Useful websites
The job of growing food is surely one that any homesteader will want to reclaim from modern industrial society. But recently the matter of how food is grown has received much attention from all quarters. as it becomes clearer that the industrial approach to agriculture not only produces food that is unsatisfying and toxic, but unsustainable—the system may not even be able to continue producing its low-quality results in the quantities the world has come to expect, given the spiraling costs of fertilizer, seed, and fuel, and the nearly irreversible damage that industrial techniques do to finite soil supplies.
It is ironic that the least modern, lowest tech approach to gardening is healthier, less expensive, and more sustainable than its modern industrial counterpart. Often called organic gardening, it eschews insecticides and chemical fertilizers in favor of simple techniques that allow the farmer to continually improve the health of his soil by reincorporating organic material and encouraging the production of more. As the soil approaches full health, problems that once required special treatment simply disappear.
The primary drawback of organic gardening is that it doesn't scale well beyond the size of a single family farm; that in itself should tell us something. The primary advantage of organic gardening is that it does not exist in opposition to industrial agriculture, but independent of it. To switch to this older approach, a small-scale gardener need only give up his chemicals and industrial techniques. We have a few books that can help with this.
Eliot Coleman is one of America's leading practitioners of organic gardening and farming. He has pioneered a "plant-positive" approach to horticulture that surpasses chemical-dependent agriculture in every way—producing vegetables that are exceptionally nutritious, delicious, and healthy. His first book, The New Organic Grower, is an acknowledged classic which defines and explains a manageable model for producing high yields and high quality by intensely farming a small plot of land. His second book, Four-Season Harvest, encourages the reader to think outside the box and extend the vegetable growing season significantly through a combination of eating in season and using simple technologies to promote cold-weather growth.
Jerome Lange is not only a friend of ours, he one of Kentucky's leading practitioners of organic gardening and farming. He has closely followed and adapted the approach pioneered by his hero Eliot Coleman. We enthusiastically recommend his two (so far) books; the first, The Seven Keys, explains the seven most important elements that contribute to the success of an organic farm, while the second, Organizing the -INGs, covers the many different organizational issues that arise when managing a small-scale farm.
Sir Albert Howard. The nearly forgotten founder of the organic farming movement, Sir Albert Howard was a major influence on Wendell Berry, Joel Salatin, Eliot Coleman, and Jerome Lange. His two books are foundational, yet quite readable and full of practical advice. The Soil and Health is Howard's magnum opus, completed shortly before he died and giving a comprehensive explanation of how all elements of a healthy farm work together to ward off problems of plant and animal disease. An Agricultural Testament, written several years earlier, focuses more closely on the work Sir Albert did in India that led him to his understanding of how to farm. Both are filled with practical information that can be applied to your own efforts.
Some other very good books on gardening:
