Books and Film

Here are some of our favorite books and movies about organic and sustainable farming. We have used these titles to help us when we started our farm and we still use them as references today.

Winter Leek

Growing Vegetables West of the Cascades, 6th Edition: The Complete Guide to Organic Gardening This is a must have book for small scale farming in our area. There are a number of methods that are a little controversial but used in conjunction with “How to Grow More Vegetables” listed below, you can’t get in too much trouble.

How to Grow More Vegetables and Fruits (and Fruits, Nuts, Berries, Grains, and Other Crops) Than You Ever Thought Possible on Less Land Than You Can Imagine The book for high yield in a small space. Although the yield estimates are overly optimistic, this book is indispensable for those wanting bang for the buck in your gardening and farming space.

Queen Of The Sun: What Are the Bees Telling Us? Want to know what is really going down with the bees and our interaction with them. It is all right here.

Vanishing of the Bees Another good tale of the bees. We love bees so we can’t get enough of the topic in any form.

NOVA: Bees – Tales From the Hive Same as above but worth noting here.

The Real Dirt on Farmer John The hip flick of the last few years. Between the journey of Farmer John and the excitement this story brought to the small farming world, if you have not seen this you are missing out.

Rodale’s Ultimate Encyclopedia of Organic Gardening: The Indispensable Green Resource for Every Gardener A great book on Organic methods. Details on just about every technical element you need to know.

Successful Small-Scale Farming: An Organic Approach (Down-To-Earth Book) Lots of tables and lists to calculate volumes of a harvest. Good examples of calculating the income potential of various crops. It is a little dated, like many texts in our field, but a good reference book.

The Winter Harvest Handbook: Year Round Vegetable Production Using Deep Organic Techniques and Unheated Greenhouses Informative and thought provoking but not perfectly suited for the Pacific NW. The book is intended for the NE and some suggestions don’t work too well in our climate. That said, this book is helpful if you don’t know where to start with winter growing.

The New Organic Grower: A Master’s Manual of Tools and Techniques for the Home and Market Gardener (A Gardener’s Supply Book) Another must read. This book is one to read and then start farming. It has few perfect solutions but lots of ideas and concepts that all small scale farmers need to ponder.

The Dirty Life If you have read and seen all of the above. This is worth a look as well. More of a story of life experience than a manual on how to farm.

Molly’s Organic Farm This is a wonderful book for children. If you have little ones in your family, they will love it!