Gene Logsdon has long served as a voice of grounded agricultural wisdom. His wry humor and keen insights have made him a favorite among homesteaders, gardeners, orchardists, and farmers. In Gene Logsdon's Practical Skills, he turns his attention to traditional crafts and practices, reviving and documenting the homemaking, culinary, and agricultural skills handed down through generations of American farmers.
This wide-ranging volume of practical instruction is divided into 5 parts, each focused on a different aspect of country life, including:
Develop the skills your grandparents knew by heart. Gene Logsdon's Practical Skills is a book you can learn from for years to come.
Gene Logsdon and his wife Carol have a small-scale experimental farm in Wyandot County, Ohio. Gene is the author of numerous books and magazine articles on farm-related issues, and believes sustainable pastoral farming is the solution for our stressed agricultural system.
Readers interested in related titles from Eugene Logsdon will also want to see: Getting Food From Water (ISBN: 1626545987), Homesteading (ISBN: 1626545960), Organic Orcharding (ISBN: 1626545790), Successful Berry Growing (ISBN: 1626546002), Two Acre Eden (ISBN: 1626545820).
For more than four decades, the self-described contrary farmer and writer Gene Logsdon has commented on the state of American agriculture. In Letter to a Young Farmer, his final book of essays, Logsdon addresses the next generation--young people who are moving back to the land to enjoy a better way of life as small-scale garden farmers. It's a lifestyle that isn't defined by accumulating wealth or by the get big or get out agribusiness mindset. Instead, it's one that recognizes the beauty of nature, cherishes the land, respects our fellow creatures, and values rural traditions. It's one that also looks forward and embraces right technologies, including new and innovative ways of working smarter, not harder, and avoiding premature burnout.
Completed only a few weeks before the author's death, Letter to a Young Farmer is a remarkable testament to the life and wisdom of one of the greatest rural philosophers and writers of our time. Gene's earthy wit and sometimes irreverent humor combines with his valuable perspectives on many wide-ranging subjects--everything from how to show a ram who's boss to enjoying the almost churchlike calmness of a well-built livestock barn.
Reading this book is like sitting down on the porch with a neighbor who has learned the ways of farming through years of long observation and practice. Someone, in short, who has seen it all and has much to say, and much to teach us, if we only take the time to listen and learn. And Gene Logsdon was the best kind of teacher: equal parts storyteller, idealist, and rabble-rouser. His vision of a nation filled with garden farmers, based in cities, towns, and countrysides, will resonate with many people, both young and old, who long to create a more sustainable, meaningful life for themselves and a better world for all of us.
First published in 1977, this book--from one of America's most famous and prolific agricultural writers--became an almost instant classic among homestead gardeners and small farmers. Now fully updated and available once more, Small-Scale Grain Raising offers a entirely new generation of readers the best introduction to a wide range of both common and lesser-known specialty grains and related field crops, from corn, wheat, and rye to buckwheat, millet, rice, spelt, flax, and even beans and sunflowers.
More and more Americans are seeking out locally grown foods, yet one of the real stumbling blocks to their efforts has been finding local sources for grains, which are grown mainly on large, distant corporate farms. At the same time, commodity prices for grains--and the products made from them--have skyrocketed due to rising energy costs and increased demand. In this book, Gene Logsdon proves that anyone who has access to a large garden or small farm can (and should) think outside the agribusiness box and learn to grow healthy whole grains or beans--the base of our culinary food pyramid--alongside their fruits and vegetables.
Starting from the simple but revolutionary concept of the garden pancake patch, Logsdon opens up our eyes to a whole world of plants that we wrongly assume only the agricultural big boys can grow. He succinctly covers all the basics, from planting and dealing with pests, weeds, and diseases to harvesting, processing, storing, and using whole grains. There are even a few recipes sprinkled throughout, along with more than a little wit and wisdom.
