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Soil is a living organism that loves to cooperate with farmers and gardeners. A green thumb will appear on those who align themselves with its health and requirements. This book discusses:

• Soil habitat
• Sustaining soil fertility
• The soil food-web
• Nutrient availability and deficiency

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CLEARANCE ITEM. PREVIOUS RETAIL PRICE WAS $39.95 AVAILABLE ONLY WHILE SUPPLIES LAST!

A series of 4 guides originally published by NOFA (Northeast Organic Farming Association), on organic principles and practices for both the beginner farmer as well as established farmers looking to convert to organic, or deepen their practices. Each book is approximately 100 pages, but the information is weighty; the guides use a strong whole-systems farming theory behind their practical advice, as well as offer historical information, further resources, detailed appendices, and profiles of various organic farms across the Northeast. Titles include:

Growing Healthy Vegetable Crops written by Brian Caldwell.

Includes information on:

• Basic concepts of pest control (host susceptibility, soil health, genetic resistance, ecosystem factors)
• Practical approaches (crop cultural practices, rescue treatments, special section on mammals and birds, food safety))
• Farm design for pest reduction (diversity, crop rotation))
• Unorthodox approaches (farmers out of the box))
• Identifying pests)
• Crop-by-crop pests and practices)

• Soil habitat)
• Sustaining soil fertility)
• The soil food-web)
• Nutrient availability and deficiency)

• Strengths and limitations of hybrid varieties)
• Before you grow the seed (selecting varieties, saving seed and improving crops, intellectual property rights))
• Growing seed (pollination biology, harvesting, cleaning, storage, germination testing))
• Details on individual crops (amaranth, crucifers, beets and chard, lettuce, cucurbits, corn and small grains, nightshades, root veggies))

• Soils, the foundation of health (manure managament))
• Crop production and grazing management (forage species, pasture management, setting up a grazing system))
• Livestock (selection, nutrition, winter and summer feed considerations, seasonal milking, habitat, herd health, milk quality))
• Marketing (selling fluid milk, regulations, facility and equipment, selling raw milk))
• Recordkeeping)
• The transition to organic)

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Based on the James Beard Award–winning blog The One-Block Diet, this all-in-one home gardening, do-it-yourself guide and cookbook shows you how to transform a backyard or garden into a self-sufficient locavore’s paradise.

When Margo True and her fellow staffers at Northern California–based Sunset magazine walked around the grounds of their Menlo Park office, they saw more than just a lawn and some gardens. Instead, they saw a fresh, bountiful food source, the makings for intrepid edible projects, and a series of seasonal feasts — all just waiting to happen.

The One-Block Feast is the story of how True and her team took an inspired idea and transformed it into an ambitious commitment: to create four feasts over the course of a year, using only what could be grown or raised in their backyard-sized plot. She candidly shares the group’s many successes and often humorous setbacks as they try their hands at chicken farming, cheese making, olive pressing, home brewing, beekeeping, winemaking and more.

Grouped into gardening, project and recipe guides for each season, The One-Block Feast is a complete resource for planning an eco-friendly kitchen garden; making your own pantry staples for year-round cooking and gifts; raising bees, chickens and even a cow; and creating made-from-scratch meals from ingredients you’ve grown yourself. Chapters are organized by season, each featuring a planting plan and crop-by-crop instructions, an account of how that season’s projects played out for the Sunset team, and a multicourse dinner menu composed of imaginative, appealing and ultra-resourceful vegetarian recipes, such as:

Butternut Squash Gnocchi With Chard and Sage Brown Butter, Egg and Gouda Crepes, Whole Wheat Pizzas With Roasted Vegetables and Homemade Cheeses, Fresh Corn Soup With Zucchini Blossoms, Braised Winter Greens With Preserved Lemons and Red Chile, Summer Lemongrass Custards, Honey Ice Cream

Generously illustrated and easy to follow, this ultimate resource for today’s urban homesteader will inspire you to take “eating local” to a whole new level.

Recommended Product for Wiser Living: Today, more than ever before, our society is seeking ways to live more conscientiously. To help bring you the very best inspiration and information about greener, more sustainable lifestyles, MOTHER EARTH NEWS is recommending books to readers. For 40 years, MOTHER EARTH NEWS has been North America’s “Original Guide to Living Wisely,” creating books and magazines for people with a passion for self-reliance and a desire to live in harmony with nature.

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CLEARANCE ITEM. PREVIOUS RETAIL PRICE WAS $24.95 AVAILABLE ONLY WHILE SUPPLIES LAST!

