The Mini Farming Handbook

511 Pages·2014·6.17 MB·English

by  Brett L. Markham

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Copyright © 2014 Brett L. Markham
Sections of this book were previously published in Mini
Farming, Maximizing Your Mini Farm, The Mini Farming
Guide to Fermenting, and The Mini Farming Guide to
Composting.
All Rights Reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced
in any manner without the express written consent of the
publisher, except in the case of brief excerpts in critical
reviews or articles. All inquiries should be addressed to
Skyhorse Publishing, 307 West 36th Street, 11th Floor, New
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corporation.
Visit our website at www.skyhorsepublishing.com.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is
available on file.
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ISBN: 978-1-62914-197-8
eISBN: 978-1-62914-287-6
Printed in China
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Table of Contents
Introduction
Chapter 1 Raised Beds
Chapter 2 Soil Composition and Maintenance
Chapter 3 Time and Yield
Chapter 4 Pest and Disease Control
Chapter 5 Seed Starting
Chapter 6 Fruit Trees and Vines
Chapter 7 Raising Chickens for Eggs
Chapter 8 Raising Chickens for Meat
Chapter 9 The Markham Farm Chicken Plucker
Chapter 10 Preserving the Harvest
Chapter 11 Planting Guides and Seeders
Chapter 12 Easy Trellising
Chapter 13 Overview of Winemaking
Chapter 14 The Science of Wine
Chapter 15 Ingredients and Techniques
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Chapter 16 Advanced Techniques in Winemaking
Chapter 17 Principles and Materials for Vinegar
Chapter 18 Vinegar Making Techniques
Chapter 19 Cheese: Ingredients and Equipment
Chapter 20 Practical Cheese Making Techniques
Chapter 21 Introduction to Composting
Chapter 22 Starting with the Soil
Index
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Introduction
One of the most common questions I’ve been asked is “What
is Mini Farming, and how does it differ from gardening?” The
simple answer is that Mini Farming is a lot like gardening,
except that it is seen from the perspective of economics in
terms of money and time. Like all simple answers, it doesn’t
tell the whole story, and many essentials are missing. To fill
in the blanks requires an understanding of the origin of the
idea and the needs it sought to meet.
I am not sure how things are going in other parts of the world,
but in the United States anyway, people are getting squeezed
economically. In 2007, before the most recent recession, the
Economic Policy Institute reported that, with the exception of
a brief period in the late 1990’s, real wages for median and
low-wage workers had remained stagnant from 1973 to 2007
despite impressive gains in productivity.1
Though worker productivity had increased more than 20%
from 2001 to 2007, in terms of buying power, wages had
remained relatively stagnant, even for college educated
workers. The trend reported in 2007 is still alive and well in
2013. USA Today reports that despite stock markets and
corporate profits breaking records, wages remain stagnant.2
Meanwhile, as I was formulating the conceptions of Mini
Farming in 2005 and 2006, I had noticed a substantial rise in
the number of home foreclosures. In fact, from 2000 to 2006,
the foreclosure rate had more than doubled.3 I saw this as
very troubling given that the period from 2001 to 2006 was
widely reported as an economic recovery, rather than a
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