Ryder Ross

"Winter Harvest Handbook" is already in my library and reading queue. I'll check out Four Season Harvest.

By 'market veg operation' I'm going to assume you mean growing veggies to sell at a market. If that's so, can you go into a little more detail about your minimized tillage approach and why you think it's better than no-till? What do you do for bed preparation?

I'm not asking to try and debunk your approach but more to learn how real operations are currently doing things. Growing veggies for market could very well be in my future. (on a second thought, maybe you could post it as a new thread since it won't be super relevant to this thread's topic).

Wow. The Small Farms Library looks like it has lots of information!

I just purchased The New Organic Grower - thanks for that fiveandahalffarm!

I'm about halfway through Teaming with Microbes and man have I learned a ton already. I've learned about bacteria, fungi, protozoa, nematodes, arthropods, earthworms, gastropods, and how they all affect the soil. I'd highly recommend this book to anyone looking to learn what actually happens in the soil. As a side note, I've also taken a strong stand against roto-tilling and double-digging after reading this book.

Hey All,

I'm trying to learn as much as I can about composting. I'm setting up a composting program to collect food scraps from friends & neighbors in order to produce compost for a future backyard farm.

I'm a fairly technical person and would love to know exactly what is happening with the microbes & bacteria in the compost. The "Teaming with Microbes" book was just delivered today so I'll be reading that but it seems there's only a chapter on composting. We'll be trying out composting with worms in our apartment but are more interested in hot composting in the backyard.

What books or online resources would you recommend?

Thanks,
Ryder