Book Review: Bioshelter Market Garden: A Permaculture Farm by Darrell Frey

Bioshelter Market Garden: A Permaculture Farm by Darrell Frey

? out of 10



I have been privileged to intern at Three Sister's Farm (the farm that the book is about) all summer with Darrell Frey (the author of the book) and thus I was able to see everything that he talked about in the book with my own eyes and feel it with my hands. I hardly needed that though considering how comprehensive this book is. It's basically a case study of a 30 year old permaculture farm, one of the oldest in the country. It is truly comprehensive with chapters on everything from the influences that caused him to take on the venture, to the ecology of a permaculture farm, integrated pest management, the conception and construction of a bioshelter (a greenhouse with a living ecosystem inside it) to the plants that he grows and much much more. He traces every line of thought and shows how they can be developed further on his own farm and on other people's farms. The true value of this book for me though is showing how a permaculture farm actually functions, since most books that I've read on permaculture have been more about the design or the philosophy, both of which he talks about in the book too. We need more market gardens in the years to come, and we will need more greenhouses around cities if we want fresh food throughout the winter in the North. This book shows how these things are possible in a permaculture framework.

Isaac Hill wrote:The true value of this book for me though is showing how a permaculture farm actually functions, since most books that I've read on permaculture have been more about the design or the philosophy, both of which he talks about in the book too.

This part makes the book especially enticing to me.

Isaac Hill wrote:We need more market gardens in the years to come, and we will need more greenhouses around cities if we want fresh food throughout the winter in the North. This book shows how these things are possible in a permaculture framework.

Nice.

Thanks for a great review, Issac.