efficient production. Once the chemical, physical and biological properties of the soil are in balance, you can expect optimal outputs, even in bad years. Biological farming improves the environment, reduces erosion, reduces disease and insect problems, and alters weed pressure and it accomplishes this by working in harmony with nature.

A common-sense approach. Biological farming focuses on ways to reduce input costs and to increase profits while improving soil conditions and livestock health.

Taking care of the soil. Skilled biological farmers learn how to take care of soil life they nurture it, feed it a balanced diet, and use tillage tools and methods to enhance soil life.

Learn how to fertilize. Biological farmers learn proper fertilizer uses to correct mineral and nutrient imbalances and to feed plants and soil life.

This is the farming consultant's bible. It schools the interested grower in methods of maintaining a balanced, healthy soil that promises greater productivity at lower costs, and it covers some of the pitfalls of conventional farming practices. Zimmer knows how to make responsible farming work. His extensive knowledge of biological farming and consulting experience come through in this complete, practical guide to making farming fun and profitable.

Customer Reviews:

Great details.......2006-02-25

Gary Zimmer goes in depth, yet remains understandable in his description of biological farming. I say four stars, at least.

Accurate, scientific in a simple comprehensive manner.......2003-01-24

A book focusing in improving the soil quality in field farming. Very detailed but at the same time extremely coprehensible even for begginers in organic farming. Although the major reference of the book is concerning soils the writer offers a very practical approach to the whole aspect of sustainable organic farming.
It remains to me (an organic fruit farmer) to set all the knowledge offered in the book working in my tree farm.
Under the strictest examination it easily achieves 4 stars.

Average customer rating:

Great resource about Emu care, recommended highly
Very informative

The Emu Farmer's Handbook, Vol. 1
Phillip Minnaar , and Maria Minnaar
Manufacturer: Induna Co.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Birds | Animal Care & Pets | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books

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The Emu Farmer's Handbook: Volumue 2: Commercial Farming Methods for Emus, Ostriches and Rheas

ASIN: 0964374110

Customer Reviews:

Great resource about Emu care, recommended highly.......1998-10-17

We were given a pair of Emus and needed an on hand resorce for keeping them healthy and happy. This is a great source of info covering everything from anatomy, to pen requirements, breeding and slaughter. I am very pleased with the purchase, well worth the money. The only thing it could add is about handleing...our male Emu kicks both to the front and backwards. They do not like dogs a bit and will try to attack an animal near the fenceline. ...Be careful around them and they are no problem at all.

Very informative.......1998-03-22

This book is an excellent source of information needed to learn more about emu. Not technical. Very down to earth writing, giving you information from collecting and incubating eggs, to slaughtering. Discusses sickness in the birds and various diseases. Also discusses different housing and fencing needs for the birds.

The Land Was Everything: Letters from an American Farmer

Average customer rating:

Good but not great
I DID NOT AGREE WITH ALL OF IT BUT LIKED IT
Hardhitting, true, and very sad
Fertile Food for Thought for The Thinking Human
A FINE WORK - on a tragic subject.

The Land Was Everything: Letters from an American Farmer
Victor Davis Hanson
Manufacturer: Free Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0684845016

Amazon.com

Victor Davis Hanson, a California professor of classical history and a sixth-generation orchard-keeper, revisits an old tradition in American letters, writing social criticism from an agrarian point of view that takes the farmer to be the foundation of any democracy worthy of the name. That Jeffersonian argument is not widely aired these days, apart from the essays of Wendell Berry and a few like-minded nature writers, and it takes on a specifically political force in Hanson's thoughtful, sometimes angry meditations on the decline of farming and the virtuous values that farming once instilled.

The enemies of farming are many, Hanson declares. They number not only drought, insects, fire, and fungi, but also political leaders who are content to watch the fertile countryside be carved into arid seas of look-alike homes, housing consumers who demand factory-issued foods in all seasons. Their demands are met--and, barring disaster, will continue to be met--by corporate agriculture, which, Hanson holds, values appearance over taste and prizes short-term profits over the long-term health of the land. The ascendance of that corporate system of food production means that fewer and fewer small farms can survive, and that agriculture will seem an ever more alien enterprise to the coming generations, conducted far off in the hinterland, "the corporate void where no sane man wishes to live."

This all means, Hanson suggests, that the farmer of old who knew how to fix tractors and fences, how to wage war on predators while shunning the use of poisons, and how to live self-reliantly is a thing of the past. The disappearance of that American archetype is all to the bad. As Hanson writes, "We have lost our agrarian landscape and with it the insurance that there would be an autonomous, outspoken, and critical group of citizens eager to remind us of the current fads and follies of the day." Resounding with righteous fury and good common sense, his book is a call to turn back the clock and set a more civilized table. --Gregory McNamee

Book Description

Before storms that can destroy his crops in an instant, the farmer stands implacable. To fluctuations in temperature that can deprive his children of their future, the farmer pays no heed. Every day the elements remind him that his future is secure only through constant effort. Like the creepers and crawlers he seeks to eradicate, the farmer toils away in the lush anonymity of his grid of vines, his tradition one of impervious resolve.