Never has there been a better time, or a more receptive audience, for this book. Localvores, serious home gardeners, CSA farmers, and whole-foods advocates--in fact, all people who value fresh, high-quality foods--will find a field full of information and ideas in this once and future classic.
A garden without berries is like spring without flowers. But with ever-increasing prices at grocery stores and markets, berries have sadly become a rare treat for most people. Successful Berry Growing is a book to solve this problem for good
A lifelong organic farmer, homesteader and student of everything agricultural, Gene Logsdon knows a thing or two about growing berries. And although Successful Berry Growing is geared to the small-scale or family operation, the information inside is useful for growing berries on any scale. You'll learn how to:
With detailed information on cultivating strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, blackberries, grapes, currants, gooseberries, cranberries, elderberries, huckleberries and more, Successful Berry Growing is all you need to grow nature's most delicious candy in your own backyard
Gene Logsdon and his wife Carol have a small-scale experimental farm in Wyandot County, Ohio. Gene is the author of numerous books and magazine articles on farm-related issues, and believes sustainable pastoral farming is the solution for our stressed agricultural system.
Readers interested in related titles from Eugene Logsdon will also want to see: Gene Logsdon's Practical Skills (ISBN: 1626545952), Getting Food From Water (ISBN: 1626545987), Homesteading (ISBN: 1626545960), Organic Orcharding (ISBN: 1626545790), Two Acre Eden (ISBN: 1626545820).
Back in print for a new generation of fruit-growers, Organic Orcharding will teach you everything you need to know about planning, planting, and maintaining your very own orchard.
Gene Logsdon is renowned in the agricultural community for his creative, pragmatic, and holistic take on farming of all kinds. In Organic Orcharding he explains how to select the best trees for your orchard's climate; which tree varieties best complement each other; when each variety blooms; and when you ought to harvest. You'll also find insightful tips on:
With useful charts, tables, and diagrams for efficient referencing, Organic Orcharding is not to be missed. Perfect for gardeners who are interested in learning to grow fruits and nuts, orchardists who want to go organic, homesteaders, and anyone who loves the smell of an orchard in full bloom.
Readers interested in related titles from Eugene Logsdon will also want to see: Gene Logsdon's Practical Skills (ISBN: 1626545952), Getting Food From Water (ISBN: 1626545987), Homesteading (ISBN: 1626545960), Successful Berry Growing (ISBN: 1626546002), Two Acre Eden (ISBN: 1626545820).
In his insightful book, Holy Shit: Managing Manure to Save Mankind, contrary farmer Gene Logsdon provides the inside story of manure -- our greatest, yet most misunderstood, natural resource.
He begins by lamenting a modern society that not only throws away both animal and human manure, worth billions of dollars in fertilizer value, but that spends a staggering amount of money to do so. This wastefulness makes even less sense as the supply of mined or chemically synthesized fertilizers dwindles and their cost skyrockets. In fact, he argues, if we do not learn how to turn our manures into fertilizer to keep food production in line with the increasing population, our civilization, like so many that went before it, will inevitably decline.
With his trademark humor, years of experience writing about both farming and waste management, and uncanny eye for the small but important details, Logsdon artfully describes how to manage farm manure, pet manure and human manure to make fertilizer and humus. He covers the field, so to speak, discussing topics like:
Gene Logsdon does not mince words. This fresh, fascinating and entertaining look at an earthy, but absolutely crucial subject, is a small gem destined to become a classic of our agricultural literature.
Two Acre Eden is more than your average how-to book. The first in a long line of beloved books by homesteading sage Gene Logsdon, Two Acre Eden is an insightful and light-hearted treatise on gardening, homesteading, and getting the most out of your land.
With a healthy dose of humor and eye toward pragmatism, Logsdon dispenses page after page of unbeatable advice on designing, building, and living off of your very own two-acre Garden of Eden. Inside you'll find practical and creative tips on:
Logsdon also devotes time to the discussion of livestock and how to best cultivate a self-sustaining country lifestyle. Forty years after its original publication, Two Acre Eden is as unique as ever. An inspiring and educational read for gardeners, aspiring homesteaders, and city-folk who dream of the countryside, Two Acre Eden will give you a fresh perspective on old traditions.
