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The CONTRARY FARMER
by Gene Logsdon
No learned gentleman farmer, Logsdon earns his moments of lyricism by analyzing at length the daily demands on the cottage farmer (one whose holdings are much smaller than the 50 acres that economists deem "small"). He recommends alternatives: ways to avoid backbreaking work, to use gardens to test prospective crops, to ameliorate the "gruesome" tasks of butchering and tail docking, to access water for irrigation, to avoid the pitfalls of "controlled rational grazing," to determine the most functional crop for the working cottage farm (it's corn), and so on. All this by a man who also reads widely and has a down-home sense of humor, as well as no reluctance to express his opinions. So if at first you think that these farming essays are too technical for you, you're wrong. "Yeah, I could do that--avoid buying gadgets I don't need, be a lender rather than a borrower, live near a village where I can buy a home for $40,000," we muse, even if eventually we hear from Logsdon that we must "learn to fix cars and tractors" ourselves, and sigh, "Too much, too much." Logsdon deserves a larger audience than he will probably get. (Roland Wulbert)
See also The CONTRARY FARMER'S INVITATION TO GARDENING ...by Gene Logsdon
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FAMILY FRIENDLY FARMING: A Multi-Generationals Home-Based Business Testament
by Joel Salatin
Family friendly farming offers hope for stressed families, dissatisfied employees, and hurried-harried lifestyles. It is no secret that family farms are in trouble. The average age of US farmers is over 60 and the brightest, best young people flee from farming. This leaves our precious rural landscape not cared for by true stewards of the land. Owners who think interms of seasons and generations, instead of 4th quarter profits. Joel and his family have demonistrated, and openly shared, their experiences, both successes and failures about what it take to have a successful, Earth friendly family farm. If you are thinking about farming this book is not only one you must read - but it is one you must study. Hats off and a standing ovation to the Salatin family for helping show us the way to a better paradigm of food production. (Andy Lee)
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FIVE ACRES and INDEPENDENCE: A Handbook for Small Farm Management
by Maurice Grenville Kains, Maurice G. Kain, J. E. Oldfield
I have a 1946 edition of this book which my father used as a reference in supplying our family all of our food from 1948 until 1962 and a large portion of our food thereafter. I have referred to it on a regular basis since 1972. While the precise numbers for costs and quantity of production are dated, the basic principles for successful small farming are clearly elucidated. You can update the costs and quantities yourself. Some of the information on animal breeds should be updated by additional research. But the priciples are all here. The chapters on "City vs. Country Life" and "Tried and True Ways to Fail" are essential reading if you have never been involved in agriculture previously. I have many reference books, and this is one of the best...with a tattered cover and yellowed pages! (Anonymous) |
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FOREST GARDENING: Cultivating an Edible Landscape
by Robert A. De J. Hart
A holistic approach encompassing health issues, spirituality, and environmental concerns governs Hart's philosophy of "forest gardening" --akin to multistory gardens maintained by certain indigenous societies. Hart and a partner have implemented just such a garden on a small farm in Shropshire, England, and Hart's ardent treatise champions a union of modern technological methods and machines with ecologically sound practices. Interplanting edible crops is utmost: herbs and fruiting shrubs, "fodder-bearing" trees, and a variety of perennial plants. Highlights include mention of other communities that have achieved great degrees of self-sufficiency, where a sacred view of man's connectedness to nature appears inextricably linked to low-maintenance symbiotic plantings, appreciation of handcrafted objects, a vegan diet, and independent lifestyle. (Alice Joyce)
The author believes harmony (peace) on this planet is highly correlated with an approach to gardening that recognizes the value of plants and all living things. He blends history, philosophy, and anthropology together as he talks about plants, vegetables, herbs, nuts, animals, and trees. He offers practical ways in dealing with "natural" problems associated with farming. Best part of the book is his appendixes where he lists drought resistant plants, wetland plants, sun loving herbs, shade loving herbs, etc. He provides an excellent bibliography. The author loves this planet. This is a thoughtful essay on the proper relationship of human beings to animals and plants on this planet. (maslow3@earthlink.net, Seattle, WA)
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HANDY FARM DEVICES and HOW TO MAKE THEM
by Rolfe Cobleigh
Originally published in 1909, "Handy Farm Devices" is more than an engaging trip down memory lane. For any small farmer or homesteader, the techniques and devices described in detail are just as useful, durable, and fully functional today as they were 75 years ago. You will learn to build a portable chicken coop, a stone boat (for moving stone), a lightweight orchard ladder, gates that don't sag, and a handy wood splitter, as well as rudimentary farm structures, well houses, bee hives, a baby's cradle, a cheese press and much more. The charming, turn-of-the-century language and useful and inspirational quotes from Shakespeare, the Bible, Bacon, Longfellow and many others make this book a delight to read. (Mark A. Hetts) |
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LIVING AT NATURE'S PACE: Farming and the American Dream
by Gene Logsdon, Wendell Berry