Today that tradition of muscular, self-effacing labor is quietly disappearing, as the last of America's independent farmers slowly fade away. When they have gone, what will we have lost? In The Land Was Everything, Victor Davis Hanson, an embattled fifth-generation California grape farmer and passionate, eloquent writer, answers this question by offering a final snapshot of the yeoman, his work, and his wisdom.

Over two centuries ago, J. Hector St. John de Crèvecoeur wrote the bestselling Letters from an American Farmer. It was the first formal expression of what it meant to be American, a celebration of free, land-working men and women as the building blocks of enlightened democracy. Hanson, like Crèvecoeur, begins with the premise that "farmers see things as others do not." He shows that there is worth in the farmer beyond the best price of raisins or apples per pound, beyond his ability to provide fruit out of season, hard, shiny, and round. Why is it, then, that the farmer is so at odds with global culture at the millennium? What makes the farmer so special?

To find the answer Hanson digs deeply within himself. The farmer's value is not to be found in pastoral stereotypes -- myths that farmers are simple and farming serene. It is something more fundamental.

The independent farmer, in his lonely, do-or-die struggle, is tangible proof that there is still a place for heroism in America. In the farmer's unflinching, remorseless realities -- rain and sun, hail and early frost -- lie the best of humanity tested: stoicism, surprising intelligence, and the determination that comes from fighting battles, tractor against vine, that must be replicated a thousand or a hundred thousand times if a farmer is to have even a chance of success. There is, writes Hanson, an "awful knowledge gained from agriculture" and a "measure of brutality that even the most humane farmer cannot escape from or hide." It is this terrible knowledge, these hard-fought battles against man, self, and nature's unseen enemies, that Hanson celebrates.

Today the city, Crèvecoeur's "confined theatre of cupidity," is triumphant. But those who have stuck to a difficult task will see that they have much in common with Hanson's dying farmer. That the land was everything once made America great and democracy strong. Will we still like what we are -- and can we survive as we are -- when the land is nothing?

Customer Reviews:

Good but not great .......2005-05-09

I find the book interesting for about a chapter. Too much 'showing off' Hansen's professororial interests on Crevecouer and the Greeks and Romans. Yes both historical references are fascinating but Hansen needs help with his tone and the very miring way he has about going to prove a point. You can start to predict the next sentence and the way it will end up satisfying the author's conscience. No, the book is not at all eloquent, but it doesn't make up for it with anything genuinely new and insightful either, for instance: on the agricultural dilemmas of our country and how they affect farmers personally. It is a book that blows off steam basically; finds a way to boast about the rough-hewn character of farmers (Not to be taken so literally, but nevertheless he manages to stereotype the farmer though he despises everyone else for doing it.)Wishy washy on his opinions, Hansen can't really whitewash what he thinks: that we are a bunch of suburban immoralists who just learned that the farm meant more than bucolic. Anyone who reads or watches the news or buys food at all knows more than Hansen thinks we do. As an ex-farm child, I find the book a fair tribute, but the personality of it is almost repulsive. We farmers are not superior keepers of wisdom, we are far more humble than Hansen's ilk. The farmers I know, past and present, have more important things to do than debate every issue, write books and books on our sorrows and fawn over our own demise.

I DID NOT AGREE WITH ALL OF IT BUT LIKED IT.......2004-09-11

This is certainly a wonderfully written book. I cannot agree with all of the author's opinions, nor his historical data, but he does make some good points and the book is well worth the read. It gives a point of view from the farmer's side, always a good thing, but that being said, it must also be noted that the author needs to face reality. I do recommend this one though and will probably read it again myself. A good one to add to your collection. Thank you Mr Hanson.

Hardhitting, true, and very sad.......2002-06-20

Agrarianism goes down to a hard and dusty death. The realities of growing commodities as a family in California are tough. Hanson does know what he's talking about, contra reader S.M. Stirling, below (I wonder if this fellow even read the book, his comments are so off, not to mention being practically a personal attack on Hanson); he lives the reality of this difficult life while also being a classical scholar. He seems uniquely qualified to illuminate the Greek and Latin roots of agrarianism as the foundation of democracy, and with a lifelong interest in the classics, I found this very interesting; I learned a lot. I highly recommend this book, which I found compelling...

