Books for the Beginning Farmer
With links to purchase the book from a woman-owned independent bookstore. If you don't want to by it from our favorite, indie, please buy it from your favorite indie!
Fields of Farmers: Interning, Mentoring, Partnering, Germinating
by Joe Salatin
America's average farmer is sixty years old. When young people can't get in, old people can't get out. Approaching a watershed moment, our culture desperately needs a generational transfer of millions of farm acres facing abandonment, development, or amalgamation into ever-larger holdings. Based on his decades of experience with interns and multigenerational partnerships at Polyface Farm, farmer and author Joel Salatin digs deep into the problems and solutions surrounding this land- and knowledge-transfer crisis. This book empowers aspiring young farmers, midlife farmers, and nonfarming landlords to build regenerative, profitable agricultural enterprises.
Buy it here:
by Joe Salatin
America's average farmer is sixty years old. When young people can't get in, old people can't get out. Approaching a watershed moment, our culture desperately needs a generational transfer of millions of farm acres facing abandonment, development, or amalgamation into ever-larger holdings. Based on his decades of experience with interns and multigenerational partnerships at Polyface Farm, farmer and author Joel Salatin digs deep into the problems and solutions surrounding this land- and knowledge-transfer crisis. This book empowers aspiring young farmers, midlife farmers, and nonfarming landlords to build regenerative, profitable agricultural enterprises.
Buy it here:
Starting & Running Your Own Small Farm Business
by Sarah Beth Aubrey
Here is everything you need to know to launch a small agricultural enterprise, from initial start-up to consumer marketing. Begin by fine-tuning your idea into a viable business plan, and then learn how to go out and sell it. Secure financing, work out the legalities, follow USDA guidelines--- and a farming business is born. Aubrey explains every step of the process and even includes samples of the required forms.
Buy it here:
by Sarah Beth Aubrey
Here is everything you need to know to launch a small agricultural enterprise, from initial start-up to consumer marketing. Begin by fine-tuning your idea into a viable business plan, and then learn how to go out and sell it. Secure financing, work out the legalities, follow USDA guidelines--- and a farming business is born. Aubrey explains every step of the process and even includes samples of the required forms.
Buy it here:
You Can Farm: The Entrepreneur's Guide to Start and Succeed in a Farm Enterprise
by Joe Salatin
While this book can be helpful to all farmers, it targets the wannabes, the folks who actually entertain notions of living, loving and learning on a piece of land. Anyone willing to dance with such a dream should be able to assess its assets and liabilities; its fantasies and realities. "Is it really possible for me?" is the burning question this book addresses.
Buy it here:
by Joe Salatin
While this book can be helpful to all farmers, it targets the wannabes, the folks who actually entertain notions of living, loving and learning on a piece of land. Anyone willing to dance with such a dream should be able to assess its assets and liabilities; its fantasies and realities. "Is it really possible for me?" is the burning question this book addresses.
Buy it here:
Family Friendly Farming: A Multi-Generational Home-Based Business Testament
by Joe Salatin
The heart of this book is aimed toward parents tired of their Dilbert cubicle at the end of the expressway who want to reconnect with their children through a pastoral lifestyle. It's written for anyone who yearns to grow old working with and being adored by value-sharing grandchildren and honored by passionate, productive adult children. Family Friendly Farming can make any family business more viable and any family more functional.
Buy it here:
by Joe Salatin
The heart of this book is aimed toward parents tired of their Dilbert cubicle at the end of the expressway who want to reconnect with their children through a pastoral lifestyle. It's written for anyone who yearns to grow old working with and being adored by value-sharing grandchildren and honored by passionate, productive adult children. Family Friendly Farming can make any family business more viable and any family more functional.
Buy it here:
The Complete Beginner's Guide to Raising Small Animals: Everything You Need to Know about Raising Cows, Sheep, Chickens, Ducks, Rabbits, and More
by Carlotta Cooper
This book was written for anyone considering raising domesticated animals for family pets, producers of eggs and milk, or a source of humanely treated meat. You will learn how to care for chickens, from choosing the right breed to raising them for egg production. You will learn how to handle geese and ducks and information about choosing the correct breeds, feeding, housing, breeding, and selecting the right ones for egg production. You will also learn about egg incubation, maintaining poultry health, and how to raise them for meat. Other animals you will learn how to care for include rabbits, goats, sheep, dairy cows, and beef cattle. Small farmers and animal experts have been interviewed in detail and their responses added to this book to provide additional insight into every aspect of raising farm animals.
Buy it here:
by Carlotta Cooper
This book was written for anyone considering raising domesticated animals for family pets, producers of eggs and milk, or a source of humanely treated meat. You will learn how to care for chickens, from choosing the right breed to raising them for egg production. You will learn how to handle geese and ducks and information about choosing the correct breeds, feeding, housing, breeding, and selecting the right ones for egg production. You will also learn about egg incubation, maintaining poultry health, and how to raise them for meat. Other animals you will learn how to care for include rabbits, goats, sheep, dairy cows, and beef cattle. Small farmers and animal experts have been interviewed in detail and their responses added to this book to provide additional insight into every aspect of raising farm animals.
Buy it here:
