Keith Stewart covers everything you need to know to successfully grow and market your own organic vegetables and herbs. Offering expert tips on choosing a growing site, soil fertility, companion planting, irrigation, organic farming techniques, dealing with pests, and harvesting, Stewart also helps you design a business plan, manage employees, and find niche markets for your produce. This inspiring guide will help you turn your dream of a thriving farm into a profitable reality. A successful vegetable farm depends on business smarts - accounting, marketing, customer service - as much as planting and harvesting skills. Keith Stewart's practical advice and detailed in-the-field instruction guide you through every part of professional farming, from mapping your fields to designing a farmers' market stand.
Includes comprehensive coverage of: - Site selection and good soil maintenance - Tools, machinery, and greenhouses - Selecting and planting profitable crops - Organic weed and pest control - Harvesting and storing vegetables and herbs - Developing a business plan - Marketing, packaging, and selling your products Preface
Part I: In the Beginning 1 Thinking About Becoming a Farmer? 2 Looking for a Place of Your Own 3 The Farm Plan
Part II: Tools of the Trade 4 Tractors and Tractor Implements 5 Small Equipment and Tools 6 The Greenhouse 7 Growing Under Cover 8 Irrigation
Part III: Looking After the Land 9 Managing Your Soil 10 Cover Crops and Green Manures 11 Crop Rotation 12 Building Fertility
Part IV: The Crops We Grow 13 Our Most Profitable Crops 14 Garlic - Our Signature Crop 15 Let's Not Forget Herbs
Part V: Harvesting and Marketing 16 Harvesting and Storage 17 Marketing What You Grow 18 More on Farmers' Markets 19 Marketing Through the Seasons
Part VI: Competing Forces 20 Regarding Weeds 21 The Four-Legged Competition 22 Insects and Diseases
Part VII: Taking Care of Business 23 Running a Business 24 Looking After Number One