Readers interested in related titles from Eugene Logsdon will also want to see: Gene Logsdon's Practical Skills (ISBN: 1626545952), Getting Food From Water (ISBN: 1626545987), Homesteading (ISBN: 1626545960), Organic Orcharding (ISBN: 1626545790), Successful Berry Growing (ISBN: 1626546002).
Gene Logsdon has long served as a voice of grounded agricultural wisdom. His wry humor and keen insights have made him a favorite among homesteaders, gardeners, orchardists, and farmers. In Gene Logsdon's Practical Skills, he turns his attention to traditional crafts and practices, reviving and documenting the homemaking, culinary, and agricultural skills handed down through generations of American farmers.
This wide-ranging volume of practical instruction is divided into 5 parts, each focused on a different aspect of country life, including:
Develop the skills your grandparents knew by heart. Gene Logsdon's Practical Skills is a book you can learn from for years to come.
Gene Logsdon and his wife Carol have a small-scale experimental farm in Wyandot County, Ohio. Gene is the author of numerous books and magazine articles on farm-related issues, and believes sustainable pastoral farming is the solution for our stressed agricultural system.
Readers interested in related titles from Eugene Logsdon will also want to see: Getting Food From Water (ISBN: 1626545987), Homesteading (ISBN: 1626545960), Organic Orcharding (ISBN: 1626545790), Successful Berry Growing (ISBN: 1626546002), Two Acre Eden (ISBN: 1626545820).
The organic homestead means something deeper than either the nobility of work or the pleasantness of leisure. What it must provide - if the homestead is to have true success - is a shrine to tranquility, an island of calm sanity to which you can retreat each day from the hectic outside world.
Gene Logsdon is uniquely qualified to write about homesteading - his heart has never been far from the land. He was born and raised on his family's farm, and as an adult he established a two-acre homestead before moving on to operate a 32-acre farm of his own.
A prolific writer on a range of agricultural subjects, Gene Logsdon is beloved for his practical insight, folksy wisdom, and deep reverence for the natural world. He teaches and practices a homesteading philosophy of peaceful coexistence; of accommodating oneself to nature rather than dominating it.
Homesteading is one of his first books, and the time-tested techniques it teaches are as relevant now as ever. Inside you'll find a wealth of information about maintaining a self-sustaining lifestyle, including:
Complete with photos and illustrations, this book is a wonderful resource for homesteaders and organic farmers alike. With an emphasis on enjoying the simple pleasures of a country life, Logsdon's infectious positivity and humor will keep you smiling even when the going gets tough. He never fails to remind us that the hard work of homesteading ain't worth a thing if you forget to put down your hoe, relax, and soak up the tranquil beauty of your natural surroundings.
This book is also available from Echo Point Books as a paperback (ISBN 1626545960).
Gene Logsdon and his wife Carol have a small-scale experimental farm in Wyandot County, Ohio. Gene is the author of numerous books and magazine articles on farm-related issues, and believes sustainable pastoral farming is the solution for our stressed agricultural system.
Readers interested in related titles from Eugene Logsdon will also want to see: Gene Logsdon's Practical Skills (ISBN: 1626545952), Getting Food From Water (ISBN: 1626545987), Organic Orcharding (ISBN: 1626545790), Successful Berry Growing (ISBN: 1626546002), Two Acre Eden (ISBN: 1626545820).
