Books are a homestead farmer’s best friend.
Right up there with YouTube and Google. And older farmers.
On our LIVE YOUTUBE Q&A programs, we’ve been asked what books we use as resources and reference. There’s a whole list right here: Homestead Farm Books
The best place to start though?
Joel Salatin. He’s an experienced farmer with a gift for teaching and communicating. He’s got several books to his name, but three of them are true “how to” books. They were among the first books we invested in. With these books in your library, you’ll have practical tools to start and succeed at your homestead farm enterprise.
You Can Farm is a general “how to” about farming. This is a front line primer for anyone wondering if they can farm, dreaming of growing food on their own piece of land, or already growing food and wanting to up your game.
Pastured Poultry Profit$ is one of the best books to learn how to raise pastured poultry. There are other books that’ll teach you how to raise backyard chickens in pens, but this one will help you raise broilers, layers, and turkeys out on the grass. Salatin includes sections on processing your birds, and running your poultry operation as a business as well as a hobby. It’s the most comprehensive, honest, practical book we’ve seen out there.
Salad Bar Beef is the resource for learning about pasture management, whether you decide to have cows or not. If you do have dairy or beef cows, this is an invaluable resource to learn how to improve your soils, grasses, and cows with just effort, not a great deal of expense. Joel and his son Daniel have rejuvenated many worn out pastures, and turned a profit with rotationally grazed pasture raised beef cows. Again, there is a discussion on the business aspects of grass fed beef. A must have book if you want to have cows on grass and improve your pastures at the same time.
Start your reading library! You can check out other books from our library here: Homestead Farm Books