Contents:
The Organic Transition - Organic Farming: Philosophy and Practice - Soil Building - Field Crops - Pests and Weeds - Livestock - The Home Place: Vegetables, Herbs, Flowers, Trees, Fruit and Your Lawn - Consumers - General Topics - Animals - Trees and Fruits - Herbs and Flowers

The following is a list of some of the resources which are currently available through the public library system. To request a book, video or audiotape via interlibrary loan contact your local librarian. Your librarian will need the title or author of the item you are requesting. Your librarian can contact the Solon Public Library, Solon, IA., to request these resources. When the requested item arrives at your library, your librarian will notify you of its arrival.

Switching to a Sustainable System, Fred Kirschenmann (Book & Video)
A practical guide to making the transition from conventional agriculture to a sustainable/organic system (geared primarily to the Northern Plains region).

Putting Culture Back in Agriculture, Fred Kirschenmann (Audiotape)
Keynote speech at the 1995 Urban/Rural Conference at Michael Fields Institute, WI

The Real Dirt, Northeast Organic Farming Association & Cooperative Extension (Book)
Interviews with more than 60 farmers - offers a farmer’s view of how to go about the site- specific work of designing rotations, selecting crops, and surviving economically.

Covering New Ground: Wisconsin’s Sustainable Agriculture (Video)
Produced by WHA-TV, WI Ag Dept, Trade & Consumer Protection & WI Energy Bureau

Choices for Our Land, Northeast Organic Farming Association (Video)
Shows that farming can still be an attractive financial option. Experts in seedlings, perennial flowers, berries, organic poultry, specialty vegetables, garlic and sheep, baking bread and keeping bees, talk about their methods, their markets, and the financial return. Includes discussion about protecting land from development.

Increasing Organic Agriculture at the Local Level, Maren Hansen & the Santa Barbara County Safe Food Project Community Environmental Council (Booklet)
In this manual for consumers, grocers, farmers and policy makers they offer methods for: educating consumers about pesticide hazards; educating grocers about effectively marketing organic food; providing marketing strategies & technical advice to transitional & organic farmers; & providing public policy incentives to organic & transitional farmers.

Reaping What We Have Sown: Public Policy Consequences of Agricultural Industrialization and the Legal Implications of a Changing Production System
Neil D. Hamilton
The author is the director of the Agricultural Law Center at Drake University Law School. This paper was originally prepared for delivery at the conference Industrialization of Heartland Agriculture, Minneapolis, MN, 1995.

Organic Farming, Nicolas Lampkin (Book)
A very good, practical, general book on organic farming that features long, detailed chapters on specific techniques such as manure management, rotation design, soil health, weed management and grassland and fodder crops. Also has a section on livestock husbandry.

Eco-Farm: An Acres U.S.A. Primer, Charles Walters and C.J. Fenzau (Book)
(New edition - 1996) Agriculture is explained in terminology that not only makes the subject easy to learn but vibrantly alive. Delivers a complete education in soils, crops, and weed and insect control from the eco-agriculture perspective.

Science in Agriculture: The Professional’s Edge, Arden B. Andersen (Book)
The author believes that farmers have been deluded into thinking that pesticides and chemical fertilizers will solve all their problems. He believes that farmers must be educated in the basic sciences. This book is a clearly explained, concise recap of the main schools of thought that make up eco-agriculture.

Successful Small-Scale Farming, Karl Schwenke (Book)
Introduces anyone owning or planning to own a small farm to both the harsh realities and the real potential involved in making a full or part-time living on the land using organic methodologies. Gives innovative strategies for finding & creating a market "niche" for your farm’s crops or services.

SMP’s: Sustainable Management Practices for the 21st Century, Carmen Fernholz (Booklet)The author farms 300 acres in Minnesota. Besides crops his operation consists of a 70-sow farrow to finish swine enterprise. He is a cooperator with the Rodale Institute On-Farm Research Network and is currently involved in extensive research with the University of Minnesota.

New Farmer and Grower: Britain’s Journal for Organic Food Production
Published quarterly by the British Organic Farmers/Organic Growers Association it is an excellent source of organic farming information including in-depth information about organic livestock management

Biodynamic Agriculture, Willy Schilthuis (Book)
A concise and fully illustrated introduction to the principles and practice of biodynamic agriculture. Biodynamics is an internationally recognized approach to organic agriculture in which the farmer or gardener respects and works with the spiritual dimension of the earth’s environment, enabling the life processes and ecological interconnections of plants and animals to function at their best.

Biodynamic Farming Practice, Sattler & Wistinghusen (Book)
The definitive book on biodynamics. This is a thorough, scholarly textbook describing in detail scientifically proven biodynamic techniques developed over many years in Europe. Used in college agriculture programs in Europe.

Soil Fertility: Renewal and Preservation, Ehrenfried Pfeiffer (Book)
Originally published in Great Britain in 1947, this handbook on the biodynamic farming and gardening methods of Rudolf Steiner is still relevant today. Treating the soil, the farm, and the earth as a living organism and proceeding accordingly is a basic principle outlined in this book. Includes research data, practical methods and much useful info.

