"Heritage Apples" travels far beyond the grocery store of today to savor the apples of the past. These are the apple varieties--the Gravensteins, the Kings, the red-fleshed Pink Pearl--that link us to history, but through food movements and taste preferences are remerging as the fruit of the future. Heritage apples evoke memories and passion for some; for others they offer delicious, unexplored flavors and a connection to local farmers.Discover the histories behind the apples, and learn some startling apple facts. Identify the taste, appearance, and uses of 40 different heritage varieties and gain useful growing and harvesting information. Meet apple growers, cider-makers, and people fighting to preserve heritage apples, and join a lifestyle that embraces local and slow food movements. Then try the recipes Create delicious apple-based dishes, such as Chickpea-Apple Curry, French Apple Clafouti, Tarte Tatin, Apple Brownies, Apple Pie, and more. Expand your knowledge of one of our most popular fruits and celebrate its history with "Heritage Apples."

Herbert Koepf was a pioneer of biodynamics in Germany, the USA and in the UK. He was an expert teacher, and drew on his own practical background in farming. This book is a collection of some of Koepf's writings on key aspects of biodynamics. It includes practical guidance on building soil structure, preparing and applying biodynamic sprays, crop rotation, compost and composting methods. He also considers ways of researching the effectiveness of biodynamic methods, and measuring results. This is an invaluable guide for anyone working with biodynamic methods, offering Koepf's unique insights and wisdom on practical issues. This overview of Koepf's work is a newly-edited combination of four pamphlets: Compost, Biodynamic Sprays, Three Lectures on Biodynamics, and Research in Biodynamic Agriculture. Published in association with the Biodynamic Association.

Joel Morrow was editor of the journal Biodynamics for over thirty years, in which he published regular 'biographies' of vegetables. The 76 biographies in this book address all aspects of the vegetables, including how to grow them, their climate of origin, their transformation over time, and their nutritional and therapeutic potential. Arranged alphabetically -- from Asian Brassicas to Winter Squash -- this unique book is more than just a gardening guide. Inspired by Rudolf Steiner's spiritual view of nature, it offers a complete understanding of the vegetables, revealing their inner characteristics and helping growers to improve plant health and yields.

A lively and practical guide to organic gardening from a renowned garden expert.
Annie Spiegelman's down-to-earth wit and wisdom create the perfect primer for anyone with a passion for home-grown veggies or fresh-cut flowers, no matter what their skill level, location, or resources. Includes advice on:
-Learning to worship the worm and build a compost pile
-Landscape designs-start small in order to create a basic plan for a plot
-The secret to healthy soil (the only way to have a healthy garden)
-Irrigation systems and strategies to conserve water
-Proper pruning-from roses to trees
-How to combine vegetables to make them thrive
-How to let your garden go native and become drought tolerant
-Edible landscaping and gardening in small spaces
"Talking Dirt" is a one-stop handbook that features resources for shopping, learning, and promoting environmentally sound garden practices within local communities.

We have lost touch with the planet that feeds us and its relationship to our health, happiness and climate. Through thought-provoking conversations with inspiring thinkers and writers, and seasonal recipes created by leading chefs, Recipes to Reconnect provides a blueprint for a better way of eating and living. Organised seasonally, each conversation is paired with a selection of recipes, carefully created by chefs in response to the ideas discussed. Themes explored include gut health, rewilding, mushrooms, farming, microbes, soil, fasting, sleep and mental health. Among the recipe and conversation pairings, Harry Boglione's discussion of regenerative farming is followed by Jeremy Lee's foraged dishes, Isabella Tree and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall are paired on the theme of rewilding, Rachel de Thample's fermented recipes respond to Dr Alanna Collen's discussion of microbes, Simon Rogan's mushroom recipes are inspired by Merlin Sheldrake's passion for fungi and following Charlie Morley's interview on lucid dreaming are Skye Gyngell's recipes, all designed to enable good sleep.

Do less, produce more, and grow soil that feeds crops using chemical-free, organic no-till methods Andrew Mefferd, veteran farmer, author of The Organic No-Till Farming Revolution, and editor of Growing for Market magazine, brings you the ultimate guide to getting started with no-till farming. Yet there are many ways to do no-till, including mulching with compost, cardboard, straw, silage tarps, and more. Plus plenty of conflicting advice on how to get started. Practical No-Till Farming is here to help, sorting the wheat from the chaff and the horse manure from the plastic mulch. Coverage includes: How to assess your farm for no-till options considering climate, soil, and crop selection Assessment of common no-till methods, including pros and cons, materials, and the relative costs A decision-making matrix for choosing the most appropriate methods for your context How-to for each no-till method, including what to do and when Dealing with bindweed, symphylans, and other difficult weeds and pests Maximizing productivity of no-till beds Special coverage of both organic vegetable and flower no-till market farming Ideal for small-scale growers everywhere, Andrew Mefferd, veteran farmer, author of The Organic No-Till Farming Revolution, and editor of Growing for Market magazine, brings you the ultimate guide to getting started with no-till farming.

