The Lean Farm Guide to Growing Vegetables

Description

In this field-guide companion to his award-winning first book, The Lean Farm, Hartman shows market vegetable growers in even more detail how Clay Bottom Farm implements lean thinking in every area of their work, including using kanbans, or replacement signals, to maximise land use; germination chambers to reduce defect waste; and right-sized machinery to save money and labor and increase efficiency. From finding land and assessing infrastructure needs to selling perfect produce at the farmers market, The Lean Farm Guide to Growing Vegetables digs deeper into specific, tested methods for waste-free farming that not only help farmers become more successful but make the work more enjoyable. These methods include:

• Using Japanese paper pot transplanters
• Building your own germinating chambers
• Leaning up your greenhouse
• Making and applying simple composts
• Using lean techniques for pest and weed control
• Creating Heijunka, or load-leveling calendars for efficient planning

Farming is not static, and improvement requires constant change. The Lean Farm Guide to Growing Vegetables offers strategies for farmers to stay flexible and profitable even in the face of changing weather and markets. Much more than a simple exercise in cost-cutting, lean farming is about growing better, not cheaper, food – the food your customers want.

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Product details

Published 2017
Chelsea Green Publishing
Softcover, Full-colour photos throughout, 272 pages.
ISBN: 9781603586993