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. This inspiring guide will help you turn your dream of a thriving farm into a profitable reality.
A successful vegetable farm depends on business smarts - accounting, marketing, customer service - as much as planting and harvesting skills. Keith Stewart's practical advice and detailed in-the-field instruction guide you through every part of professional farming, from mapping your fields to designing a farmers' market stand.

Includes comprehensive coverage of:
- Site selection and good soil maintenance
- Tools, machinery, and greenhouses
- Selecting and planting profitable crops
- Organic weed and pest control
- Harvesting and storing vegetables and herbs
- Developing a business plan
- Marketing, packaging, and selling your products
Preface

Part I: In the Beginning
1 Thinking About Becoming a Farmer?
2 Looking for a Place of Your Own
3 The Farm Plan

Part II: Tools of the Trade
4 Tractors and Tractor Implements
5 Small Equipment and Tools
6 The Greenhouse
7 Growing Under Cover
8 Irrigation

Part III: Looking After the Land
9 Managing Your Soil
10 Cover Crops and Green Manures
11 Crop Rotation
12 Building Fertility

Part IV: The Crops We Grow
13 Our Most Profitable Crops
14 Garlic - Our Signature Crop
15 Let's Not Forget Herbs

Part V: Harvesting and Marketing
16 Harvesting and Storage
17 Marketing What You Grow
18 More on Farmers' Markets
19 Marketing Through the Seasons

Part VI: Competing Forces
20 Regarding Weeds
21 The Four-Legged Competition
22 Insects and Diseases

Part VII: Taking Care of Business
23 Running a Business
24 Looking After Number One

Afterword
Resources
Index