Healthy soil and sustainable growing

[Dan Conine <dconine@dotnet.com>]

> From: "TradingPostPaul" <tradingpost@riseup.net>
> Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] Master Gardeners
> To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
> Message-ID: <200610301746500119.09A664E6@mail.lobo.net>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
>
>
> I'm glad to hear of any breakthroughs, Dan, it's encouraging.  That
> Beginning Market Gardener class is sorely needed in every corner of the
> country, and it ought to be free. As you know market growing is a whole
> different animal from backyard gardens. Let me mention a book I've reread a
> couple times or more, Growing For Market (Rodale Press, naturally ... ) ed.
> Roger Yepsen and editors of Organic Gardening, 1978.
Here's the link to the school: http://www.cias.wisc.edu/marketgrower.php

The book given with the course, "Sustainable Vegetable Production From 
Startup to 
Market"(http://www.acresusa.com/books/closeup.asp?action=search&prodid=1399&catid=&pcid=2 
is very useful, written from a market grower standpoint. The class is 
well worth anyone's time and the cost. I even paid for my hired helper 
to go last year. The class is taught by a mix of university specialists 
(pests, soils, planning) and farmers from the midwest area. The only 
drawback I found was that the busy schedule doesn't provide enough 
networking time with other students and instructors.
The course materials are useful and I refer to them periodically (less 
so now than the first year).
The instructors were practical, diversified, and interesting.

Dan