Teaming with Microbes: The Organic Gardener’s Guide to the Soil Food Web
Author: Jeff Lowenfels & Wayne Lewis
When we use chemical fertilizers, we injure the microbial life that sustains plants, and then become increasingly dependent on an arsenal of toxic substances. Teaming with Microbes offers an alternative to this vicious circle, and details how to garden in a way that strengthens, rather than destroys, the soil food web. You’ll discover that healthy soil is teeming with life—not just earthworms and insects, but a staggering multitude of bacteria, fungi, and other microorganisms. This must-have guide is for everyone, from those devoted to organic gardening techniques to weekend gardeners who simply want to grow healthy plants without resorting to chemicals.
Teaming with Fungi: The Organic Grower’s Guide to Mycorrhizae
Author: Jeff Lowenfels
Teaming with Fungi is an important guide to mycorrhizae and the role they play in agriculture, horticulture, and hydroponics. Almost every plant in a garden forms a relationship with fungi, and many plants would not exist without their fungal partners. By better understanding this relationship, home gardeners can take advantage of the benefits of fungi, which include an increased uptake in nutrients, resistance to drought, earlier fruiting, and more. This must-have guide will teach you how fungi interact with plants and how to best to employ them in your home garden.
Teaming with Nutrients: The Organic Gardener’s Guide to Optimizing Plant Nutrition
Author: Jeff Lowenfels
Just as he demystified the soil food web in his ground-breaking book Teaming with Microbes, in this new work Jeff Lowenfels explains the basics of plant nutrition from an organic gardener’s perspective. Where Teaming with Microbes used adeptly used microbiology; Teaming with Nutrients employs cellular biology.
Backyard Medicine: Harvest and Make Your Own Herbal Remedies
Author: Julie Bruton-Seal & Matthew Seal
Backyard Medicine is a beautiful book, packed with nearly 300 color photographs and over 120 herbal remedies that you can make yourself. It gives a fascinating insight into the literary, historic, and world-wide application of the fifty common plants that it covers. It is the sort of book you can enjoy as an armchair reader or use to harvest and make your own herbal remedies from wild plants. Anyone who wants to improve his or her health in the same way that human-kind has done for centuries around the world, by using local wild plants and herbs, will find this book fascinating and useful.
Polyface Designs: A Comprehensive Construction Guide for Scalable Farming Infrastructure
Author: Joel Salatin, Chris Slattery & Justin Rhodes
Have you wondered how to build the Polyface broiler shelter, or the dolly to move it, or an Eggmobile, Gobbledygo or Shademobile? For folks getting started, folks adding enterprises, or folks wanting a cheaper bootstrap way to build portable livestock infrastructure, Polyface Designs has all the diagrams and do-it-yourself building specifications. Joel Salatin wrote the text and Polyface former apprentice and engineer extraordinaire Chris Slattery did the drawings. Ultimately practical, the book includes how to build a corral, a home-made head gate and even how to select the right axle for your project. Square footage requirements for the deep bedding hay shed and area advice for pig pastures make this the definitive repository for a lifetime of Polyface experimentation.
Stocking Up: The Third Edition of America’s Classic Preserving Guide
Author: Carol Hupping
With more than 300 recipes for preservable foods—from old standards like casseroles, fruit leather, and ice cream to new favorites such as sun-dried tomatoes, herb vinegars, and salt- and sugar-free versions of basic fare, Stocking Up covers everything for the home cook. Hundreds of charts and illustrations simplify preserving chores and choices for everyone interested in stocking up on wholesome, natural foods.
Your Successful Farm Business: Production, Profit, Pleasure
Author: Joel Salatin
Twenty years ago Joel Salatin wrote You Can Farm, which has launched thousands of farm entrepreneurs around the world. With another 20 years of experience under his belt, bringing him to the half-century mark as a full-time farmer, he decided to build on that foundation with a sequel, a graduate level curriculum.
The Winter Harvest Handbook: Year Round Vegetable Production Using Deep-Organic Techniques and Unheated Greenhouses
Author: Eliot Coleman
With The Winter Harvest Handbook, everyone can have access to organic farming pioneer Elliot Coleman’s hard-won experience. Gardeners and farmers can use the innovative, highly successful methods Coleman describes in this comprehensive handbook to raise crops throughout the coldest of winters.
Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving
Author: Judi Kingry, Lauren Devine & Sarah Page
The hugely bestselling Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving has been broadly updated to reflect changes over the last 15 years with new recipes and larger sections on low sugar and fermentation. Ball Home Canning Products are the gold standard in home preserving supplies, the trademark jars on display in stores every summer from coast to coast. This companion to their products is this bible of home preserving from the experts on the practice which has sold more than a million copies. The book includes 400 innovative recipes for salsas, savory sauces, pickles, chutneys, relishes and of course, jams, jellies, and fruit spreads. The book includes comprehensive directions on safe canning and preserving methods plus lists of required equipment and utensils. Specific instructions for first-timers and handy tips for the experienced make this book a valuable addition to any kitchen library.