My box of back issues finally arrived. Reading through it may cause my head to explode (so many things to try, so little time :), but I’ll take the chance! This is the entire collection, seven years worth, of a fantastic market gardeners’ monthly newsletter called Growing for Market. Tiny farming lies in a kind of information nowhere land between gardening and large-scale agriculture. Most of what I do is straight from gardening methods, but the scale is a little…bigger, with things to do and problems to solve that just don’t happen in even a very large personal garden. Meanwhile, commercial farming info is all about tractors and agrochemicals and acres of one crop at a time. All wrong. So where do you learn the best way to stake 500 tomato plants, or how to keep veggies fresh for half a day at a hot outdoor summer market?
There’s very little out there addressing the market gardener specifically, and GfM does. Every article is stripped down and straight to the point, usually written by the actual growers, well-edited and comprehensive, and packed with practical “insider” details including the all-important costs of doing things. Having the whole collection is exactly like having hundreds and hundreds of expert market growers lined up in front of you, each in turn presenting you with concise chunks of their knowledge and experience in every area of microfarming. Yikes! I probably should’ve ordered this at the beginning of winter!!
Wow! Where does one get them from then?
There is a web site: growingformarket.com. You can see the package I got by clicking the Beginner’s Special button on the left side menu. I also bought the book Market Farming Success by Lynn Byczynski, who is the owner/editor of GfM, it’s good, but if you market garden already, much of the stuff you’ll know already. The back issues are killer, I’ve hardly started reading and already got tons of good stuff on everything from interns to wheel hoes! :) Oh, I also chatted briefly with Lynn a couple times on the phone. She’s in Lawrence, Kansas (US). She’s seems like a cool person!
I will look into this periodical.
Have you heard of Spin Farming? It seems like a good combination with tiny farms. It *is* tiny farms, but designed to make 50K off less than an acre, in city.
Victory to the Good.
Michael Crown: I’ve checked out the SPIN-farming site. I considered ordering the books, but from looking at the tables of contents for each of the 14-page booklets, it seems like you’re paying about $220 for a 210-page book if you get them all… I guess it’s good if it helps promote urban food farming… I’d have to see more! (I can be quick with initial opinions… ;) It would be good to hear from people who’ve checked it out. I’ll see what I can find online…