Books for Farmers' Markets

Sustainable Market Farming: Intensive Vegetable Production on a Few Acres. Across North America, an agricultural renaissance is unfolding. A growing number of market gardeners are emerging to feed our appetite for organic, regional produce. But most of the available resources on food production are aimed at the backyard or hobby gardener who wants to supplement their family's diet with a few homegrown fruits and vegetables. Targeted at serious growers in every climate zone, this book is a comprehensive manual for small-scale farmers raising organic crops sustainably on a few acres.. Order Online

Storey's Guide to Growing Organic Vegetables & Herbs for Market This book 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. Order Online

The Farm to Market Handbook How to create a profitable business from your small farm. Veteran dairy-goat farmer Janet Hurst combines her deep knowledge of farming life and farmers' markets with her hard-won experience turning farm products into a living wage. From CSAs and weekly markets to school programs and local chefs, Hurst guides you through every type of market available to small farmers. She explains how you can develop a realistic marketing plan, provides a breakdown of the food laws and regulations you'll need to be aware of, and offers insider tips on how to be a successful businessperson. Through enlightening interviews with producers around the country who speak of their successes - and their failures - this book takes a look at some of the nation's top markets and analyzes why they have thrived where others have not. . Order Online

The Farmers' Market Book Authors Jennifer Meta Robinson and J. A. Hartenfeld describe farmers' markets as a rewarding intersection of rural and urban lives, sustaining and healing both our communities and our relationship to the land. While they may seem nostalgic or idealistic, these markets are both current and forward-looking, cultivating a fresh, diverse space and recognizing the personal differences of community members. These common grounds are intimate and socially complex, representing far more than a place to buy food.. Order Online

Gaining Ground A memoir about farmers markets, local food, and saving the family farm. One fateful day in 1996, after discovering that five freight cars' worth of glittering corn have reaped a tiny profit of $18.16, young Forrest Pritchard vows to save his family's farm. What ensues--through hilarious encounters with all manner of livestock and colorful local characters--is a crash course in sustainable agriculture.. Order Online

Growing Your Herb Business Practical advice on budgets, locations, business plans, bookkeeping, staffing, inventory, and pricing. Case histories of 50 thriving herb businesses. Additional topics include developing products, packaging, special events, and methods for expanding. Order Online

Farmers Markets A Guide to Small Scale Business And Entrepreneurship. In this book, author Bill English uses his business and counseling experience to provide a guide of helpful hints and counsel for the novice as well as the experienced farmers market vendor. Within these pages, you will find nuggets of information that will help you with your business venture and increase chances of success. Order Online

Storey's Guide to Growing Organic Vegetables & Herbs for Market 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. Order Online

The Urban Farmer: Growing Food for Profit on Leased and Borrowed Land. This book is a comprehensive, hands-on, practical manual to help you learn the techniques and business strategies you need to make a good living growing high-yield, high-value crops right in your own backyard (or someone else's). Order Online

Flowers for Sale: Growing and Marketing Cut Flowers A complete introduction to raising a cornucopia of cut flowers for home use and for sale to retail customers, florists, and other markets. Providing a clear, realistic look at both the benefits and the challenges of growing flowers organically for local markets, this guide will appeal to a broad spectrum of readers. Order Online

Starting & Running Your Own Small Farm Business To help farmers position themselves well for the opportunities of today's market, Sarah Aubrey, a successful farm-based business owner, shares her years of research and first-hand experience in Starting & Running Your Own Small Farm Business. 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. Order Online

The New Farmers' Market: Farm-Fresh Ideas for Producers, Managers & Communities. If you are a farmer, market manager or city planner and want to succeed at farmers markets, this is the book for you! Written by Vance Corum, Marcie Rosenzweig, and Eric Gibson, The New Farmers' Market covers the latest tips and trends from leading-edge sellers, managers and market planners all over the country. Includes advice on best products to grow and sell; insurance, rules and regulations; booth design and structure; product display and appearance; containers; line handling; bagging/packaging; sampling; price signs and labels; setting prices; cash-handling and security; recordkeeping; hiring and training employees; more. Order Online

The Market Gardener: A Successful Grower's Handbook for Small-scale Organic Farming Les Jardins de la Grelinette is a micro-farm located in eastern Quebec, just north of the American border. Growing on just 1.5 acres, owners Jean-Martin and Maude-Helène feed more than two hundred families through their thriving CSA and seasonal market stands and supply their signature mesclun salad mix to dozens of local establishments. The secret of their success is the low-tech, high-yield production methods they’ve developed by focusing on growing better rather than growing bigger, making their operation more lucrative and viable in the process. Order Online

Backyard Market Gardening: The Entrepreneur's Guide to Selling What You Grow Discover how easy and profitable it is to grow and sell vegetables, fruits, flowers, herbs and small livestock from your own backyard market garden. Learn how to:
• Earn top dollar, with minimum effort and maximum profits.
• Improve your garden soil for super yields and superb flavor.
• Buy or build tools that speed your work and increase profits.
• Enjoy a guaranteed salary from community supported agriculture or a membership garden. Order Online

Market Farming Success If you are in the business of growing and selling food, flowers, herbs or plants, this book will help you make your farm more efficient and profitable. Market Farming Success identifies the key areas that usually trip up beginners and shows how to avoid those obstacles. Expert advice includes: How much you'll need to start How much you can expect to earn The best crops and market. Order Online