"When your garden contains lots of earthworms, your soil is good." This maxim may not sound familiar, but before the days of landscapers and lawn-maintenance companies, this type of knowledge was common. Gardening skills were passed down from generation to generation, and yards were personal places that flourished under the care of time-tested wisdom. Today the pace of life is faster, and modern advances make gardening tasks easier, but we can all benefit from the techniques and common-sense advice of the past to have beautiful, fruitful gardens now. With Back to Basics: Traditional Garden Wisdom, anyone can:

• Develop a dream, green garden without spending a fortune
• Grow an organic and eco-friendly garden with minimum fuss and maximum taste
• Discover how to collect and save seeds
• Make your own compost and learn "no-dig" gardening
• Make a cold frame and protect plants from frost
• Repel moles with castor oil, prevent mice with the right plants, and make herbal insect repellents
• Find out the best way to prune a hedge, tree, or climbing flower
• Know which gardening tasks to do for each season
• Raise a panel fence and use recycled materials for landscaping
• Plant raised beds and container gardens, and build a natural grape arbor
• Discover how companion planting can discourage harmful pests and encourage growth

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CLEARANCE ITEM. PREVIOUS RETAIL PRICE WAS $24.95 AVAILABLE ONLY WHILE SUPPLIES LAST!

Don’t like spending money in garden centers? Think you can make it yourself for a fraction of the price or find a cheaper option? Dave Hamilton shows you how, by recycling and reusing materials creatively and making the most of what you have, you can gather all you need to grow your food on a budget.

• Shows how to go through the gardening year on a shoestring, from making your own raised beds to fixing broken tools and taking cuttings.
• Gives money-saving tips for every season plus occasional tips on the actual gardening!
• Is crammed full of projects from seed-saving and making your own plant feed to building a fence or garden shed.
• Gives step-by-step instructions, with easy-to-follow diagrams.
• Includes beautiful photos and quirky illustrations.

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Winter and early spring require a different kind of gardening than the summer months: Not a lot grows at this time, but a well-planned plot may nonetheless be quite full.

This book explains how to have plenty of vegetables to eat during the winter months, both stored and fresh. Through winter, soil is cool and transforms the plot into a large outdoor larder where many vegetables keep healthy and alive, ready for harvesting when needed.

In the pages of this book, you'll discover:

• How to grow your own food for the "hungry gap" from April to June
• How to store food for eating in winter
• A monthly sowing, planting and growing calendar
• Harvesting advice from garlic in July to spring cabbage and pea shoots in May
• Stunning photographs from the author’s garden

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This comprehensive guide to organic gardening will help you create a steady supply of organically grown fruits, vegetables, herbs and flowers all year round. Includes the latest information on how to find, choose and grow plants that thrive without synthetic chemicals. Learn how to:

• Plant traditional varieties, known as heirloom plants, that were developed before the use of pesticides and fertilizers
• Select regional varieties adapted to your climate and location
• Increase your bounty by repurposing seeds from your own garden
• Discourage pests while encouraging beneficial insects and birds

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Many people want to grow fruit on a small scale but lack the insight to be successful orchardists. Growing tree fruits and berries is something virtually anyone with space and passionate desire can do—given wise guidance and a personal commitment to observe the teachings of the trees. A holistic grower knows that producing fruit is not about manipulating nature but more importantly, fostering nature. Orcharding then becomes a fascinating adventure sure to provide your family with all sorts of mouth-watering fruit.

The Holistic Orchard demystifies the basic skills everybody should know about the inner-workings of the orchard ecosystem, as well as orchard design, soil biology, and organic health management. Detailed insights on grafting, planting, pruning, and choosing the right varieties for your climate are also included, along with a step-by-step instructional calendar to guide growers through the entire orchard year. The extensive profiles of pome fruits (apples, pears, asian pears, quinces), stone fruits (cherries, peaches, nectarines, apricots, plums), and berries (raspberries, blackberries, blueberries, gooseberries, currants, and elderberries) will quickly have you savoring the prospects.

Phillips completely changed the conversation about healthy orcharding with his first bestselling book, The Apple Grower, and now he takes that dialogue even further, drawing connections between home orcharding and permaculture; the importance of native pollinators; the world of understory plantings with shade-tolerant berry bushes and other insectary plants; detailed information on cover crops and biodiversity; and the newest research on safe, homegrown solutions to pest and disease challenges.

All along the way, Phillips' expertise and enthusiasm for healthy growing shines through, as does his ability to put the usual horticultural facts into an integrated ecology perspective. This book will inspire beginners as well as provide deeper answers for experienced fruit growers looking for scientific organic approaches. Exciting times lie ahead for those who now have every reason in the world to confidently plant that very first fruit tree!

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Ripe is a different kind of cookbook. Arranged by color, Ripe takes hungry readers and cooking enthusiasts on a stunning visual tour of product, from the extremely approachable to the somewhat exotic. Lighthearted stories, spectacular photographs, and simple ingredient combinations tempt and inspire you by appealing to your senses, and your sense of play. With 150 photographs and 75 delicious recipes organized by color, Ripe celebrates the visual beauty and culinary potential in all fruits and vegetables.

Red: Beets, Cherries, Pomegranates, Radicchio, Rhubarb
Orange: Apricots, Kumquats, Nectarines, Persimmon, Yams
Yellow: Bananas, Corn, Lemons, Squash Blossoms
Green: Artichokes, Avocadoes, Fava Beans, Honeydew, Kale, Zucchini
Purple and Blue: Eggplant, Figs, Plums, Blackberries, Blueberries
White: Bosc Pears, Coconut, Jicama, Parsnips, Potatoes