November 6, 2012 – 7:00 am
If you’re looking for a good resource on the actual practicalities of taking on market gardening, get a copy of this book. It’s full of deeply practical insights and uses multiple small-scale, successful vegetable growers direct experiences as templates for it’s planting and financial guides.
In the ways of synergies, Crop Planning for Organic Vegetable Growers actually recommends Allan Savory’s holistic goal setting (developed for Holistic Management of cattle, but applicable to many situations) as an approach to planning your farm’s financial management. Because if you go broke, it doesn’t matter how awesome your veggies are, you probably can’t keep growing them for a living. Read More »
This is such a beautiful book – perfect for those dreaming of farming (on whatever scale). While it’s been written for adults, I’ve discovered it’s also a great book for small fry – full of fun, accurate illustrations about interesting stuff like different cloud formations and roosters both.
Being questionably blessed with a 3 year old who already corrects me on my naming of tractor parts, this book is being well received at our farm, with its entries on ham curing, chicken comb styles, the history of the tractor and the innards of the artichoke… Read More »
January 29, 2012 – 6:00 am
Permaculture and Regenerative Agriculture are fortunately two fields that have lots of great resources. Books, DVDs, you name it. But where do you start? Which to read first? I thought I’d share our most-thumbed favorites.
We have this crate of books that travels to each Permaculture Design Course as the ‘student library’, and those books mostly line up with the ones we use on the farm, either for reference, for inspiration, or for discussing with students and wwoofers…
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December 21, 2011 – 6:00 am
The super-organism of the honeybee (apis mellifera) is not only awe-inspiring, it’s worth understanding. Both for your own personal gratification, and for the pollination of your nation.
This list is a part of the notes we provide to students at the Natural Beekeeping courses we run with Tim Malfroy. It’s a list of Tim’s favorite books on bees, garnered from a lifetime of active research, practice, and discussion. Read More »
December 9, 2011 – 6:00 am
Colour plate from the back of ‘The Farming Ladder’
This list of books by organic market garden expert Eliot Coleman was given to us by the Allsun Farm crew. Apparently these are the 12 books that most influenced Eliot during his transition from school teacher to organic market gardener extraordinaire. They’re pretty radical! Eliot writes:
“In order to understand the present and prepare for the future, it helps to understand the past. So when I was asked what books would be best to help someone understand what a biologically based agriculture is all about, I put together this collection, which I nicknamed “The Fertile Dozen”.
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October 11, 2011 – 11:26 am
So here we have it. Folks, this ain’t normal: A Farmer’s Advice for Happier Hens, Healthier People, and a Better World. At last, after 7 self-published books on everything from ground-breaking poultry systems to inter-generational farming strategies, Joel Salatin has finally written a book aimed fair and square at the mainstream.
A self-professed Christian Libertarian environmentalist capitalist lunatic farmer, Joel Salatin is one of a kind. His family enterprise, PolyFace Farms in the Shenandoah Valley of Virgina, USA, is a unique example of profitable family ‘beyond organic’ farming. But that’s not what this book is about. Read More »
October 1, 2011 – 6:00 am
Here’s a bunch of Forest Garden books and resources we’ve put together for the students of our Food Forest Garden workshops. There is so very much to learn, read, think about and absorb here! And it’s all incredibly useful and exciting information.
Many thanks to Milkwood Farm’s resident plant-whisperer Dan Harris Pascal for putting these resources together for everyone…
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August 27, 2011 – 6:00 am
Perennials, perennials, perennials. It’s all about perennials. Throw a stick near anyone enthused about permaculture or regenerative agriculture and they’ll squeak ‘perennials’ before they even duck.
This book is a very old, very readable, and very good edition to any library. It’s first edition came out in 1929, it reads like a combination of Foxfire, Joe Bageant , Joel Salatin and Bill Mollison, and it’s packed full of darn fine information relating to, yes, perennials. And hogs. Read More »
By milkwoodkirsten
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Posted in Education, Forest Gardening, Publications, Resources, Silviculture
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Also tagged bill mollison, book review, forest garden, joel-salatin, perennials, permaculture, trees
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August 16, 2011 – 6:00 am
Permaculture Pioneers is a new book looking at the trajectory of permaculture in Australia from the 1970′s until right now. It’s an amazing and humbling read. And it’s launching in Sydney next week on August 25th, with David Holmgren presenting.
At the same event there will be the Sydney premiere of Anima Mundi, a new doco on the future of this planet of ours. Anima Mundi features Vandana Shiva, Noam Chomsky, the Melbourne Permablitz crew and many more thinkers and doers. Sounds like a good night to me! Read More »