The Farmer's Market Guide: With Identification Guide and Recipes Eat fresh, seasonal, and locally-grown produce. That is what a Farmers Market encourages you to do and so does this new cookbook. With 251 color images, it is filled with lots of traditional, time-tested, and delicious recipes for everything from corn and brussels sprouts to tomatoes and rutabaga. Designed to be small and portable, you can take this book to the market, identify the item by photograph, read a brief description, and see at a glance the most common ways for preparing the vegetable. Order Online

Mini Farming: Self-Sufficiency on 1/4 Acre This book describes a holistic approach to small-area farming that will show you how to produce 85 percent of an average family’s food on just a quarter acre—and earn $10,000 in cash annually while spending less than half the time that an ordinary job would require. Even if you have never been a farmer or a gardener, this book covers everything you need to know to get started. Order Online

Farmers Market Colorful vegetables, delicious fruits, and lots of friends. . . . The farmers market is always fun! Illustrator Edward Martinez brings the hustle and bustle of market day to life in this book for young readers, pre-school to grade 2. Simple, straightforward text is illustrated with oil paintings depicting the people and market-day activities of a farmers market.. Order Online

Family Friendly Farming: A Multi-Generational Home-Based Business Testament. Saving the landscape, rebuilding entrepreneurial rural families, and protecting nutritious food are the themes of this timeless treatise-hence the word "testament." Delving into the soul of the Salatin family's nationally acclaimed Polyface Farm, author Joel Salatin offers Family Friendly Farming as the key to dealing with resource issues, food policy, and social fabric. With humor and personal stories, he opens his family and farm convictions for all to see, share, and enjoy. Order Online

Dynamic Farmers' Marketing: A Guide to Successfully Selling Your Farmers' Market Products This book concentrates of farmers' marketing. Designed to help producers, vendors, market managers and new market organizers, it includes chapters on visual displays, customer displays, product selection, market organization and income potential. Order Online

Plants for Profit: Income Opportunities in Horticulture This multifaceted book present important information about how to start a horticultural business. Topics include ho2 to make and sell private label potting soil worth thousands of dollars, business and marketing highlights, how to choose the best money making plants, financing, etc. Order Online

Building a Sustainable Business: A Guide to Developing a Business Plan for Farms and Rural Businesses Innovative farmers and ranchers know that alternative crops and value-added products give them an edge in the marketplace. Effective planning is crucial to the long-term profitability of any new venture. Building a Sustainable Business brings the business planning process alive to help alternative and sustainable agriculture entrepreneurs transform farm-grown inspiration into profitable enterprises. The step-by-step strategies help you develop a detailed, lender-ready business plan or map out ways to take advantage of new opportunities. Order Online

Small-Scale Livestock Farming: A Grass-Based Approach for Health, Sustainability, and Profit Yes, you can have a prosperous farm and achieve the lifestyle of your dreams -- and farming expert Carol Ekarius will show you how. Small farms can pay big dividends, Ekarius explains, but hard work alone isn't enough: Success demands knowledge and effective management. Ekarius's natural, organic approach to livestock management produces healthier animals, reduces feed and healthcare costs, and maximizes your profit. Through case studies of successful farmers, nitty-gritty details on every facet of livestock farming, and fascinating insights for working with nature instead of against it, you'll learn to make your farm thrive. Order Online

Salad Bar Beef Order Online

The New Organic Grower: A Master's Manual of Tools and Techniques for the Home and Market Gardener Order Online

Successful Small-Scale Farming: An Organic Approach This inspiring handbook contains everything small-farm owners need to know, from buying land to organic growing methods and selling cash crops. Order Online

The Flower Farmer: An Organic Grower's Guide to Raising and Selling Cut Flowers
(Revised and Expanded) A complete introduction to raising a cornucopia of cut flowers for home use and for sale to retail customers, florists, and other markets. Providing a clear, realistic look at both the benefits and the challenges of growing flowers organically for local markets, this guide will appeal to a broad spectrum of readers. Order Online Previous Edition

So You Want to Start a Nursery: Growing and Marketing Cut Flowers Debunks myths about the ornamental-plants nursery business and what it takes to succeed, whether you're a backyard hobbyist or a wholesale grower. A comprehensive overview focusing on the business and planning concerns of the nursery owner --- from considering whether to consult a lawyer about a partnership to whether to build your own greenhouses. Order Online

Growing Profits: How to Start and Operate a Backyard Nursery Learn how to start a nursery in your backyard with virtually no capital investment. In an area of only 1,000 sq. ft. it is possible to generate over $5,000 worth of plants in a single growing season. Order Online

You Can Farm: The Entrepreneur's Guide to Start & Succeed in a Farming Enterprise Order Online

Making Your Small Farm Profitable This practical, step-by-step guide to operating a small farm in the new millennium examines 20 alternative farming enterprises. Readers will learn how to target niche markets and sustain a farm's biological and economic health. Order Online

Market What You Grow: A Practical Manual for Home Gardeners Market Gardeners and Small Farmers Order Online

Sell What You Sow: The Grower's Guide to Successful Produce Marketing. Cash in on the consumer demand for luscious-tasting fruits, vegetables, flowers and herbs with this how-to book that reveals the tricks of the trade from master marketers around the country. Order Online