Fertile Food for Thought for The Thinking Human.......2001-11-23

This is one of those few books that I enjoyed and thought about so much that I bought six copies from Amazon to hand out to friends who I believed would also appreciate Hanson's efforts. It really is that exceptional! The thing most notable about "The Land Is Everything" is how much response it will provoke out of you if are a "thinking type". That doesn't mean you will love or hate it all...you will, however, THINK! Despite the definite order the book is arranged in, you will get a sense that much of it was almost written in streams of thought. Hanson seems to meander on tangents at times and in other places even rants but, this stream is still flowing briskly! He focusses in on "Man versus Nature", "Man versus Man", and "Man versus Self" in the realm of small-scale farming.

Hanson is uniquely qualified to write about the subject of farming and it's effects on character. He is a fifth generation grape farmer in California while also a Professor of Classics at CSU Fresno. The clincher is that he can convey his beliefs to paper with a VENGEANCE! The crux of this book is showing how the decline of self-reliant family farms in America is sapping the core character of what an "American" was in our first 200 years. He passionately describes the life, both good and bad, of the American farmer and gives numerous examples of issues that influence his/her character and culture. The fact that America, up until fairly recently, was predominantly a land of farmers is elaborated on at length. Hanson admires and respects the ways the brutal realities of farming the land force farmers to stay literally rooted in hard work, ethics, and honesty even if it sometimes makes them crazy! He then launches into his assessments of the effects on the gradual loss of this culture on the United States today as it becomes more and more "urban" and "cosmopolitan".

One thing I can almost promise: you WILL have an opinion on this book once you've read it. There will be points that you will agree or disagree with strongly and many others that will fall somewhere in between. The bottom line is that you will definitely feel better for having read it.

Finally, if you have found yourself drawn to understand the heroism and motivation of the New York City fireman who fought and died at the World Trade Center attack on 9/11, I doubly recommend this book.

A FINE WORK - on a tragic subject........2000-06-15

As a graduate student in the university (stumbling along the first steps of academia) while at the same time dragging my small farm roots along, I find Victor Hanson's appraisal and insightful commentary frighteningly real to much of my own experience and upbringing. The Land Was Everything is exceptional and comprehensive in outlining a picture of rural life and ideology that most urbanites and farmers alike are not consciously aware of. He writes about the loss of the small farm agrarian but mostly he mourns the loss of characteristics and qualities that come from the farmer, his work, his life, and his toil. To most readers (the growing sea of concrete city folk) his words and stories feel alien and distant and sadly this further proves the author's point. Hanson's unique and diminishing perspective reads as a bitingly honest commentary about where we (as a nation) have come from, where we owe our success, the price of our success, and where we're going in this new millenium. Grounded in the fields and orchards of farming and agrarian life, Hanson demonstrates his intellect and skills of observation in the manner of a scholarly writer and though agrarian and intellectual often antagonize one another within the writing, he is successful at utilizing them to expose and comment on the other. If understanding and consciousness about any of this is the reward for the loss of the small American Farmer, then it's all I could ask for as a reader who wishes that others would pick up The Land Was Everything, listen to its pages, remember the voices of their past, and try to understand the tragedy that has already occurred.

Women of the Harvest: Inspiring Stories of Contemporary Farmers

Average customer rating:

Good reading
A winning leisure read choice.

Women of the Harvest: Inspiring Stories of Contemporary Farmers
Holly Bollinger
Manufacturer: Voyageur Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0760321841

Book Description

Up with the rooster, to bed with the sun, and if the farmer’s a woman, it’s a good bet there’s always more work waiting. Holding household and family together, women farmers daily, quietly perform heroic labors just to eke a livelihood out of the land. Women have always farmed, when death or war left them to fend for themselves, but today they might choose to farm, and, in a time when farming is a shrinking occupation, their choices have expanded.

Some women are only at home on the range; others, more hearth-bound, see the farm as an extension of home and family life. Some farm to feed their families; others, running huge corporate operations, farm to feed nations. These are the farmers that Women of the Harvest celebrates. In twelve illustrated profiles, the book introduces readers to women who work the land, raising livestock and crops, and, in doing so, uphold and transform a tradition as old as agriculture itself. Their stories, drawn from farms across the country, are truly in the American grain.

Customer Reviews:

Good reading.......2007-07-12

This book is fun! It's made up of excellent photos and lively interviews with 17 American women who are farmers in 9 states, and a woman who works for a U.S. government agricultural organization in Moldova.

And we're not talking oats, peas, beans and barley here. The crops range from clams to watermelons to cactus plants to peppers. Alpaca fleece is another crop. Many of the farms are organic, and the ages of the women farmers range over 60 years or more. Many have their farms in arid, western states.

