There are countless Farming courses, tutorials, articles available online, but for some, having a book is still a necessity to learn. This is an up-to-date list of recommended books.
- The Market Gardener: A Successful Grower’s Handbook for Small-Scale Organic Farming (2014)
- Sustainable Market Farming: Intensive Vegetable Production on a Few Acres (2013)
- Mini Farming: Self-Sufficiency on 1/4 Acre (2010)
- You Can Farm: The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Start & Succeed in a Farming Enterprise (1998)
- The Lean Farm: How to Minimize Waste, Increase Efficiency, and Maximize Value and Profits with Less Work (2015)
- Farming While Black: Soul Fire Farm’s Practical Guide to Liberation on the Land (2018)
- Farming the Woods: An Integrated Growing Food and Medicinals in Temperate Forests (2014)
- The Backyard Homestead Guide to Raising Farm Animals: Choose the Best Breeds for Small-Space Farming, Produce Your Own Grass-Fed Meat, Gather Fresh … Rabbits, Goats, Sheep, Pigs, Cattle, & Bees (2011)
- Compact Farms: 15 Proven Plans for Market Farms on 5 Acres or Less; Includes Detailed Farm Layouts for Productivity and Efficiency (2017)
- Farming Grace: A Memoir of Life, Love, and a Harvest of Faith (2019)
- Backyard Farming on an Acre (More or Less): Eat Healthy, Save Money, and Live Sustainably in the Space You Have (A Living Free Guide) (2012)
The Market Gardener: A Successful Grower’s Handbook for Small-Scale Organic Farming (2014)
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-Helene feed more than 200 families through their thriving CSA and seasonal market stands and supply their signature mesclun salad mix to dozens of local establishments.
Sustainable Market Farming: Intensive Vegetable Production on a Few Acres (2013)
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.
Mini Farming: Self-Sufficiency on 1/4 Acre (2010)
Start a mini farm on a quarter acre or less, provide 85 percent of the food for a family of four and earn an income. Mini Farming 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.
You Can Farm: The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Start & Succeed in a Farming Enterprise (1998)
Have you ever desired, deep within your soul, to make a comfortable full-time living from a farming enterprise? Too often people dare not even vocalize this desire because it seems absurd. It’s like thinking the unthinkable. After all, the farm population is dwindling. It takes too much capital to start. The pay is too low. The working conditions are dusty, smelly and noisy: not the place to raise a family.
The Lean Farm: How to Minimize Waste, Increase Efficiency, and Maximize Value and Profits with Less Work (2015)
A practical, systems-based approach for a more sustainable farming operation To many people today, using the words “factory” and “farm” in the same sentence is nothing short of sacrilege. In many cases, though, the same sound business practices apply whether you are producing cars or carrots.
Farming While Black: Soul Fire Farm’s Practical Guide to Liberation on the Land (2018)
In 1920, 14 percent of all land-owning US farmers were black. Today less than 2 percent of farms are controlled by black people―a loss of over 14 million acres and the result of discrimination and dispossession.
Farming the Woods: An Integrated Growing Food and Medicinals in Temperate Forests (2014)
In the eyes of many people, the practices of forestry and farming are mutually exclusive, because in the modern world, agriculture involves open fields, straight rows, and machinery to grow crops, while forests are primarily reserved for timber and firewood harvesting. Farming the Woods invites a remarkably different perspective: that a healthy forest can be maintained while growing a wide range of food, medicinal, and other non-timber products.
The Backyard Homestead Guide to Raising Farm Animals: Choose the Best Breeds for Small-Space Farming, Produce Your Own Grass-Fed Meat, Gather Fresh … Rabbits, Goats, Sheep, Pigs, Cattle, & Bees (2011)
Enjoy a weekend breakfast featuring eggs, bacon, and honey from your own chickens, pigs, and bees, or a holiday meal with your own heritage-breed turkey as the main attraction. Gail Damerow covers everything you need to successfully raise your own farm animals, from selecting the right breeds to producing delicious fresh milk, cheese, honey, eggs, and meat. Even with just a small plot of land, you can become more self-sufficient, save money, and enjoy healthy, delicious animal products.
Compact Farms: 15 Proven Plans for Market Farms on 5 Acres or Less; Includes Detailed Farm Layouts for Productivity and Efficiency (2017)
Small is beautiful, and these 15 real farm plans show that small-scale farmers can have big-time success. Compact Farms is an illustrated guide for anyone dreaming of starting, expanding, or perfecting a profitable farming enterprise on five acres or less.
Farming Grace: A Memoir of Life, Love, and a Harvest of Faith (2019)
Sometimes your past must be plowed before your future can be planted…Her great-great-grandma came to California in a covered wagon more than a hundred years ago, and her family has farmed in the Sacramento Valley ever since, but a life of farming was the last thing she wanted… until the day fate brings her back to the farm.
Backyard Farming on an Acre (More or Less): Eat Healthy, Save Money, and Live Sustainably in the Space You Have (A Living Free Guide) (2012)
Live off the land you have. Plant a successful and sustainable farm—on a quarter acre to a full acre and beyond—where you can raise your own fruits, vegetables, chickens, bees, milk-bearing animals, and more. Local, organic food is attainable to you at a fraction of the cost with your own self-contained operation.Angela England runs her family’s successful, small-scale farm, and she teaches you how you can do the same.
Best Farming Books to Read
We highly recommend you to buy all paper or e-books in a legal way, for example, on Amazon. But sometimes it might be a need to dig deeper beyond the shiny book cover. Before making a purchase, you can visit resources like Library Genesis and download some farming books mentioned below at your own risk. Once again, we do not host any illegal or copyrighted files, but simply give our visitors a choice and hope they will make a wise decision.
The Biological Farmer: A Complete Guide to the Sustainable & Profitable Biological System of Farming
Author(s): Gary Zimmer
ID: 1454544, Publisher: Acres USA, Year: September 2000, Size: 2 Mb, Format: epub
Moralizing The Environment: Countryside change, farming and pollution
Author(s): Philip Lowe, Judy Clark, Susanne Seymour, Neil Ward
ID: 3677572, Publisher: Routledge, Year: 2023, Size: 17 Mb, Format: pdf
The Agricultural Sky: A Concept to Revolutionize Farming
Author(s): K. R. Krishna
ID: 3688749, Publisher: CRC Press/Apple Academic Press, Year: 2023, Size: 26 Mb, Format: pdf
Please note that this booklist is not definite. Some books are really record-breakers according to Washington Post, others are written by unknown authors. On top of that, you can always find additional tutorials and courses on Coursera, Udemy or edX, for example. Are there any other relevant books you could recommend? Leave a comment if you have any feedback on the list.