Start Your Farm

The Authoritative Guide to Becoming a Sustainable 21st Century Farmer

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Pub Date 10 Sep 2018 | Archive Date 24 Sep 2018

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Description

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A totally modern, all–purpose handbook for today’s agricultural dreamers—covering the challenges and triumphs of launching any successful farm—from two leading lights in sustainable farming

Combining nearly five decades of experience from two of America’s pioneering sustainable farmers, Start Your Farm is the perfect introduction to the ever-growing ranks of people who dream of starting their own successful operation. Written in straightforward yet engaging language, rich with anecdotes, practical examples, and sprinkled throughout with rural humor, Start Your Farm is a must-read primer and practical business guide for any aspiring farmer, regardless of enterprise. The book offers essential step-by-step advice, as well as useful charts and diagrams.

From vegetables to livestock, from small-scale plots to large acreages, from West Coast to East, authors Polishuk and Pritchard have not only lived the farming dream, they have succeeded at it. Now, new farmers can benefit from their wealth of experience, finding valuable information specifically organized and tailored for them. Broad in scope but thorough in detail, Start Your Farm is a book that can be read straight through, cherry-picked for individual chapters, and kept as a handy ongoing reference.

This file is NOT currently available for Kindle. We apologize for any inconvenience. If you have difficulties with downloading, please email us for assistance or leave a note in lieu of a review...


Advance Praise

“Start Your Farm is an eminently readable, entertaining, and important book for new farmers. The authors don’t hold back on the tough parts of farming. They coach the reader on how to overcome obstacles and reap the financial and emotional rewards on the other side. I recommend this book to anyone looking to make the brave leap into a farm career.”
Lindsey Lusher Shute, co-founder of the National Young Farmers Coalition

“This book is full of wisdom, wit, and practical advice from two of the most respected figures in agriculture today. Anyone interested in farming for a career should pick up a copy. There is no career more rewarding than farming, and this book eases the burden for those starting out.”
Ben Hartman, author of The Lean Farm and The Lean Farm Guide to Growing Vegetables

“A must-read for anyone who feels called to be a farmer. Start Your Farm is the most insightful, honest, challenging, and yet joyful and hopeful book I have read for would-be farmers. Prichard’s and Polishuk’s decades-long experiences in striving to farm sustainably also provide valuable insights into what it will take to farm successfully in the twenty-first century. Read this book and learn from two truly professional farmers.”
John Ikerd, Professor Emeritus of Agricultural Economics, University of Missouri

“If you have romantic Instagram ideas about living off the land, you need to read this book. Jam-packed with practical advice and real-life vignettes, Start Your Farm gives you the down and dirty—the financial, emotional, and physical aspects of running a working farm. But this gritty realism is perfectly balanced with hope and encouragement. Pritchard and Polishuk not only talk the talk, but walk the walk, and they will guide you through the intricacies of starting a farm of your own. If you have what it takes, that is!”
Lisa Steele, author of Fresh Eggs Daily

“If you dream of farming, Start Your Farm provides proven practical advice, delivered with a sense of humility and humor. It's as much a ‘why’ as a ‘how-to’ book, separating it from the plethora of guides for beginning farmers. Clear, concise, and highly useful, this book will help you make smarter decisions and fewer mistakes. I wish I had access to this kind of wisdom when I started farming forty-eight years ago. Get out there and farm, and carry this valuable info with you!”
Amigo Bob Cantisano, founding member of Organic Ag Advisors and The Ecological Farming Association

“Start Your Farm is an eminently readable, entertaining, and important book for new farmers. The authors don’t hold back on the tough parts of farming. They coach the reader on how to overcome...


Available Editions

EDITION Other Format
ISBN 9781615194896
PRICE $19.95 (USD)
PAGES 272

Average rating from 5 members


Featured Reviews

If you have been dreaming of starting your own farm or are wanting to imagine the possibilities and practicalities of delving into starting your own farm, large or small, then Start Your Farm is for you. You can even have years of farming under your belt like myself but are looking for some new ideas or inspiration.

It is daunting when you are just starting off on a new venture or project, and starting too large at the forefront can really hinder success or your own feelings of success. When talking with people interested in getting into farming or a new livestock breed I always caution starting off small, because you can sink yourself into something too soon and find that it wasn't a success, or that you didn't really like how the experience went.

I know the feeling of jumping into something whole hog and realizing it just didn't work out like you thought it would, and if you stated our strong in something and it soon fails your expectations that can really change your outlook and motivation.

I jumped into meat chickens with ordering two 50 chick batches and by the end of the season, I felt through processing them all out and the family quickly tired of many meals off chickens. The price break at the time of the chicks didn't balance out the time of so many birds, nor the lack of long-term freezer space for them wither meaning we ate 2-3 meals a week involving chicken. Which sounds great but at the time that was the primary meat source for a while, which became unappealing to the household masses. Meaning I ate a lot of chicken for a while. This is kind of why I still have turkey in the freezer from December of last year when a few turkey buyers fell through and we had 3 forty pound tom turkeys throughout the holidays.

In Start Your Farm, the chapters are lined out very well from questioning why one might want to become a farmer to how to make a profitable farm. I know that many of us get into farming to escape the "rat race" and work for ourselves, but the failure rate of farming is increasing and for those of us choosing to farm for our livelihood, we need to make good solid decisions in farm economics. I think the authors really delve into the importance of profitability while also stressing that sustainability is also a vital component of not only your farm but also for the environment.

At the end of each chapter, there are review questions that give the reader some introspective thinking time about the concepts that they just read. These questions are really valuable questions to consider for yourself and your growing farm because they are questions that come up and can also prepare you for what you're embarking on.

Start Your Farm is a great book filled with valuable information for the new farmer, and also for the veteran. The concepts in the book are fresh and engaging. Start Your Farm is worth reading once and coming back, again and again, to think about the questions and topics raised within its chapters.

If there are opportunities to receive a hard copy of the final book for review and to share with my local farming community meetings, let me know. This was a great resource and will be a great resource for farmers of every kind and of every age.

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