The interviews are full of pithy quotes from the women and engaging details about the lives these women live. The pieces by Susan Gartner are especially good at putting the reader right on the scene.

A winning leisure read choice........2007-06-10

WOMEN OF THE HARVEST: INSPIRING STORIES OF CONTEMPORARY FARMERS profiles some seventeen women who love farming: women from across the country who share their stories of making their farming dreams come true. Color photos of land and female farmers blend with autobiographies and insights on what it takes and means to be a female farmer, how to run an 'ideal' farm, and how these women made farming dreams a reality. Any agricultural or rural library will find WOMEN OF THE HARVEST: INSPIRING STORIES OF CONTEMPORARY FARMERS a winning leisure read choice.

It's a Long Road to a Tomato: Tales of an Organic Farmer Who Quit the Big City for the (Not So) Simple Life

Average customer rating:

Excellent Book on Farming
Organic farming
Jack London meets Henry Thoreau
Enoyable and informative read
A serious book, but still an earthy and enjoyable read.

It's a Long Road to a Tomato: Tales of an Organic Farmer Who Quit the Big City for the (Not So) Simple Life
Keith Stewart
Manufacturer: Marlowe & Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Book Description

Twenty years ago, just beyond his 40th birthday, Keith Stewart exchanged life in New York’s corporate grind for a farm in Orange County, NY, where he and a small crew of seasonal workers grow about 100 organic vegetables and herbs. What started as a yearning—“to live on a piece of land, closer to nature; to work outside with my body as well as my brain; to leave behind the world of briefcases, computers, corporate clients, and non-opening windows”—has become a life “more full, more varied” and often “more demanding and exhausting, but always more real.” Stewart sells everything he grows directly to consumers and restaurateurs, and in doing so has developed loyal and growing ranks devoted to his Rocambole garlic, herbs, heirloom tomatoes, and other organic produce. Now, in It's a Long Road to a Tomato, Stewart presents interlocking, complementary essays, addressing his mid-life development as a farmer; some of the nuts and bolts and how-to’s of organic vegetable growing and selling in an urban market; humorous and philosophical stories about domestic and wild farm animals and the natural world; and some of the political, social, and environmental issues surrounding agriculture today and why it matters to all of us.

Customer Reviews:

Excellent Book on Farming.......2007-08-20

If you want to get the feel of what it takes to leave the city and start farming this book really opens your eyes. There is a great respect for the land and animals that we share the earth with. There are many topics discussed that help the reader appreciate the hard work that makes a farm successful. This is a must read!

Organic farming.......2007-08-04

This is an absolutley great book. Well written, thoughtful, revealing essays. It gives an insight into the rigors of taking on the personal passion of organic farming. It provides inside information for us city dwellers about the rigorous challenges involved. It also allows an emotional connection with the author that allow for an empathic feeling of connection.

Jack London meets Henry Thoreau.......2007-04-08

This marvelous book should delight anyone with an interest in man's place in the natural world. Anyone that is, who is not a Fundamentalist! Who would imagine that starting an organic farm would entail facing up to life's existential issues on an almost daily basis. Stewart brings a sly humor to bear on what might otherwise be a rather humdrum topic, and does so with uncommon warmth and passion.

Enoyable and informative read.......2007-04-05

I find this book very interesting and enjoyable to read - it is light but also insightful for those interested in 'leaving the busy city and leading a fulfilling, peaceful life in the country'. The collection of essays is an anecdotal account of the life of the author - it is witty and charming.

A serious book, but still an earthy and enjoyable read........2007-04-03

Just looking at the cover of this book makes me wish it was summer, and I could find a homegrown, red, ripe, juicy tomato.

I'm a cold-weather gal, so wishing for summer is not something I do often. But there is something very earthy and very appealing about Stewart's memoir of his organic farming life. (The fact that it is illustrated with woodcuts done by Stewart's wife, Flavia Bacarella, doesn't hurt-I love woodcuts. And how about that name? Seems like I could be earthy and appealing, too, if my name were "Flavia.")

It's an interesting book, with each chapter/essay offering a short perspective on the challenges facing small farmers of all types, as well as different aspects of rural life and farm marketing in New York City's Union Square Greenmarket. On my mental "gardening/rural life books" continuum, I liked it better than William Alexander's horrible The $64 Tomato, in which the author told about trying to kill an opossum in the most bungling and painful way possible; but did not like it as much as Michael Ableman's On Good Land, which seemed to be a bit more personable, or humorous, or something. But in the end I still enjoyed this one very much. I particularly liked its opening:

"Twenty years ago, a little past the age of forty, I was living in a small apartment in New York City, working as a project manager for a consulting firm, wearing a jacket and tie to the office every day. It didn't feel good. I had never aspired to be a member of the corporate world, but somehow that's where I had ended up. I had little affection for the work I was doing and seldom experienced any feelings of pride or fulfillment. Rather, I felt like an impostor, obliged to feign interest and enthusiasm much of the time...Today I am a farmer, a grower of organic vegetables and herbs, and can honestly say that I am a happier man." (pps. 1-2.)