Originally published in 1936, this book is a detailed guide to the cultivation of the mushroom. Full of detailed information and instruction on growing and harvesting, this book is still of great practical use to today's grower. Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. Hesperides Press are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork. Contents Include : Introduction - The Nature of the Mushroom - Site and Soil - Buildings - Manures - Spawns - Making up Beds - Care of Beds - Diseases and Pests and Their Control - Picking and Packing - Exhibiting - Some Companion Crops - Marketing and Costings - Cooking Recipes

Barbara Pleasant and Deborah L. Martin turn the compost bin upside down with their liberating system of keeping compost heaps right in the garden, rather than in some dark corner behind the garage. The compost and the plants live together from the beginning in a nourishing, organic environment. The authors' bountiful, compost-rich gardens require less digging, weeding, mulching, and even less planting. And here's one of the best parts -- no more backbreaking slogs from compost bin to garden. The authors even identify the plants that benefit most from compost and how the elements of a composted garden work together.
A natural Six-Way Compost Gardening System provides the ruling principles for successfully improving every garden with healthy compost. Readers will learn how to:
1. Choose labor-saving sites that keep gardens and compost piles as close to one another as possible.
2. Work with the compostable riches produced at home. Every yard and kitchen produces plenty of material -- easily identified with at-a-glance charts -- for a great start.
3. Help composting critters do their work by balancing ingredients, adding high-nitrogen meals when needed, and keeping the compost moist.
4. Reuse recycling bin items, such as large plastic buckets and cardboard boxes, as composting equipment.
5. Keep diversity in the mix. The magic is in the variety of the components and how they work together to create "gardener's gold."
6. Customize composting to suit specific garden needs, always concentrating first on soil care.
Adhering to these guidelines, Pleasant and Martin bring readers on a thorough, informative tour of materials and innovative techniques, leading the way to an efficient and rewarding home gardening system. Their methods are sure to help gardeners turn average vegetable plots into rich incubators of healthy produce, bursting with fresh flavor, and flower beds into rich tapestries of bountiful blooms all season long.

To ensure food security and restore the health of the planet, we need to move beyond industrial agriculture and return to the practice of small-scale, local farming. Bioshelter Market Garden: A Permaculture Farm describes the creation of a sustainable food system through a detailed case study of the successful year-round organic market garden and permaculture design at Pennsylvania's Three Sisters Farm. At the heart of Three Sisters is its bioshelter--a solar greenhouse that integrates growing facilities, poultry housing, a potting room, storage, kitchen facilities, compost bins, a reference library, and classroom area. Bioshelter Market Garden examines how the bioshelter promotes greater biodiversity and is an energy-efficient method of extending crop production through Pennsylvania's cold winter months. Both visionary and practical, this fully illustrated book contains a wealth of information on the application of permaculture principles. Some of the topics covered include: * Design and management of an intensive market garden farm * Energy systems and biothermal resources * Ecological soil management and pest control * Wetlands usage * Solar greenhouse design and management Whatever your gardening experience and ambitions, this comprehensive manual is sure to inform and inspire. Darrell Frey is the owner and manager of Three Sisters Farm, a five-acre permaculture farm, solar greenhouse, and market garden located in western Pennsylvania. Darrell writes extensively on permaculture design and ecological land use planning and has been a sustainable community development consultant and permaculture teacher for twenty-five years.

From building soil fertility to harvesting and storage, this book is a complete guide to biodynamic gardening, perfect for beginners and masters alike, but is much more than a basic manual. The author introduces us to the historical and cultural aspects of horticulture and its relevance today to restoring our relationship to nature.

Do you want to grow vegetables and herbs organically? Jane's Delicious Garden is a practical and inspiring guide to preparing, planting and growing vegetables and herbs organically in any space - from small urban gardens to country smallholdings.

Packed with practical advice, time-saving tips, step-by-step instructions and personal anecdotes, this book is for novices and gardening gurus alike. With over 200 photographs and detailed information on how to prepare your garden for planting and growing nearly 100 vegetables and herbs, this guide will enable you to feed your family and friends with wholesome, organic food harvested from your garden.

Jane Griffiths, a writer, television producer, artist and traveller, has been growing delicious organic herbs and vegetables in her Johannesburg garden for more than a decade.

