Finally, A Useful Post Again

Here's another freebie for the frugal semi-employed among us to keep you in productive reading material as long as you have battery power for your computer. The USDA has put our tax dollars to good use creating the Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education section of the Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service. Go to http://www.sare.org/ and click on Publications, then Whole Catalog. It is geared toward farmers wanting to transition to organic or more sustainable methods of farming (like Integrated Pest Management), but it has good stuff for the gardener, too. That includes fact sheets, bulletins, and PDF files of entire books for the cost of your already-paid taxes. Want to grow veggies or do small scale dairy or pasture-raised beef for a profit? They have examples of farmers who do these things, with CONTACT INFORMATION! I'm starting on Building Soils for Better Crops by Fred Magdoff and Harold van Es now. It looks basic and good so far. It is out of print, but the magic of PDF makes it accessible. Cool stuff.