Get your feet wet with another one of Gene Logsdon's brilliant guides
Don't shy away from aquaculture for fear that it is too complex and difficult. With a little guidance, this decades-old tradition can be practiced successfully on plots of all sizes. Engage your water ecosystem and take your organic garden or homestead to the next level
In Getting Food From Water: A Guide to Backyard Aquaculture, Gene Logsdon turns his attention to the practice of small-scale aquaculture, presenting farmers and homesteaders with a long-overdue guide for efficiently and responsibly making use of water ecosystems. There is a lot to be gained from even the smallest of aquaculture practices, from a deeper understanding of the way water interacts with land, to the cultivation of edible fish and aquatic plants. Inside, you'll learn about,
Logsdon also includes extensive chapters on raising or cultivating a wide range of fish, waterfowl, water flowers, and algae. If you're ready to unlock the potential of your water systems, Getting Food From Water will show you the way.
Gene Logsdon and his wife Carol have a small-scale experimental farm in Wyandot County, Ohio. Gene is the author of numerous books and magazine articles on farm-related issues, and believes sustainable pastoral farming is the solution for our stressed agricultural system.
Readers interested in related titles from Eugene Logsdon will also want to see: Gene Logsdon's Practical Skills (ISBN: 1626545952), Homesteading (ISBN: 1626545960), Organic Orcharding (ISBN: 1626545790), Successful Berry Growing (ISBN: 1626546002), Two Acre Eden (ISBN: 1626545820) .
A garden without berries is like spring without flowers. But with ever-increasing prices at grocery stores and markets, berries have sadly become a rare treat for most people. Successful Berry Growing is a book to solve this problem for good
A lifelong organic farmer, homesteader and student of everything agricultural, Gene Logsdon knows a thing or two about growing berries. And although Successful Berry Growing is geared to the small-scale or family operation, the information inside is useful for growing berries on any scale. You'll learn how to:
With detailed information on cultivating strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, blackberries, grapes, currants, gooseberries, cranberries, elderberries, huckleberries and more, Successful Berry Growing is all you need to grow nature's most delicious candy in your own backyard
Gene Logsdon and his wife Carol have a small-scale experimental farm in Wyandot County, Ohio. Gene is the author of numerous books and magazine articles on farm-related issues, and believes sustainable pastoral farming is the solution for our stressed agricultural system.
Readers interested in related titles from Eugene Logsdon will also want to see: Gene Logsdon's Practical Skills (ISBN: 1626545952), Getting Food From Water (ISBN: 1626545987), Homesteading (ISBN: 1626545960), Organic Orcharding (ISBN: 1626545790), Two Acre Eden (ISBN: 1626545820).
Get your feet wet with another one of Gene Logsdon's brilliant guides
Don't shy away from aquaculture for fear that it is too complex and difficult. With a little guidance, this decades-old tradition can be practiced successfully on plots of all sizes. Engage your water ecosystem and take your organic garden or homestead to the next level
In Getting Food From Water: A Guide to Backyard Aquaculture, Gene Logsdon turns his attention to the practice of small-scale aquaculture, presenting farmers and homesteaders with a long-overdue guide for efficiently and responsibly making use of water ecosystems. There is a lot to be gained from even the smallest of aquaculture practices, from a deeper understanding of the way water interacts with land, to the cultivation of edible fish and aquatic plants. Inside, you'll learn about,
Logsdon also includes extensive chapters on raising or cultivating a wide range of fish, waterfowl, water flowers, and algae. If you're ready to unlock the potential of your water systems, Getting Food From Water will show you the way.
Gene Logsdon and his wife Carol have a small-scale experimental farm in Wyandot County, Ohio. Gene is the author of numerous books and magazine articles on farm-related issues, and believes sustainable pastoral farming is the solution for our stressed agricultural system.
Readers interested in related titles from Eugene Logsdon will also want to see: Gene Logsdon's Practical Skills (ISBN: 1626545952), Homesteading (ISBN: 1626545960), Organic Orcharding (ISBN: 1626545790), Successful Berry Growing (ISBN: 1626546002), Two Acre Eden (ISBN: 1626545820) .
