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1. Mike (tfb)
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   When it comes to small-scale organic farming, Eliot Coleman's name keeps coming up. He's written a couple of books. The new classic is The New Organic Grower: A Master's Manual of Tools and Techniques for the Home and Market Gardener (Chelsea Green Publishing). The Revised Expanded Second Edition (1995) is the one to get. It's a must-have!

   Coleman's other book, Four-Season Harvest (1999; Chelsea Green), is also really good. It explains his movable greenhouse system, and as the title suggests, about half covers season extension and winter growing.

   Posted 2 years ago #

2. Mike (tfb)
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   Here's a great book list: Journey to Forever: Small farm resources. It's a mix of small farm and homsteading/back-to-the-land titles. I've only read or heard of a couple, and those were useful, but this is a great tiny farming resource site overall, so the list is definitely worth a look.

   Posted 2 years ago #

3. ScottK
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   I've got both the Coleman books mentioned , absolutely they are great reads. If I had to pick one gardening book only (if stranded on a desert isle, for example) I think I would choose The Complete Vegetable and Herb Gardener; a Guide to Growing Your Garden Organically. by Karan Davis Cutler

   I've got about a hundred volumes in my personal gardening/farming library but I believe this is probably the single best reference I own about how to grow specific crops, and the appropriate quantities to plan for.

   This book provided me invaluable information when I was first developing my plans for a CSA. Ms. Cutler discusses sites, soils, plant starting, transplanting, harvesting, and plant diseases and pests. If you could buy only one gardening book as a market gardener (a sad fate), I would recommend this one.

   Posted 2 years ago #

4. Mike (tfb)
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   That's a solid recommendation! I put The Complete Vegetable and Herb Gardener on my next order list, so I should have it soon.

   It sounds similar to Rodale's Garden Problem Solver: Vegetables, Fruits, and Herbs by Jeff Ball (Rodale Press). I recommend this in the same way: if you could only have one reference book... It has comprehensive growing info for all of the regular (North American) veggies, herbs, fruits and berries, including starting, cultivation, harvest and storage. It also has a full pest and disease section, and a section covering environmental factors (sun, temperature, etc), fertility and soil amendments, bed preparation, irrigation, mulch, composting, etc. It's well-organized, with easy to read type. It was the one book I regularly took into the field for that first, learning from-scratch year. You could definitely use this alone to plan and start a home or market veggie garden. But it would indeed be a pity to stop reading at just one book!

   Posted 2 years ago #

5. ScottK
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   I don't have a copy of that particular Rodale's volume but a neighbouring farmer does (read a few pages once while visiting), looks like consensus says I should search out a copy.

   A lot of my books come from the second hand stores; I picked up a 1977 edition of Rodale's Encyclopedia of Organic Gardening at one a few weeks ago (1100+ pages for $4.95) As a general recommendation let me say that many great books can be found from this source; even though many are 'dated', much of the information remains timeless. The Encyclopedia is a good example of this; many of the articles in it could easily be 'transplanted' to any modern gardening magazine.

   Posted 2 years ago #

6. JBob
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   Steve Solomon's "Gardening When It Counts" is always at my fingertips. He presents a lot of things I've not encountered in many other books. Especially interesting is his approach to dryland gardening.

   Posted 2 years ago #

7. Mike (tfb)
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   JBob, it sounds great. I read the book description and a couple of reviews on Amazon and added it to my list, which I'll be ordering in the next couple of days! I look forward to being informed AND amused (in a dark way).

   Posted 2 years ago #

8. MarkF
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   search out the old books! especially if raising livestock. Two out of print books by George Henderson: Farming Ladder and Farmer's Progress
   (you can find them at http://www.soilandhealth.org/01aglibrary/01aglibwelcome.html as free PDF. This is a great site for older Ag literature

   Posted 2 years ago #

9. kitchensqueen
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   I second the old books- and a great resource for getting them online is http://books.google.com/. Books that have become part of the open domain (where the copyright has been allowed to expire or expired without renewal) are available for download in their entirety in PDF format. These are a few of the ones I've gotten:

   - A Handbook for Farmers & Dairymen
   - Garden Farming
   - The American Kitchen Gardener
   - The Farm
   - Gardening for Profit
   - The Country Life Movement in the United States
   - The Garden Yard
   - Country Life
   - Rural Affairs
   - The Elements of Agriculture
   - The Gardenette or City Backyard Gardening

   Most of these were published during the late nineteenth century, and from I've browsed of them so far, they will prove to be very interesting reading.

   Posted 2 years ago #

10. Mike (tfb)
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    I, uh, third on the "old books". Thanks, MarkF, for sending me back to the Soil & Health Agriculture Library. I found it around 4-5 years ago when I was spending winters doing lots of reading, because it has copies of two organic classics: The Living Soil by Lady Eve Balfour (1948) and An Agricultural Testament by Sir Albert Howard (1943). These are definite must-reads (I particularly appreciated knowing the context of these early "organics" books: these guys were mapping out the contrasts between traditional farming and industrial agriculture just as big agriculture was really picking up steam...).

    Now I went back and found so much more excellent stuff, like the extremely cool small grain system in One Straw Revolution: The Natural Way of Farming by Masanobu Fukuoka, and Farmers of Forty Centuries: or Traditional Agriculture in China, Korea and Japan by F.H. King (1911), another well-known organics related title.

    I just checked out Root Development of Vegetable Crops by John E. Weaver and William Bruner (1927), which has cross-section drawings of different stages of root development for over 30 garden vegetables. It's amazing. This is one that I'm going to print out. If you think about things growing, you've gotta see this...

    There's so much great reading!!!!

    Posted 2 years ago #

11. alanRobertsRoost
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    I'm a big fan of the Albrecht Papers (you can get them through Acres. and if you don't get their magazine you should!!) If you want to include animals on the farm i would start with Small-Scale Livestock Farming by Carol Ekarius. Eventually, you will need more info, but it is a good place to start for chickens, goats, sheep, cows, etc. I'd also throw the Apple Grower - A Guide for the Organic Orchardist. A great read with lots of ideas beyond orcharding. I'd also add Anna Eddy's Solviva just to push the edge of what can be done.

    Posted 1 year ago #

12. Mike (tfb)
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    Solviva sounds great. I read some reviews at Amazon.com, a kinda polarized, love it or not like it much reaction: for a tiny farming book, always a good sign...! I'm gonna get it.

    I got The Complete Vegetable and Herb Gardener, recommended earlier in this thread, a few weeks ago. I'll post a comment when I've used it more.

    Posted 1 year ago #

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