The Soul of Soil, Grace Gershuny & Joseph Smillie (Book)
As a guide to ecological soil management this book explains how soil organisms supply plants with the necessary nutrients at the right time, in the right form, and in the right amount. It is a guide to managing soils for long-term productivity.

Life in the Soil, Nature Farming International Research Foundation (Video)
Message of the film is: To understand the rationale for sustainable agriculture, one must grasp the critical importance of Soil. Soil is a living, fragile medium that must be protected and nurtured to ensure its long-term productivity and stability.

Soil Fertility: Recycling vs. Input Systems, Fred Kirschenmann (Video)
Nebraska Sustainable Agriculture Society

The Albrecht Papers, Vol II Soil Fertility, William A. Albrecht (Book)
This book is a well organized explanation of the relationship between soil fertility and animal and human health.

The Carbon Connection, Leonard Ridzon with Charles Walters (Book)
This book speaks for the land, its preservation and its use. Author points out that life is framed on carbon. Plants create this carbon frame and we fall into dis-ease, or disease, according to the lack of carbon compounds.

The Carbon Cycle, Leonard Ridzon with Charles Walters (Book)
A companion volume to The Carbon Connection, this book defines the role of carbon in the soil digestion process. Author gives insight into the soil carbon function in handling toxicity.

Seaweed and Plant Growth, T.L. Senn (Book)
This book uses scientific facts and case reports to document the usefulness of seaweed in agriculture.

Secrets of the Soil: New Age Solutions for Restoring our Planet (Book)
Peter Tompkins and Christopher Bird Reports the stories of the innovative, nontraditional and spiritual methods that certain scientists and farmers are using to avoid the use of toxic chemical agriculture. Includes topics such as using Steiner’s biodynamic farming techniques and using rock dusts as fertilizers to revitalize depleted soils.

The Organic Field Crop Handbook (Handbook & 2 videos)
A 200-page reference book from the Canadian Organic Growers which explains the principles of organic crop production, farm ecosystems, the soil, composting, nutrient management, weed control and crop rotations. Videos focus on weed management, composting and marketing.

How to Grow Great Alfalfa... and Other Forages, Harold Willis, PhD. (Booklet)
Learn how to establish a healthy stand. Is high potassium necessary for high quality? How can you measure forage quality?

How to Grow Super Soybeans, Harold Willis, PhD. (Booklet)
Learn: how bacteria helps your crop grow better, how to drought-proof your soil, whether herbicides & pesticides are really necessary and what place hydrogen peroxide has on your farm. Learn how to increase your profits.

How to Grow Top Quality Corn, Harold Willis, PhD. (Booklet)
Learn which is better, hybrids or open-pollenated corn. How important is humus to high quality crops? Which fertilizer materials are harmful and which are beneficial?

Weeds, Walter Conrad Muenscher (Book)
Comprehensive handbook on the identification and control of weeds. Specific methods for nonchemical control of weeds are provided in careful detail.

Weeds, Control without Poisons, Charles Walters. (Book)
Specifics on a hundred weeds, why they grow, what soil conditions spur them or stop them, what they say about your soil, and how to control them without the use of chemicals.

Weeds and Why They Grow, Jay L. McCaman (Book)
Explains how weed control lies in fertility management. Every weed grows in a somewhat narrow window of allowable soil conditions. Details hundreds of weeds of commercial importance along with the chemical analysis of accompanying soils.

Controlling Weeds With Fewer Chemicals (Book)
This collection of articles illustrates how many farmers are dealing with weeds. Focus is on tillage, cultivation and biological controls. Information that can be put to work in the field.

Health Risks from Agricultural Chemicals, Dr. Dennis Weisenberger (Video)
Nebraska Sustainable Agriculture Society

Pests of the Garden and Small Farm, Mary Louise Flint (Book)
A grower’s guide to using less pesticides, this book adapts integrated pest management (IPM) techniques to the needs of the home gardener and small scale farmer. It is a comprehensive and easy-to-use guide to insects, mites, plant diseases, nematodes and weeds that affect vegetables and fruit trees.

Livestock and Sustainable Agriculture, Fred Kirschenmann & Bob Steffan (Video)
Nebraska Sustainable Agriculture Society

A Conservation Breeding Handbook, D. Phillip Sponenberg and Carolyn J. Christman
This guide explains both the reason that minor and rare livestock breeds must be saved and outlines methods of breeding to accomplish this task. Many of these breeds carry genetic traits making them ideal for small farms and sustainable agriculture.

Organic Dairy Farming
This manual was produced by the Kickapoo Organic Resource Network for a Sustainable Ag grant. It includes extensive chapters on herd health, cropping systems, certification and marketing.