Kind of gives one hope, doesn't it?

Breed Your Own Vegetable Varieties: The Gardener's & Farmer's Guide to Plant Breeding & Seed Saving

Average customer rating:

Suprise!!! This book is fun!!!
Best Introduction to Breeding for Beginners
Inspiring for anyone
Fantastic book
Double Your Gardening Pleasure with this Fine Book!

Breed Your Own Vegetable Varieties: The Gardener's & Farmer's Guide to Plant Breeding & Seed Saving
Carol Deppe
Manufacturer: Chelsea Green
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1890132721

Book Description

All gardeners and farmers should be plant breeders, says author Carol Deppe. Developing new vegetable varieties doesn't require a specialized education, a lot of land, or even a lot of time. It can be done on any scale. It's enjoyable. It's deeply rewarding. You can get useful new varieties much faster than you might suppose. And you can eat your mistakes.
Authoritative and easy-to-understand, Breed Your Own Vegetable Varieties: The Gardener's and Farmer's Guide to Plant Breeding and Seed Saving is the only guide to plant breeding and seed saving for the serious home gardener and the small-scale farmer or commercial grower. Discover:

how to breed for a wide range of different traits (flavor, size, shape, or color; cold or heat tolerance; pest and disease resistance; and regional adaptation)

how to save seed and maintain varieties

how to conduct your own variety trials and other farm- or garden-based research

how to breed for performance under organic or sustainable growing methods

In this one-size-fits-all world of multinational seed companies, plant patents, and biotech monopolies, more and more gardeners and farmers are recognizing that they need to "take back their seeds." They need to save more of their own seed, grow and maintain the best traditional and regional varieties, and develop more of their own unique new varieties. Breed Your Own Vegetable Varieties: The Gardener's and Farmer's Guide to Plant Breeding and Seed Saving shows the way, and offers an exciting introduction to a whole new gardening adventure.

Customer Reviews:

Suprise!!! This book is fun!!!.......2006-03-07

I bought the earlier edition of this book for someone else...had no intention of reading it (or keeping it) but started to browse and got hooked!

This book reads like a novel--all the characters are my near and dear friends, the garden fruits and veggies. Mouth-watering detail sets the stage for getting your imagination started. What would you like to grow that you haven't seen in the seed catalogues? A watermellon that can ripen in your northern climate? Greens that won't be mowed down by slugs in your wet, costal garden? Perhaps a juicy, sweet tomato just like your favorite slicer, but in a convenient cherry size?

Just when you have all these images of the yummy possibilities dancing through your head, the story turns dark...Unfortunately, the professional plant breeders are not looking for the same things you are. Professional plant breeders want thick-skinned tomatoes that can be machine harvested, that ripen all at once, and that store and ship easily. (at this point, I want to yell, NOOO!!! Not THAT tomato!!!)

But sadly, past market forces have inadvertantly destroyed so much of the lovely work of our ancestors to produce flavor, long harvest periods, plants that survive organically, open pollination, and most of all, variety.

But wait! All is not lost! Remember how all those wonderful things came to be in the first place? Amateur plant breeders! And guess what? It doesn't have to take a lot of time, or even much space, to start tweaking and experimenting with what you can get to grow in your own garden. You don't even need experience, let alone a degree. And she's got lots of stories and examples to prove it.

Then she starts throwing out possibilities I never would have thought of...why stick to things we already grow as vegetables? Why not domesticate one of the thousands of edible plants that no one else is even working on? Or how about experimenting with ways to use food that weren't available when it all started, like developing something that microwaves conveniently?

I think Carol Deppe is a creative genius with the rare ability to communicate her passion and knowlege for her favorite subject. After reading this book, really after reading just the first few chapters, I felt like this is something that I really could do, and can't believe I hadn't thought of it before. People have been saving seed for thousands of years, it's not rocket science.

For an idea of Deppe's writing style, she's written an interesting article about parching corn that you can find if you google "carol deppe and parching corn."

Best Introduction to Breeding for Beginners.......2006-02-26

The author has a PhD from Harvard in biology and is a geneticist. Yet she has written her easy-to-understand book as if she has a teaching degree from Ashland University. Her premise is that all our major food crops were originally developed by amateurs. Until recently, all gardeners and farmers saved their own seed and hence, all gardeners and farmers were automatically amateur plant breeders - and amateur plant breeding was the only kind of plant breeding there was.