Logsdon is as impersonal as a politician seeking office in these essays on the small commercial farmer. The operant word is commercial, for Logsdon is no gentleman farmer. Although he writes about the spiritual rewards of farming, he always counterposes to them the thoroughly material woes suffered by the small "food and fiber producer"--his term for farmer. Such attention to terminology bespeaks Logsdon's resistance to the conventional wisdoms of the agribusiness executive, the noble ecological farmer, and even his constituency, the vanishing commercial farmer. It indicates, too, three pervasive features of his writing: tough-mindedness, historical perspective, and close attention to particularities. Thus, when he discusses the decline of the small commercial farmer, he invokes not some vague urban alienation but the changing curriculum in the department of agriculture at Ohio State; and when he writes about small farmers, he describes in detail--skillfully enough to shame most professional ethnographers--extended conversations in the Pour House restaurant. So we take seriously his prophecy that small farming will revive. Even should it fail, his writing documents with rare honesty and perspicacity a calling that has become all but invisible to most of us. (Roland Wulbert)
The author (Two Acre Eden, 1971) has written a good deal about farming in books and articles, and these essays (1980-92) were written, by Logsdon's own admission, ``out of anger'' at the decline of rural society, the result, he believes, of ``a nation's greed.'' Here he targets some root causes--from educational, media and governmental malfeasances. In 1986 Logsdon took on some of the thorny matters leading to ``agricultural suicide'': the emphasis on surplus, insuring market glut; interest-rate devilment; and particularly the 70's boom psychology, then the lowering inflation, undercutting the paper- rich farmer who'd learned to borrow money, buy a farm and buy another when the price rose. In a 1980 essay, Logsdon has an instructive imaginary dialogue with three model farmers-- ``agribusiness''; the middle-income farmer; and--the happiest--the small farmer. (Definitely teacher's pet, this last is the skilled farmer like the Amish variety Logsdon admires: doesn't borrow or buy new equipment, rotates crops, uses no herbicide, etc.) In other essays, Logsdon comes down heavily on the side of the small-scale farm, which diversifies with complementary, independent farm units. He has pleasant things to say about horses and old tools, all economically sound. He is merciless, though, in his precision- bombing of the colleges of agriculture, mere ``havens for golf-turf science'' and for the waste of soil through heavy machinery, toxic chemicals, and erosion. The closing essays are nice appreciations of woodcutters' pleasures and of viewing the acres (Logsdon paces his in Ohio.) With an introduction by poet Wendell Berry, a sturdy blast for the rural life. Good reading for farmers and Aggie majors and for those who might ponder, as consumers, Logsdon's caveat: ``It is cheaper to raise a zucchini in your garden than on your megafarm.'' (Kirkus Associates)
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MAKING YOUR SMALL FARM PROFITABLE
by Ron Macher, Howard W., Jr. Kerr
The flow and content of this book was fantastic. As an organic farmer I was happy to see that most of the practices encouraged are very eco-friendly. Although a little redundant at times, the author makes some excellent points about crop sustainability and business planning. Lots of good reference info here as well. (Anonymous) |
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SMALL-SCALE LIVESTOCK FARMING: A Grass-Based Approach for Health, Sustainability, and Profit
by Carol Ekarius
My name is Carol Ekarius, and together with my husband, Ken Woodard, I've raised and marketed livestock for over a decade. Neither Ken, nor I, came from farming backgrounds, but we learned how to succeed in agriculture.
My intention with this book is to help thinking people accomplish their goals with livestock. It's for those who've been farming or ranching for most of their lives, for those who are just starting out, and for those who are dreaming of someday being a farmer or rancher. It's for those who want to make their living off of livestock, and those who just want to raise a few critters.
This isn't a cookbook, with a simple recipe for success in agriculture, because there is no such thing. But it is a book that will help you design a system that works for you, and that is environmentally and socially friendly. The book is broken into four sections (an overview, an animal husbandry section, a marketing section, and a planning section) so it's easy to jump in where you need help.
But this book isn't just about my husband and I, and how we've farmed. I include stories and information about other farmers and ranchers from throughout the United States--highlighting the things that have allowed them to be successful. One of my favorite parts of writing this book, was doing the interviews. These are can-do, will-do kind of folks, who haven't let hardships stop them from succeeding! I hope their stories inspire you. I know they inspired me. Good luck, and always pursue your dreams! (The author) |
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SUCCESSFUL SMALL-SCALE FARMING: An Organic Approach
by Karl Schwenke, Ben Watson (Editor)
This inspiring handbook contains everything small-farm owners need to know, from buying land to organic growing methods and selling cash crops.
From the Back Cover:
"When I first wrote Successful Small-Scale Farming eleven years ago," writes Karl Schwenke in the preface to this new edition, "an 'organic farmer' was synonymous with a 'lonely hippie troublemaker.' Today he is classed somewhere between a high-priced elitist and an opportunistic liar."
So begins this classic guide to organic small-scale agriculture, fully updated and revised for the 1990s -- for a new generation of readers who would like to live closer to the earth.
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YOU CAN FARM
by Joel Salatin (Introduction), Allan Nation
In YOU CAN FARM, Joel Salatin describes just how he runs his farm and why. By sticking to the example of his own experience and his own farm, he paints a vivid, detailed, and obviously accurate picture of how he makes his living from farming, and how you can, too.
Most of the farm activities he recommends require little up-front investment or experience. One can start small and expand as one learns the ropes.
We've used many of Salatin's ideas on our farm in Oregon, and they've worked very well for us, and we know a lot of other people who've put them to work as well.
Other writers focus too much on the romance and political correctness of ecologically responsible farming. But romance and political correctness don't pay the bills. "Sustainable agriculture" has to sustain the farmer as well as the land, or it's nothing but a snare and a delusion. Salatin shows a proven path to success and profitability. (Robert Plamondon) |
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