Two Acre Eden is more than your average how-to book. The first in a long line of beloved books by homesteading sage Gene Logsdon, Two Acre Eden is an insightful and light-hearted treatise on gardening, homesteading, and getting the most out of your land.
With a healthy dose of humor and eye toward pragmatism, Logsdon dispenses page after page of unbeatable advice on designing, building, and living off of your very own two-acre Garden of Eden. Inside you'll find practical and creative tips on:
Logsdon also devotes time to the discussion of livestock and how to best cultivate a self-sustaining country lifestyle. Forty years after its original publication, Two Acre Eden is as unique as ever. An inspiring and educational read for gardeners, aspiring homesteaders, and city-folk who dream of the countryside, Two Acre Eden will give you a fresh perspective on old traditions.
Readers interested in related titles from Eugene Logsdon will also want to see: Gene Logsdon's Practical Skills (ISBN: 1626545952), Getting Food From Water (ISBN: 1626545987), Homesteading (ISBN: 1626545960), Organic Orcharding (ISBN: 1626545790), Successful Berry Growing (ISBN: 1626546002).
Amidst Mad Cow scares and consumer concerns about how farm animals are bred, fed, and raised, many farmers and homesteaders are rediscovering the traditional practice of pastoral farming. Grasses, clovers, and forbs are the natural diet of cattle, horses, and sheep, and are vital supplements for hogs, chickens, and turkeys. Consumers increasingly seek the health benefits of meat from animals raised in green paddocks instead of in muddy feedlots.
In All Flesh Is Grass: The Pleasures and Promises of Pasture Farming, Gene Logsdon explains that well-managed pastures are nutritious and palatable-virtual salads for livestock. Leafy pastures also hold the soil, foster biodiversity, and create lovely landscapes. Grass farming might be the solution for a stressed agricultural system based on an industrial model and propped up by federal subsidies.
In his clear and conversational style, Logsdon explains historically effective practices and new techniques. His warm, informative profiles of successful grass farmers offer inspiration and ideas. His narrative is enriched by his own experience as a contrary farmer on his artisan-scale farm near Upper Sandusky, Ohio.
All Flesh Is Grass will have broad appeal to the sustainable commercial farmer, the home-food producer, and all consumers who care about their food.
This is an enjoyable book that, for a brief while, will take many of its readers home. --News-Journal (Mansfield, OH)
[Logsdon] offers warmth and insight . . The simpler life is within our reach--if we will choose it. --Booklist
This is a quiet, reflective work that describes in some detail the difficulty of developing and maintaining a lifestyle supported by the land, something easier planned than maintained. . . . a memoir of the spiritual path of one escapee. --Bloomsbury Review
Deliciously irreverent, endearingly self-deprecating, full of good humor, Gene Logsdon's latest work is his personal testament to home, the retaining of which has been (Carol aside) the passion of his life. --Ohio Ecological Food & Arm Association News
Gene Logsdon has lived by failing according to most people's standards of success, and has made a good life. A good book, too. I like You Can Go Home Again (to name one reason of several) because it comes from experience. It has to do, not with speculation or theory or wishful thinking, but with what is possible. --Wendell Berry
Gene Logsdon demonstrates once again that a combination of intelligence, scholarship, passion, and fervent patriotism can equal only one characteristic these days, a contrary mind of a high order. --Wes Jackson, The Land Institute
In this vigorous memoir of his search for the good life, Gene Logsdon tells us why America's agrarian values matter to our future as well as to our past. Living simply, respecting the land, taking pleasure from the work of our hands, supplying many of our own needs, acting as neighbors--those values have not been lost, they've only been displaced, shoved to the margins. And Logsdon shows how we might draw them back to the center of our lives. --Scott Russell Sanders
Here is a book for everyone who has dreamed about going back to the land to live a simpler more meaningful life. Gene Logsdon's story embodies both the frustrations and longing so many of us feel as we search for our essential selves and a happy harmonious economic existence. The measure of his courage--and contrariness--is that he has been successful. In You Can Go Home Again, he tells us what motivated him and what success has meant.