Deppe's book has two major purposes: 1) to encourage all of us gardeners and farmers to rediscover the excitement and rewards of developing your very own vegetable variety, and 2) to show amateurs how to breed plants more easily. As Deppe says "Any gardener can do them". This book is for all gardeners everywhere. It's for the gardener who has been told that "you can't grow that here", but who wants to anyway (such as artichokes in Ohio). This book is for growers who like white and purple carrots, and other crosses. This book is for seed savers, which is the first step in plant breeding. This book is for organic gardeners who want to develop powdery mildew-resistant varieties, by breeding them yourself.

Deppe's chapters cover amateur vegetable breeding, space and time; roles and goals such as breeding for flavor, size, shape, earliness, cold or heat resistance, disease resistance, or yield; finding germplasm where she explains about the USDA-ARS National Plant Germplasm System; evaluating germplasm and conducting and evaluating garden trials; genetics and plant parenthood; sex and the single gene; modern genes; hybrids; plant-breeding stories; breeding with established polyploids; fun with wide crosses; happy accidental crosses; domesticating wild plants; and expanding horizons along with many appendices that list plants, vegetables, germplasm collections, seed saver organizations, supplies, and how-to information sources.

This is the best introduction to seed saving and breeding your own vegetable varieties you'll find and invaluable to those interested in creating a unique vegetable variety.

Inspiring for anyone.......2005-07-07

I'm a gardener but not a seed saver; I'd like to, but it's a
somewhat confusing and overwelming subject. This book really
explained the issues of cross breeding and pollination, so I
could see why those seed saving instructions are so inconsistent.
And it is very inspiring about why I'd want to save seeds and
improved the variety, and why local seeds are so valuable,
and a number of great ideas on the mechanics both that I can use
(spacing isn't so important when you're testing for flavor) and
not so useful to me (I'll probably not get forceps and remove
the stamens from unopened tomato flowers)

She is a plant genetists applying techiques to her own garden
for her own food, and I really liked how she describes her
though processes as well as what she does and how she does it.

Fantastic book.......2004-09-27

The author does a great job of explaining both the scientific and the practical aspects of breeding your own vegetable varieties. After reading this I felt I had the knowledge I needed to get started. Both motivating and inspiring.

Double Your Gardening Pleasure with this Fine Book!.......2001-11-27

I bought this book a few months ago and have been enjoying it very much. I am a hardcore gardener and for many years now I have been breeding my own roses and have also done some hybridizing with begonias. I had never tried crossing vegetables though.
After reading Carol Deepe's neat book though, I've decided that starting next spring I will be making some hybrid crosses with vegetables, for sure.
Most people who garden do not really understand the whole process of making crosses, of creating new hybrids. This book explains it very clearly and gardeners will find out that it isn't really difficult at all. Quite simple actually, and with some often remarkable rewards.
As explained well in this text, vegetables today are mostly bred just for the market, for things like better shipability. Breeding for taste and other such, is pretty well now left up to the amateur breeders. My point here is that if you want to grow the best vegeatbles, you almost need to start crossing your own.
One of the biggest pleasures of creating your own vegetable crosses is that they are YOUR OWN. You can then grow things that no one else is growing, planting seeds that are not for sale anywhere. This can add a huge amount of pleasure to gardening. It just makes it all much more fun.
This book is useful, interesting, well written and easy to understand. It would make a great present for anyone who loves to garden and by all means get one for yourself, too. It will easily pay for itself the very first season you own it. A dandy book!

Dynamic Farmers' Marketing: A Guide to Successfully Selling Your Farmers' Market Products

Average customer rating:

Keeping it Simple
Dynamite!

Dynamic Farmers' Marketing: A Guide to Successfully Selling Your Farmers' Market Products
Jeff W. Ishee
Manufacturer: Bittersweet Farmstead
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Similar Items:

The New Farmers Market: Farm-Fresh Ideas for Producers, Managers & Communities
Sell What You Sow: The Grower's Guide to Successful Produce Marketing
Backyard Market Gardening: The Entrepreneur's Guide to Selling What You Grow (Good Earth)
The New Organic Grower: A Master's Manual of Tools and Techniques for the Home and Market Gardener (A Gardener's Supply Book)
Building a Sustainable Business: A Guide to Developing a Business Plan for Farms and Rural Businesses (Sustainable Agriculture Network Handbook Series, ... Agriculture Network Handbook Series, Bk. 6)

ASIN: 096568900X

Book Description

Marketing and organization information for small farmers, vendors, and market management. A necessity for all participants in a public farmers' market.

This new book was released in the summer of 1997. In it, you will learn how to: 1) create visually exciting displays 2) organize a new market 3) turn your stall into the most profitable at the market 4) select products that customers want. An informal book that brings farmers'marketing all together. It's like sitting on a tailgate at the market and eavesdropping on valuable conversations between successful farmers. Save two years of trial and error just by studying and implementing the tips found in this book.

