Book Recommendation – The Essential Urban Farmer

I borrow a lot of books from the library and from friends and parents.  If I come across a book I really like I’ll go online and purchase a copy to keep.  This is one of those books.  In fact, it was on the librarians recommendation list at the public library. 

The Essential Urban Farmer by Novella Carpenter and Willow Rosenthal is a good one to add to your collection of reference books, particularly if this topic is of serious interest to you.  I love that it touched on all the topics I am most interested in from gardening to keeping chickens.  How to prune fruit trees and berry bushes, proper planting techniques, seed saving, propagation, harvesting, composting and organic pest control, etc. 

There is more great information in it too if you are interested in beekeeping and raising rabbits or goats.  If you plan to raise chickens or rabbits for meat it even tells you how to go about butchering them.  Raising goats for milk is covered in there as well. 

I got more useful information about my chickens in this book than I did from the book I had checked out that was strictly about poultry raising. 

There are diagrams to help you figure out how to set up your own yard to make it into a working urban farm, while still having a yard if that is what you so desire.  I found tons of great ideas to draw inspiration from. 

What I loved most is that it really is geared to and written for the novice like me.  If you want a book that covers the basics and does it well consider giving this one a shot.  I really think you will enjoy it. 

Do you have any books you absolutely swear by on this subject?  If so, I’d love to hear about them.