Organic Hobby Farming: A Practical Guide to Earth-Friendly Farming in Any Space (CompanionHouse Books) Growing Vegetables, Fruits, and Herbs, Raising Chickens, Keeping Bees, and More, the Natural Way - Softcover

Andy Tomolonis

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1933958588 ISBN 13: 9781933958583

Publisher: CompanionHouse Books, 2014

Synopsis

The ultimate guide to organic hobby farming!

• Building good soil, testing it, and improving it through crop rotation, compost, cover crops, and more
• Find the best crops for your location for higher yields with less work
• Choose livestock animals best suited to your space: chickens, honeybees, rabbits, or goats
• Control pests and diseases with natural methods, including attracting beneficial insects
• Create raised beds and tunnels to protect crops from insects and frost, and find ways to reduce weeding and watering
• Turn your hobby into profit, build a long-term business plan, sell farm-fresh produce at farm stands, restaurants, CSAs, and more

Whether you're a backyard grower, a suburban hobby farmer, have acres of land, or are just starting out, this book will help you turn your passion for gardening into a thriving organic farm!

Author Andy Tomolonis, a seasoned organic gardener and hobby farmer, provides valuable insights into creating and managing a successful farm using natural methods, explaining why it's the healthiest and most viable approach. Beyond the improved taste and exclusion of toxins, organic farming benefits farmers, families, and the environment. Learn how to eat healthier, save money, preserve the earth, and even turn your hobby farm into a small-scale business!

In these 386 pages, you'll learn how to assess your land's suitability for vegetables, fruit, or livestock and evaluate potential land for lease or purchase, considering its climate, soil, water, and geography. Discover cost-effective equipment choices from hand implements and wheelbarrows to tillers and tractors. Learn how to build the heart of your farm, healthy soil, by nurturing it with the right balance of nutrients and microbes for resilient plants and bountiful harvests! Evaluate and improve your soil quality, protect it from erosion and contamination, and learn about the soil organisms crucial to plant health.

A month-by-month overview of the farmer's year helps you develop an organized plan, whether to feed your family or support a small business. Get instructions for sowing seeds indoors, transplanting seedlings, guarding against pests and weeds, harvesting, planting cover crops, and extending the season.

A comprehensive directory of vegetable crops and herbs features heirlooms and hybrids varieties, with details on soil preparation, sowing, companion planting, and natural pest control. Get tips for harvesting crops, prepping them for display, and bringing the goods to market. Explore fruits and berries, including Asian pears, peaches, nectarines, apples, blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, and strawberries. Learn how to choose the best varieties for your region, prepare the soil for maximum production, and deal with pests and diseases organically.

Learn the basics of raising chickens for organic eggs or pastured meat: Select the right breeds, raise a flock from day-old chicks, and protect the birds from predators and pests the natural way. Explore beekeeping to produce healthy local honey and find insight into keeping meat rabbits and dairy goats.

If you want to turn a profit, this book offers practical advice on selling to local restaurants, farmers' markets, or via community-supported agriculture (CSA). Develop a business plan, set goals, create budgets and marketing opportunities, and explore the pros and cons of becoming USDA certified organic. Learn how to transform your hobby farm into a specialty destination for heirloom varieties, organic raw honey, preserves, dried herbs, or heritage livestock.

Grow safer, more nutritious food, learn about your soil and plants, support the local food movement, and help save the planet one acre at a time with Organic Hobby Farming!

About this title

About the Author

Andy Tomolonis is a longtime organic gardener, horticultural writer, and former columnist for The Boston Herald. He writes the popular blog, The Dirt-Cheap Gardener for SouthCoast Media Group. Organic Hobby Farming is his first book.

From the Back Cover

Calling all backyard organic growers, experienced hobby farmers, or those who are dreaming of the day. Whether you yearn to own a peach grove in Georgia, raise chickens or honeybees in Ontario, or plant an acre of greens in Virginia or Northern California, small-scale agriculturists—even those just starting out—will profit from the comprehensive advice offered in this book. Whether your farm is a single acre in the suburbs or 25 acres in the country, Organic Hobby Farming presents a wealth of information that shows readers how to...

START

• Learn about the importance of soil: how to test and improve it through crop rotation, composting, cover crops, and other organic means.
• Choose the right equipment—from hand tools and wheelbarrows to rotary tillers and tractors.
• Weigh the pros and cons of becoming USDA Certified Organic.

GROW

• Select the ideal crops to achieve higher yields with less work all season long.
• Decide whether to add small livestock to the farm and which animals are best suited to the space available.
• Adopt natural methods to control pests and diseases.

BUILD

• Create raised beds and make your own low tunnels to protect crops from insects and early frosts.
• Learn clever earth-friendly ideas to cut down on weeding and watering.
• Decide whether you want to turn your hobby into a business. Then set goals and build the foundation for a long-term business plan.

MARKET

• Harvest and sell your farm-fresh produce through farmers' markets, farm stands, restaurants, and more.
• Get tips on how to start and grow a successful community-supported agriculture (CSA) program.
• Create marketing opportunities to increase demand and prices.

Author and part-time organic hobby farmer Andy Tomolonis describes growing organic as "an effort to work with Nature and enhance her magic," creating chemically free foods that are desirable for health reasons and because it makes good green sense—good for the Earth and good for the wallet!

Edition details

• Publisher: CompanionHouse Books
• Publication date: 2014
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1933958588
• ISBN 13: 9781933958583
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 384