1. Homegrown grains: the key to food security
2. Corn: America's amazing maize
3. Wheat: the main source of the staff of life
4. The sorghum family
5. Oats: the high-protein cereal grain
6. Dry beans: the "poor man's meat"
7. Rye and barley
8. Buckwheat and millet
9. Rice: the oldest garden grain
10. Some uncommon grains, old and new
11. Legumes: the overlooked partner in small-scale grain
raising
12. Feeding grain to animals
Gene Logsdon farms in Upper Sandusky, Ohio. He is one of the clearest and most original voices of rural America. He has published more than two dozen books; his Chelsea Green books include Small-Scale Grain Raising (2nd Edition), Living at Nature's Pace, The Contrary Farmer's Invitation to Gardening, Good Spirits, and The Contrary Farmer. He writes a popular blog at OrganicToBe.org, is a regular contributor to Farming magazine and The Draft Horse Journal, and writes an award-winning weekly column in the Carey, Ohio Progressor Times.
The Ethicurean-
In Small-Scale Grain Raising, Logsdon lays out clearly just how
easy it can be to grow grains for your family and your livestock,
from his beloved "pancake patch" up to acre-sized plots.
Interspersed with good-humored vintage anecdotes and his usual
Contrary Farmer commentary, this primer elevates the status of
grain-growing on farms of all sizes (from the backyard on up) to a
happy essential. As he states repeatedly, there's nothing so
delicious -- or so economical -- as home-baked goods made with
fresh grains you grew and milled yourself. And when those same
home-grown grains can also feed your animals and build soil
fertility… well, what's stopping you?Logsdon's book covers all of
the well-known grains and several of the lesser ones: barley,
buckwheat, corn, millet, oats, rice, spelt, sorghum, triticale,
wheat, and others. He also devotes a chapter to soybeans and dried
beans, despite their classification as legumes, because they
partner so well with grains both in growing and in eating. For at
least the major grains he discusses varieties, yields, nutritional
value, and uses (both for human and animal consumption as well as
other farm uses). He describes how to prepare the soil, how to
plant the grain seeds (including optimal space requirements), what
diseases and pests to watch for and how to deal with them, how to
harvest and dry the grains, how to store them, and, finally, how to
turn those seeds into food for your family.Drawing on his personal
experience growing almost all of the major grains, Logsdon
describes "how we do it" even when it contrasts with conventional
wisdom. He touts the value of open-pollinated seed, despite
advances in hybrids, because of their superior taste and the
satisfaction of not being beholden to agribusiness. He also
demonstrates that old hand tools and techniques can sometimes be
the most efficient when growing on a small scale. For example,
though corn may be harvested by machine, he outlines how to bundle
corn stalks into shocks for easy, inexpensive drying and storage
(and aesthetic value). He claims to keep a basket full of old socks
to slip over ripening ears of corn to prevent wild animals from
dining on his crops. (I'd like to see that!) And for his money, the
best weed control -- the one to which pests never develop
resistance -- is the hoe.
"Interspersed with good-humored vintage anecdotes and his usual
'Contrary Farmer' commentary, this primer elevates the status of
grain-growing on farms of all sizes (from the backyard on up) to a
happy essential."--Jennifer McMullen, reviewed in The
Ethicurean
"Home bakers rejoice! Gene's book is back just in time to help you
grow those flavorful, old, heirloom grain varieties you have always
wanted to try. Bon appétit!"--Eliot Coleman, author of The Winter
Harvest Handbook and The New Organic Grower
"Small-Scale Grain Raising, 2nd ed., is the definitive book on how
to grow, thresh, process, and use grains in the amounts that matter
to a family--from enough wheat for a single batch of pancakes up to
an acre or two--all the grain needed for a family with a cow, a
pig, a few sheep, and a flock of chickens. The first edition has
long been a cult classic, decades out of print, decades before its
time, eagerly begged, borrowed, and handed around in bootleg
copies. The second edition is updated and expanded to include
virtually every grain grown in North America. Particularly useful
is the state-of-the-art information about threshing and dehulling
of various grains for those without access to specialized
equipment. Even more useful than the specific information, however,
is the portrayal of the overall pattern--the full integration of
appropriate grain-growing, appropriate cover-cropping, appropriate
livestock keeping, appropriate economics, and appropriate
philosophy, all woven together into a powerful model of a coherent
framework for gardening, farming, and living. This book is the
Small is Beautiful of grain growing, by Gene Logsdon, one of the
founding curmudgeons of modern garden farming and sustainable
agriculture."--Carol Deppe, author of Breed Your Own Vegetable
Varieties: The Gardener's and Farmer's Guide to Plant Breeding and
Seed Saving
"Gene Logsdon could just say, 'I told you so.' Instead, he has
revitalized Small-Scale Grain Raising with bushels of new
information, thirty additional years of insight, and the welcome
leavening of his wonderful and cranky (with a wink and a nod)
voice. He makes sowing sexy, and shifts the food revolution from
his back 40 to your back yard."--Michael Perry, author of COOP: A
Year of Poultry, Pigs and Parenting
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