Customer Reviews:

Keeping it Simple.......2000-10-02

Are you looking to direct market your farm products? Then this is a 'must have' in your library. Jeff Ishee takes you through the day-to-day of planning and preparing to market any and all farm products directly to the consumer. This book is a great guide in getting your ideas together on what to do in your operation or if you are just simply trying to decide if direct marketing is for you.

In working with the industry on a day-to-day basis in Kentucky, this book has been an excellent addition to my resource library.

Dynamite!.......1999-02-09

Farmer's Markets are one of the hottest new trends in local economies. This is the definitive book on how to profit from the movement. ISHEE, himself a successful small farmer, has produced a comprehensive guide to selling your farmer's market products. He covers everything - how to organize and run a successful farmers' market, how to sell, which products sell best, stories from successful veterans of the market, a resources list.

Fields of Plenty: A Farmer's Journey in Search of Real Food and the People Who Grow It

Average customer rating:

Understanding the people and culture of organic farming
Simply beautiful
great words, lousy format
An abundant gathering of crop wisdom and agricultural insights
Wonderfully refreshing and enlightening book!

Fields of Plenty: A Farmer's Journey in Search of Real Food and the People Who Grow It

Manufacturer: Chronicle Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Similar Items:

On Good Land: The Autobiography of an Urban Farm
From the Good Earth: A Celebration of Growing Food Around the World
The Ethical Gourmet
Rural Renaissance: Renewing the Quest for the Good Life
The Sustainable Kitchen: Passionate Cooking Inspired by Farms, Forests and Oceans

ASIN: 0811842231

Book Description

In the face of supersizing and a fast-food nation, a growing community of organic farmers and food artisans are producing sustainable nourishment that is respectful to the land and rich in heritage, flavor, and passion. In Fields of Plenty, respected farmer, teacher, and ecology advocate Michael Ableman seeks out these innovative and committed farmers to reveal how the fruits of those who till the soil go beyond taste. From Knolls farm in California, famous for succulent figs tree-ripened to perfection, to an urban farm in Chicago that sustains an entire community, his odyssey takes him to farmers who are trying to answer questions of sustenance philosophically and, most importantly, in practice. Illustrated with evocative color photographs of the land and the people who work it, and accompanied by a bountiful selection of recipes, this beautifully written memoir reveals the power of food as a personal and cultural force.

Customer Reviews:

Understanding the people and culture of organic farming.......2007-06-23

I recommend this book to anyone interested in understanding the culture around organic food. The writing is lucid, clear and the result is an easy read that's hard to put down. The book is worth the photographs alone, but Michael takes the reader on a worthwhile journey across North America, explaining the people and reasons why organic food is such a passion for a growing part of our society. His writing style results in vivid images of people and places and an understanding of why organic food is much more than just a yuppie phase. His passion for food, taste, farming and the quality associated with doing it right is infectious. And if that isn't enough, scattered throughout the book are recipes reflecting the different cultures of the people being profiled. This book is outstanding and the author is obviously a gifted writer / photographer. Would make a great gift for anyone even remotely interested in food, gardening or farming.

Simply beautiful.......2007-01-04

The book's gorgeous photography and sensitive appreciation of farming life make it a real winner for anyone with an interest in regional food, its proponents, and the beauty of small-scale agriculture.

great words, lousy format.......2006-05-19

I love the text of this book, go ahead and buy it, I think it should be said that this book suffers from its format. The extra heavy pages and stiff hard binding are like those in a coffee table book and would be well deserved, if the publisher had included more photographs. As it stands, there is a scant one photo per farm profile, far too few in my opinion, especially having been visually tantilized by Ableman's beautiful descriptions. This leaves one mostly text, valuable and well written and worthy of your attention, in a book that is physically difficult to handle and read. I am hoping that publishers will read this review and remedy the problem in subsequent editions. Either add more "art" to justify the art quality of the book, or else make the book easier to curl-up with and read. I know folks who have put down the book, and not picked it up again, although they were enjoying it, and I believe that the book's physical attributes are to blame.

An abundant gathering of crop wisdom and agricultural insights.......2006-02-09

American agriculture is being re-created and re-defined by farmers and the people who grow our food, and Michael Ableman's journey to different farms blends a memoir of a farmer and photographer with a travelogue of his survey of others who are making a difference in the food world from across America. The different visions and experiences of farmers blend with discussions of politics, growing, and even with recipes for using fresh produce, making Fields Of Plenty an abundant gathering of crop wisdom and agricultural insights. Scholarly enough for college-level collections on agricultural studies yet accessible enough for public library holdings, Field Of Plenty: A Farmer's Journey In Search Of Real Food And The People Who Grow It is an excellent pick.

