Growing for the Farm and Market

Gaining Ground

Thinking about making the switch to organic farming? Read this book first. If you're already farming organically, but could benefit from the wisdom of farmers who have been there, this book  is also for you. Produced by Canadian Organic Growers, this classic guide is an invaulable resource for organic growers of all sizes. Full of practical advice and insights from people who have already transitioned to organic, including the challenges they faced and the solutions they came up with. 309 pages.

Growing Potatoes Organically

Part of the Practical Skills Handbook Series from Canadian Organic Growers. This book addresses one of the most heavily pesticide-dependent field crops. Written by a potato farmer with input from other farmers, the practical information in this book details organic production methods and managedment stategies for:

• Varietal selection & breeding
• Soil fertility
• Organic seed potato production
• Planting & cultivation
• Pests
• Diseases
• Harvesting & storage
• Marketing

120 pages.

Making Your Small Farm Profitable

By Ron Macher.
This practical, step-by-step guide to operating a small farm in the new millennium examines twenty alternative farming enterprises. Readers will learn how to target niche markets and sustain a farm's biological and economic health. 288 pages.

Manage Insects on your Farm

By Miguel A. Altieri
While every farming system is unique, the principles of ecological pest management apply universally. Manage Insects on Your Farm highlights ecological strategies that improve your farm's natural defenses and encourage beneficial insects to attack your worst pests. Learn about the principles of ecologically based pest management and the strategies of farmers around the world to address insect problems. Minimize insect damage with wise soil management and identify beneficial insects to put these "good bugs" to work for you. Examples of successful pest management strategies sprinkled throughout the book will stimulate your imagination to address insect problems and develop a more complex, more diverse ecosystem on your farm. 128 pages.

Managing Cover Crops Profitably

by SARE Outreach (Author), Andy Clark (Editor)
Managing Cover Crops Profitably explores how and why cover crops work and provides all the information needed to build cover crops into any farming operation. Revised and updated in 2007, the 3rd edition includes new chapters on brassicas and mustards, six new farm profiles, as well as a comprehensive chapter on the use of cover crops in conservation tillage systems. Updates throughout are based on more than 100 new literature citations and consultations with cover crop researchers and practitioners around the country. Appendices include seed sources and a listing of cover crop experts. 244 pages.

New Organic Grower

By Eliot Coleman.
A master's manual of tools and techniques for the home and market gardener. In this newly revised and expanded edition, Coleman continues to present the simplest and most sustainable ways of growing top-quality organic vegetables. Coleman updates practical information on marketing the harvest, on small-scale equipment and on farming and gardening for the long-term health of the soil. 352 pages.

Organic Farming Manual

by Ann Larkin Hansen

A Comprehensive Guide to Starting and Running a Certified Organic Farm: Whether you’re just starting out or transitioning from traditional farming techniques, this comprehensive guide has everything you need to know about growing and marketing organic produce, grains, meat, and dairy. Includes detailed information on how to obtain organic certification. 438 pages.

Organic Field Crop Handbook

From the Canadian Organic Growers comes the second edition of this standard reference for organic field crop growers. One third of the book is devoted to detailed descriptions of how to grow various field crops based on farmer interviews. Each crop profile includes suitable crop rotations, intercroppping, seeding rates, weed and pest control, harvesting methods, and more. Crops covered include cereals, pulses, broadleaf, forages, flax, industrial hemp, oilradish, potatoes, and sunflowers. 292 pages.

Organic Livestock Handbook

This Canadian Organic Growers handbook covers the principles of organic livestock husbandry including chapters on health care, intensive grazing, manure management, fly and parasite control, handling to minimize stress, marketing, certification, and record keeping. In-depth information is provided for the main types of livestock that are particularly significant in organic farming systems. Farm profiles from Canada and the northern US illustrate a variety of organic livestock enterprises. 174 pages.

Sell What You Sow

By Eric Gibson
The definitive book on high-value produce marketing for farmers and market gardeners, this book delivers hands-on information for becoming a master marketer. Topics covered include marketing plans; promotion and advertising; processed products; customer service; merchandising; pricing strategies; rules, regulations, and insurance; selecting crops for maximum return; and selling through venues such as farmers’ markets, restaurants, roadside markets, pick-your-own operations, rural recreation farms, subscription farming, mail-order and retail outlets, and specialty wholesale channels. 304 pages.

Successful Small Scale Farming

By Karl Schwenke
This inspiring handbook contains everything small-farm owners need to know, from buying land to organic growing methods and selling cash crops. 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.

Successful Small-Scale Farming introduces anyone owning (or planning to own) a small farm to both the harsh realities and the real potential involved in making a full- or part-time living on the land. Karl Schwenke's clear-eyed approach to the best farming methods covers a wide range of proven techniques and practical advice.

With today's increased concern for the quality of the food we eat and the health of our environment, Successful Small-Scale Farming offers a unique and invaluable perspective on the future of agriculture. Karl Schwenke's message -- that small-scale farms can be cleaner, smarter, and more efficient than corporate agribusiness -- has never been so relevant as it is today. 144 pages.

Sustainable Vegetable Production from Start Up to Market

By Vernon P. Grubinger
Successful vegetable farmers do much more than produce vegetables; they also manage money, people, and natural resources effectively. For aspiring and beginning vegetable growers, experienced growers, extension personnel, classroom educators, and serious gardeners, this book introduces the full range of processes for moderate-scale vegetable production using ecological practices that minimize the need for synthetic inputs and maximize stewardship of resources. Individual chapters address principles and practices essential to planning, launching, and managing a vegetable production business: the practical implications of sustainability; getting started; farm business management; marketing; soil fertility; composting; crop rotation; cover crops; tillage equipment and field preparation; seeds and transplants; irrigation and spraying systems; harvest and postharvest handling; season extension; integrated pest management; and environmentally friendly strategies for managing insects, diseases, weeds, and wildlife. Thirty-two profiles detail the experiences of individual vegetable growers and provide enterprise budgets for a number of crops. The book includes 91 illustrations, 36 sidebars, 20 tables, 6 appendixes, a glossary, and extensive references. 286 pages.

The Organic Comanion

The Organic Companion contains 50 of the best articles from over thirty years of publishing Thge Canadian Organic Grower magazine and its predecessors. Articles cover a variety of topics and are geared toward both experienced farmers and novice gardeners alike. Subjects include:

• Building healthy soil from air and organic matter
• Backyard permaculture
• Vegetables and their kin
• Fruits and nuts
• Hands, hoes, mulch and mowers: controlling weeds in the garden
• Seed saving
• Beginning beekeeping
• Profitability on the small farm

278 pages.