farm city

Okay, I just finished reading this book and must say that it was wonderful! If you love small-time farming, urban farming, or farm animals (especially raising them), then I think you'll love it too. It's nearly enough to make me want to move to the city to start farming there. Nearly, but not really. I love the countryside too much for that, but if for some reason I found myself in the city, I also might find myself following a similar path.


Check it out...

Farm City: The Education of an Urban Farmer

a wonderful little book

I just finished reading The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein. And while it has absolutely nothing at all to do with farming, I feel the need to share it with you. A gem of a book, it has many little pearls of wisdom in it that are quite thought provoking. At least for me. Have you read it? What did you think?

the bucolic plague

Don't you just love that title?

So do I, which is why I bought this book...

This week, I read said book. And enjoyed it very much. 

It's not really about farming so much as it is about two guys that fall in love with a mansion/farm, buy it, and get in over their heads. It's light entertainment and a quick and easy read. 

"no one with land should be without a job"

I just read a blog post by Gene Logsdon on this subject. Logsdon is a wonderful writer with strong opinions about small farms and farmers - he very much believes in them. Maybe it's just the times, but my thoughts have been running along the same path. There is so much you can do with just a little land, and it really doesn't take all that much. It doesn't even have to be your own, (although if you're going to use someone else's land to farm, you should probably ask first... just saying). Anyway, there are folks farming in cities and suburbs whose total combined acreage, between their own and the rented/borrowed land, is between 1/4 and 1/2 acre. And they are making at least a part, if not all, of their living from it! Amazing, right? Yes, it's hard work. The days are long and during the summer you may be out in the garden every day of the week. But if it's something you love, then it's worth it.

As you know, I'm putting in a greenhouse and starting a market garden. Hopefully next year, a not-insignificant portion of my income will come from these endeavors. But that's all I'm going to say about that - I don't want to run the risk of jinxing myself by putting too much out there, too soon, if you know what I mean.

(If you haven't read any of Gene Logsdon's work, check him out. My favorite book of his is "The Contrary Farmer".)

lasagna gardening

No, it's not about raising vegetables for lasagna. It's about a method of gardening that utilizes a layering system (basically sheet composting on steroids) to reduce the work it takes to make and maintain a garden.

Rather than digging or tilling the soil, the author encourages us to build it up by layering organic materials on top of the soil before planting and then keeping it mulched once the plants are growing and throughout the season.

I'm giving it a whirl on two new gardens this fall in preparation for spring planting. For the herb/perennial bed a thick layer of spoiled hay has been laid down already and more will be added on top of that as fall progresses. By spring the soil underneath should be soft and loose from the work of microbes and earthworms, and then I'll plant the herb seedlings right into it without any tilling at all. For the new cut flower garden, it will be a modified version of this method. the beds were spread with manure, tilled and planted in spring oats as a cover crop with the paths left untilled and covered with wood chips. Once the spring oats have been winter-killed, the beds will get layered with various mulches. Next spring, flower seeds and seedlings will be planted directly without further tilling.

Eventually, I want to do all of the gardens in permanent beds with walkways in between and hopefully do away with tilling altogether. As with all of this, a little bit at a time and we'll see how it goes.

books and dogs, two things I love

I love my dogs - I really do. But sometimes...

I bought a new book last week, something rarely done anymore since re-discovering the library as an adult. I used to buy books all the time because I love them so much, but they are just so expensive when the budget is tight. Therefore, new book purchases are few and far between these days and are reserved for those that will certainly be re-read. Multiple times. Which makes buying and owning a new book something to look forward to.

How is this pertinent to the tiny little farm? Well, after recently discovering Eliot Coleman and his writing, I promptly went online to the local library's web site and reserved all of his books that were available. And saw he had a new one out - "The Winter Harvest Handbook: Year Round Vegetable Production Using Deep Organic Techniques and Unheated Greenhouses". Since it's a new book and won't be available for inter-library loan for a year, I splurged and ordered a copy from Amazon. It came on Wednesday and by Thursday I was reading and thoroughly enjoying it. A beautiful book, I was taking great care to not mess it up. (Can you see where this is going? No? Hang on.) So yesterday morning after enjoying the book with my morning coffee, I carefully put it on the end table and left to go to the ceramic studio to glaze a couple of pieces. Coming home, I found my beautiful new book on the floor with it's cover eaten off. Eaten. Completely off. Oh, the book is still okay. None of the pages were chewed and so certainly it's still totally readable, but it no longer has it's shiny new cover. That's in somebody's stomach.

I love my dogs - I really do.

Micro-Eco Farming

I read this a little while ago and posted about it on my other blog, but thought the subject matter would be more appropriate here. As I said then, the book is somewhat lightweight, but also interesting and inspiring. It explores the emergence of "micro-farms" - farmers that are operating on tiny acreages and achieving high yields using organic and sustainable practices.

One of the books that inspired me to try my own tiny little farm, it started me thinking about what and how I could grow things.

What: Heirloom fruits and vegetables that might have fallen out of favor due to their inability to be shipped or held for long distances and times, but which could be perfect for local consumption.

How: Restoring and improving the health and balance of the soil, thereby increasing the health and nutrition of what we eat. Specifically, I'll be adding lime this fall, and greensand and kelp in the spring. I'd also like to source rock dust. All of these amendments contain micro-nutrients that can be lost due to poor farming methods and which chemical fertilizers can't replace. I have also added and will continue to add straw and animal bedding as mulch and have begun composting almost everything that doesn't walk away.

Part of the fun of this is to see just how much of a difference can be made in the health and productivity of the garden.

another good read

A lighthearted, yet thought-provoking book that actually made me laugh out loud in a couple of places. In it, the author chronicles his experiences of his first year in his attempt to "live green" on a ranch in New Mexico. From battles with his rose-eating goats, to driving a truck whose exhaust smells like Kentucky Fried Chicken, we are given an insiders view into the ups and downs, the joys and sorrows of learning to live more in tune with the earth and less in tune with fossil fuel.
Farewell, My Subaru: An Epic Adventure in Local Living

what I'm reading now

Living Seasonally

by Joe Eck and Wayne Winterrowd

A wonderfully written book that's a pleasure to read. It puts into words so much of what I feel but don't quite know how to express about gardening. You know, like when I get asked why bother growing potatoes when you can buy them for almost nothing... my answer is usually less than eloquent, like "ummm, because it feels good?" There's so much about the love of growing things that's hard to verbalize, but these two guys seem to manage it.

Also at times, when reading this book, I wanted to be them (except for the part about living in Vermont - somewhere warmer is more up my alley).