Wonderfully refreshing and enlightening book!.......2005-12-21

This superbly written book, with its poetic descriptions and fascinating stories of the different farmers the author visited and interviewed throughout the country, had me dreaming about owning my own organic farm one day! Also, the wonderful recipes are definately a plus! What a wonderful read!

Writing this book from an organic farmer's point of view, Ableman gives one a sense of respect for the earth, the intricacies involved in its cultivation, the many different varieties of fruits and vegetables that exist and can be grown on small organic farms (as compared to conventional/commercial growers who use very few varieties), and the tender care involved by these family farmers.

One learns about the different herbal concoctions that some of these farmers use to feed their crops, comparable to the attention given when feeding a child. The nutrients in these soils are uncomparable to the conventional corporate farming, and organic farms do not use pesticides and chemical fertilizers. One can taste the difference in the organic produce. They are bursting with flavor.

One learns about sustainability and organic farming, about the many flavors, the exotic colors, and how the different animals cohabitate with the farmers, so that nothing is wasted. I particularly liked the descriptions of the sections on the
melons that emitted intoxicating musky smells, and blackberries that were so irresistible, the author went and gorged himself eating them in the patch. Yumm! We went and bought organic blackberries after reading that section!

One also learns that eating is an intimate relationship, and establishing a relationship with the local farmers in our communities is a wonderful way to learn where our food is coming from. These great farmers are feeding us, and what better way to eat food, then to establish a relationship with the persons who are growing it for us. One way to do that is visit a local farmer's market and sign up with a local farm that is a member of CSA (community shared agriculture). We did, and we love it!

Also, eating seasonal foods is a new concept for me. We're so used to finding any fruit and vegetable in any season in the supermarket, that the idea of something not being available at a given time is foreign to us. But once we start asking - where did these fruits and vegetables come from - and we see Brazil, or Argentina, etc. then things start changing in our minds. The transportation, the distance, the regulations... Hmmm. Canning and freezing fruits and vegetables when in season has become a pleasant option.

After reading this book, I'm also keen on working on my garden with my family next summer, of watching the different vegetables grow, and of tasting the fruits of my labor. I can't wait!

I recommend this highly to everyone!!

From the Farm to the Table: What All Americans Need to Know About Agriculture (Culture of the Land)

Average customer rating:

From the Farm to the Table: What All Americans Need to Know About Agriculture (Culture of the Land)
Gary H. Holthaus
Manufacturer: University Press of Kentucky
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Rural Life | Humor | Entertainment | Subjects | Books

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The Soil And Health: A Study of Organic Agriculture (Culture of the Land: A Series in the New Agrarianism)
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The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals
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ASIN: 0813124190

Book Description

In From the Farm to the Table, over forty farm families from America's heartland detail the practices and values that relate to their land, work, and communities. Their stories reveal that those who make their living in agriculture--despite stereotypes of provincialism perpetuated by the media--are savvy to the influence of world politics on local issues.

Gary Holthaus demonstrates how outside economic, governmental, legal, and business developments play an increasingly influential, if not controlling, role in every farmer's life. The swift approval of genetically modified crops by the federal government, the formation of huge agricultural conglomerates, and the devastating environmental effects of chemical fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides are just a few issues buffeting family farms. From the Farm to the Table explores farmers' experiences to offer a deeper understanding of how we can create sustainable and vibrant land-based communities by adhering to fundamental agrarian values.

The Agricultural Revolution in Prehistory: Why did Foragers become Farmers?
Average customer rating:
The Agricultural Revolution in Prehistory: Why did Foragers become Farmers?
Graeme Barker
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Cultural | Anthropology | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
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Similar Items:

First Farmers: The Origins of Agricultural Societies

Documenting Domestication: New Genetic and Archaeological Paradigms

Behavioral Ecology and the Transition to Agriculture (Origins of Human Behavior and Culture)

ASIN: 0199281092

Book Description

The Agricultural Revolution in Prehistory addresses one of the most debated and least understood revolutions in the history of our species, the change from hunting and gathering to farming. Graeme Barker takes a global view, and integrates a massive array of information from archaeology and many other disciplines, including anthropology, botany, climatology, genetics, linguistics, and zoology. Against current orthodoxy, Barker develops a strong case for the development of agricultural systems in many areas as transformations in the life-ways of the indigenous forager societies, and argues that these were as much changes in social norms and ideologies as in ways of obtaining food. With a large number of helpful line drawings and photographs as well as a comprehensive bibliography, this authoritative study will appeal to a wide general readership as well as to specialists in a variety of fields.

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