Sustainable Market Farming: Intensive Vegetable Production on a Few Acres (Mother Earth News Books for Wiser Living)
Across North America, small-scale farming is having a genuine moment. More growers than ever are stepping up to meet the surging demand for locally sourced, organic produce, yet the books available to them have largely been written with the weekend hobbyist in mind. Pam Dawling's guide is a different creature entirely. It's written for people who mean business. Drawing on her years of hands-on experience feeding the roughly one hundred members of Twin Oaks Community in central Virginia, Dawling brings a rare combination of practical wisdom and real-world grit to every page. The result is a thorough, working manual for small-acreage farmers producing organic crops across all climate zones. Crop profiles cover the full growing calendar, with solid guidance on sowing, rotation, succession planting, pest and disease management, and getting your harvest stored properly. There's also useful material on newer production techniques, season extension, and choosing disease-resistant varieties that actually perform. Perhaps most valuably, the book doesn't shy away from the business side of farming, addressing the commercial skills that keep an enterprise financially viable. Whether you're just starting out at a farmers' market or running an established operation that's ready to sharpen its approach, this is a resource worth keeping close to hand.
- Author: Pam Dawling
- Publisher: New Society Publishers
- Genre: Gardening & Horticulture
- ISBN: 978-1550925128
- Pages: 912 pages