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7th out of 113 books
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Eliot Coleman's Winter Harvest Handbook: Four Season Vegetable Production for the 21st Century
Choosing locally grown organic food is a sustainable living trend that's taken hold throughout North America. Celebrated farming expert Eliot Coleman helped start this movement with "The New Organic Grower" published 20 years ago. He continues to lead the way, pushing the limits of the harvest season while working his world-renowned organic farm in Harborside, Ma...more
Paperback, 304 pages
Published
April 15th 2009
by Chelsea Green Publishing
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The early chapters of the Winter Harvest Handbook are downright entertaining. There’s a lot about how Coleman's Four Season Farm has developed its winter harvesting techniques, and some insights into the history of winter harvests that are fascinating.
The book is clearly aimed at the American market. Not only are the temperatures all in Fahrenheit, but there are frequent mentions of USDA climate zones and the fact that winter harvests are (or have been, in the past) far more commonp...more
The book is clearly aimed at the American market. Not only are the temperatures all in Fahrenheit, but there are frequent mentions of USDA climate zones and the fact that winter harvests are (or have been, in the past) far more commonp...more
One of my ongoing interests is food security and the evolution of our current predominantly industrial food system as we move towards a post-peak-oil and eventually a post-fossil-fuel future. For long-term food security our future food system needs to be healthy, affordable and sustainable. Obviously, our current highly energy and fossil-fuel intensive food production and distribution networks are going to have to change significantly as the energy they require becomes too expensive or simply ...more
Another great Eliot Coleman book. I found that this one was more geared to the market gardener/farmer and therefore Four Season Harvest was far more applicable to my situation. Still, this one was chock-full of good info and contained behind-the scenes look at how a deep-organic market gardener operates. What a finely tuned machine a market gardener needs to be! I have profound respect for the long hours put in by such a person and the highly scheduled, meticulous planning and planting of th...more
Okay, so I've had this book forever, and finally skimmed it last night. I had thought it would be more about harvesting and putting up food. So I was a little disappointed. It was about growing all types of food, marketing your own farm, selling the items year round, organic farming, and getting the most each season year round out of your farm. Would be more informative for someone actually farming whereas I'm not probably growing anything this upcoming year other than a few plants. So not reall...more
Provided a good look into what goes into the daily operations of a large nursery type operations. Entirely too large scale for your average home owner. Has descriptions for things like seed starting houses, mobile green houses, cold frame, hot houses...too much. If you're looking for something to do in your own backyard, you'll find a few good ideas, but there's no real way to scale this down. If you have a few acres to dedicate and want to start your own vegatable stand or something of the sort...more
I was hoping that this book would inspire me to try to grow greens in the winter. Coleman is a well-known, small scale vegetable farmer who lives in a very similar climate zone to Madison - Maine. He does succeed in growing year round out there with minimal inputs. This book is geared more towards the small farmer than the home gardener, but it did convince me that if I really wanted to grow cold weather crops in the winter I could. I'm just not sure if I want to put in the effort...
An excellent book for vegetable gardeners, who are looking to extend their growing season. Elliot Coleman explains how to plant greens like spinach and obtain harvests through most of the winter even in colder areas of the continental US. Readers will also learn how to extend the growing season for warm weather crops like tomatoes. While Coleman's methods require some investment in cold frames, he explains how to do it inexpensively.
This one's really aimed at the market gardener or other small production gardener. However, the information is both thorough and fascinating, and Mr. Coleman's writing betrays the combination of ingenuity and sheer anal-ness it takes to be successful as a farmer. His homemade tools are a hoot.
The ideas are just as applicable to the backyard gardener, but the earlier book, Four-Season Harvest, is more aimed at that demographic.
The ideas are just as applicable to the backyard gardener, but the earlier book, Four-Season Harvest, is more aimed at that demographic.
It really has to do more with large scale commercial gardening. However, the history and how long "winter" gardening has gone was very interesting. Both Paris and London were doing this as far back as the 1600's.
There is good lists of what has worked for them and their rotation. Not quite sure how I can use it on my two very small 3' x 3' vege garden.
There is good lists of what has worked for them and their rotation. Not quite sure how I can use it on my two very small 3' x 3' vege garden.
Excellent reference book, as usual from Eliot. There's alot I can apply from this book, even though I am not a "Parisian maraîcher", (market gardener) or do la culture maraîchè (market gardening)... I loved the history that he documents from France and Britian, as well. Everything old is new again. Highly recommend!
If you want a knowledgeable, well-written book on how to garden through the winter, this is the book for you. Coleman is the king of organic gardening, and there's a reason for it. Don't bother with any other book - buy this one as a reference book and refer back to it often. Well done!
The Master Gardener is so generous in sharing valuable suggestions that any amateur gardener needs to grow vegetables and especially, extend the harvest through the year.
Very practical and certainly adaptable for the home grower. The book wasn't at all technical, as I feared it might me. Lovely pictures too.
Merry
is currently reading it
Excellent "how to" grow in the winter. I live in a zone 4 area and I am able to get greens and carrots throughout the winter.
awesome! very detailed and had great ideas that i can use in the rainforest that i live in! so wet!!!
Loved this and have placed and order for his other books.
Good science and easy to understand.
Good science and easy to understand.
Stephanie Solomon
is currently reading it
I find this book to be extremely exciting!
Sharon
added it
May need to buy this when we set up the farm.
worth reading if you are a Coleman devotee like me, but really more for market growers. Not much in here that Four Season Harvest doesn't have in better format for the home gardener.
Growing vegetables all winter in Maine?! Fascinating and inspiring.
Great resource.
Great book on the topic. Mainly discusses market gardening, but it sounds like Eliot's methods should apply well to nearly any size of vegetable garden in a cold or cool location. The book is very readable, organized and attractive.
So helpful and clear.
There's nothing not to like about this book (except perhaps the price if you actually buy it.) Stunning photos, clear text, none of the mainstream tendency to try to make the book longer by adding in common knowledge information. Highly recommended. Visit my blog to read highlights of the Winter Harvest Handbook.
An informative book on raising vegetables during the colder fall and winter months. The focus is more for the commercial scale farmer rather than the small urban vegetable growers.
IF you want to learn all about gardening (veggies) through the winter THIS IS one of the books you need. They are based in Maine and Eliot Coleman literally wrote the book on growing in the winter (and its cheap by the way). Also get "Four Season Harvest" by him as well. They work together.
oh eliot.
this will hopefully help us talk through the black hole of high tunnel design differences and learn more about claytonia and other obscure things.
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farm season shelved for colder times
this will hopefully help us talk through the black hole of high tunnel design differences and learn more about claytonia and other obscure things.
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farm season shelved for colder times
K
marked it as to-read
Brita
marked it as to-read
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