Visit her garden at www.janesdeliciousgarden.com

Even though this book was written over 25 years ago, composting is experiencing a renaissance - and this revised edition includes all the latest in new techniques, technology, equipment. Gardeners know it's the best way to feed the soil and turn food scraps into fresh produce, but even urbanites can get on board thanks to programs like compost pickup and citywide food waste initiatives. There's no better way to reduce landfill waste (and subsequent emissions) and dependence on fossil fuels while nourishing the earth. The Rodale Book of Composting offers easy-to-follow instructions for making and using compost, helpful tips for apartment dwellers to suburbanites, farmers and community leaders, and ecologically sound solutions to growing waste-disposal problems.

In his insightful new book, Holy Shit: Managing Manure to Save Mankind, contrary farmer Gene Logsdon provides the inside story of manure-our greatest, yet most misunderstood, natural resource. He begins by lamenting a modern society that not only throws away both animal and human manure-worth billions of dollars in fertilizer value-but that spends a staggering amount of money to do so. This wastefulness makes even less sense as the supply of mined or chemically synthesized fertilizers dwindles and their cost skyrockets. In fact, he argues, if we do not learn how to turn our manures into fertilizer to keep food production in line with increasing population, our civilization, like so many that went before it, will inevitably decline.

With his trademark humor, his years of experience writing about both farming and waste management, and his uncanny eye for the small but important details, Logsdon artfully describes how to manage farm manure, pet manure and human manure to make fertilizer and humus. He covers the field, so to speak, discussing topics like:

How to select the right pitchfork for the job and use it correctly

How to operate a small manure spreader

How to build a barn manure pack with farm animal manure

How to compost cat and dog waste

How to recycle toilet water for irrigation purposes, and

How to get rid ourselves of our irrational paranoia about feces and urine.

Gene Logsdon does not mince words. This fresh, fascinating and entertaining look at an earthy, but absolutely crucial subject, is a small gem and is destined to become a classic of our agricultural literature.

Permaculture tends to be very much in the domain of home gardeners and property owners. But what if we could take it all a step further, and merge the fields of permaculture and market gardening? In The Permaculture Market Garden, author Zach Loeks brings together his passion for sustainable permaculture food production systems and beautiful, vibrant illustrations to provide a highly visual guide to the smooth integration of permaculture into the market garden, in ways that are scalable to specific situations. Profiling crops and ecosystem-based techniques, Loeks demonstrates a profitable, sustainable and approachable model for the future of market gardening. Along the way, Loeks introduces his own system of PermaBeds, season extension techniques, intensive and rotational interplanting, in-depth discussions on soil health, and more, bringing activities, designs and prospects of farming to life through illustrations, so the reader can be immersed within the world of permaculture farming. Playful, informative and curious, inspiring and beautiful and packed with accessible practical information, The Permaculture Market Garden will inspire both the seasoned market gardener as well as anyone aspiring to start a business. Zach Loeks is a market gardener, farm consultant and educator living in the Ottawa Valley. Winner of two regional awards for sustainability and innovation in agriculture, he shares his expertise in farming, design and business through a successful series of on-farm workshops, conferences and schools, as well as a successful year-round CSA.

Dig into eco-gardening and cultivate your green thumb. Discover how to care for the planet while you care for your garden. This is your no-fuss guide to planet-friendly gardening. Do you want a beautiful and productive garden that won't cost the earth but don't know where to start? This wildlife gardening book for beginners will introduce you to all aspects of sustainable gardening. It includes a wide selection of recommended plants including trees, climbers, and wildflowers, to help encourage local biodiversity in your garden. Whether you're growing in pots on your patio or have a fully-fledged garden, this organic gardening book explores everything you need to know to create your own eco-garden. Discover how to minimise garden waste and make soil-building compost. Learn how to do your bit to reduce your carbon footprint and make a positive contribution to slowing down climate change. You don't have to be a horticulture expert to get started, this indispensable reference book will take you through every single step! It includes: - Tips on how to turn your outdoor space into a refuge for local wildlife - Packed with practical, jargon-free know-how and simple gardening techniques - Easy-to-follow format to help grow your gardening knowledge Let It Grow! Gorgeous, full-colour photography provides plenty of inspiration and environmentally-friendly ideas. Expert tips and step-by-step instructions on every page guide you on how to be more sustainable and why it's important. Grow Eco Gardening covers everything you need to work in harmony with nature. It's the perfect book for beginner gardeners who want to do their bit for the climate. Complete the Series: Make your green-fingered dreams a reality with the Grow series from DK. Learn how to brighten up even the trickiest areas in Grow Containers, or discover how to prune your garden in Grow Pruning & Training. Alternatively, there are more titles to explore such as Grow Easy Veg and Grow Houseplants.