To his legions of readers, Gene Logsdon is best known as the Contrary Farmer. His writings, which blend commonsense advice, curmudgeonly wit, and respect for the earth, are manna to anyone who wants to live, as Logsdon puts it, at nature's pace.
The Pond Lovers is Logsdon's ode to the watery microcosms all around us, from the half-acre farm pond to the suburban garden pool. Readers looking for hands-on experience will find plenty of pond-keeping dos and don'ts. Logsdon's higher purpose, however, is to proclaim the natural, spiritual, and recreational benefits of ponds. Fed by spring or filled by rainfall, the ponds closest to Logsdon's heart need minimal human interference in the way of machinery or chemicals. Those we read about in The Pond Lovers mostly belong to Logsdon's friends and neighbors, an extraordinarily resourceful group of people. For them, a pond is many things--from a place to fish, swim, or skate to an oasis for local plants, insects, and animals. Each purpose, Logsdon shows us, has its place in a thoughtful, self-sufficient life. Throughout, Logsdon also reminds us of the intense personal connections to ponds of such creative giants as Claude Monet, Andrew Wyeth, and Henry David Thoreau. Drawn from many and varied lifetimes spent around ponds, The Pond Lovers brims with lessons and opportunities for good work and good play--for backyard naturalists, do-it-yourselfers, and armchair gardeners.Gene Logsdon has become something of a rabble-rouser in progressive farm circles, stirring up debates and controversies with his popular New Farm Magazine column, The Contrary Farmer. One of Logsdon's principle contrarieties is the opinion that--popular images of the vanishing American farmer, notwithstanding--greater numbers of people in the U.S. will soon be growing and raising a greater share of their own food than at any time since the last century. Instead of vanishing, more and more farmers will be cottage farming, part-time.
This detailed and personal account of how Logsdon's family uses the art and science of agriculture to achieve a reasonably happy and ecologically sane way of life in an example for all who seek a sustainable lifestyle. In The Contrary Farmer, Logsdon offers the tried-and-true, practical advice of a manual for the cottage farmer, as well as the subtler delights of a meditation in praise of work and pleasure. The Contrary Farmer will give its readers tools and tenets, but also hilarious commentaries and beautiful evocations of the Ohio countryside that Logsdon knows as his place in the universe.
Gene Logsdon has found an imaginative way to introduce gardeners to a more total enjoyment of nature--fauna as well as flora. From suburb to countryside, every gardener knows that there are many pests who delight in one's precious creations--rabbits devour petunias, raccoons eat the almost ripe sweet corn, deer browse the morning glories, crows pull up young corn sprouts. How can gardeners and wildlife live together in harmony. Gene knows.
Amidst Mad Cow scares and consumer concerns about how farm animals are bred, fed, and raised, many farmers and homesteaders are rediscovering the traditional practice of pastoral farming. Grasses, clovers, and forbs are the natural diet of cattle, horses, and sheep, and are vital supplements for hogs, chickens, and turkeys. Consumers increasingly seek the health benefits of meat from animals raised in green paddocks instead of in muddy feedlots.
In All Flesh Is Grass: The Pleasures and Promises of Pasture Farming, Gene Logsdon explains that well-managed pastures are nutritious and palatable-virtual salads for livestock. Leafy pastures also hold the soil, foster biodiversity, and create lovely landscapes. Grass farming might be the solution for a stressed agricultural system based on an industrial model and propped up by federal subsidies.
In his clear and conversational style, Logsdon explains historically effective practices and new techniques. His warm, informative profiles of successful grass farmers offer inspiration and ideas. His narrative is enriched by his own experience as a contrary farmer on his artisan-scale farm near Upper Sandusky, Ohio.
All Flesh Is Grass will have broad appeal to the sustainable commercial farmer, the home-food producer, and all consumers who care about their food.