Dollars and Sense, Larry F. Tranel (Book)
This handbook for seasonal grass dairying includes the economics of seasonal grass dairying; a sample loan prospectus; fencing, water and paddock design; nutrition, breeding and management ideas; and a milking parlor design.

Quality Pasture: How to create it, manage it and profit from it, Alan Nation. (Book)
Offers down-to-earth, low-cost tactics to create high-energy pasture that will reduce or eliminate expensive inputs or purchased feeds. Explains how to match pasture quality to livestock class for seasonal dairying, beef production, baby calf rearing, and multi- species grazing. It details such topics as pasture silage making, stored forages, extending the grazing season, a drought management plan, and wet weather tips.

Greener Pastures on Your Side of the Fence: Better Farming with Voisin Grazing Management, Bill Murphy (Book)
Explains why and how to use the Voisin system of grazing management and what to expect from its use. This system takes into account the needs of both animals and plants. This is an excellent guide to successful pasturing.

Salad Bar Beef, Joel Salatin (Book)
Complete how-to guide for successfully, profitably entering the natural, grass-fed beef business. Offers a creative alternative for an industry in trouble.

Pastured Poultry Profits, Joel Salatin (Book and Video)
Net $25,000 in six months on twenty acres. A proven production model is described which is capable of producing an income from a small acreage equal or superior to that of most off-farm jobs.

Chicken Tractor, Andy Lee (Book)
A chicken tractor is a bottomless, portable shelter-pen that fits over your garden beds. Lee gives step-by-step advice on how to select, buy, raise and market your chickens, and how to custom build your tractors in order to get the best out of your soil.

Low Cost Farrowing and Feeding of Hogs, Pat Steffen (Video)
Nebraska Sustainable Agriculture Society

The Lamb Marketing Primer, William K. Kruesi (Book)
This marketing handbook is for both new and experienced shepherds. Provides all the basic information needed to reach the best lamb markets for the highest return.

The Complete Herbal Handbook for Farm and Stable, Juliette de Bairacli Levy (Book)
Everything you need to know about herbal medicine for goats, sheep, horses, cows, poultry, dogs and even bees. Directions for using common, easy-to-grow herbs.

The Homeopathic Treatment of Beef and Dairy Cattle, Christopher Day (Book)
Learn to understand the thinking behind the homeopathic treatment of disease and how it can be used, without side-effects or residues, on an everyday basis in the care of cattle, both as individual animals and as a herd. Also includes sections on feed and management issues.

Pigs: The Homeopathic Approach to the Treatment and Prevention of Diseases (Book)
Dr. George Macleod
This book is a working reference manual with detailed listing of specific remedies for specific conditions.

Sell What You Sow!, Eric Gibson (Book)
Focus is on high-value produce marketing and practical, hands-on information you need to sell what you grow. This how-to book reveals the tricks of the trade from master marketers around the country.

Cold-Climate Gardening, Lewis Hill (Book)
How to extend your growing season by at least 30 days. Information for northern gardeners on how to grow food, how to landscape, techniques to employ that will protect vulnerable plantings, how to warm up the soil earlier, and which species to grow.

Small-Scale Postharvest Handling Practices: A Manual for Horticultural Crops, Lisa Kitinoja and Adel A. Kader (Handbook)
Focus is on the small-scale operation and utilization of effective management during the postharvest period rather than on the use of costly machinery and high-tech postharvest treatments.

Its Not Just About Vegetables (Video)
All about starting a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) venture.

CSA Manual, Nebraska Sustainable Ag Society (Notebook)
A collection of articles about community supported agriculture, including articles on business planning, organizing a CSA and sample budgets.

Metro Farm, Michael Olson (Book)
Subtitled, A Guide to Growing for Big Profit on a Small Parcel of Land, this comprehensive guide shows you how to do it in 576 pages of text.

The Gardener’s Weed Book: Earth-Safe Controls, Barbara Pleasant (Book)
Explains how weeds survive and how to control them organically. Lists 80 weeds with detailed description, a black-and-white drawing of seeds, flowers, and mature plant, and the types of soils they grow in.

Growing Herbs from Seed, Cutting and Root, Thomas DeBaggio (Book)
Details the steps to successful herb gardening. How to sow seed directly into the ground, start seedlings indoors under lights, induce stem tip cuttings to root, and create new plants by division and layering are all covered in detail.

The Potential of Herbs as a Cash Crop, Richard Alan Miller (Book)
Too few small farms earn the money needed to keep a family on the farm. Author contend that there are profit potentials aplenty in herbs and spices. An intelligent use of resources is a key to survival - plan your work and work your plan.

Herbal Renaissance, Steven Foster (Book)
A handbook about growing, using, and understanding herbs. Each herb is documented with a written description, a drawing or photograph, and identifying chemical information.

The New Age Herbalist, Richard Mabey (Book)
Discusses how to use herbs for healing, nutrition, body care, and relaxation. Includes a complete illustrated glossary of herbs and a guide to herb cultivation.

Flowers For Sale: Growing and Marketing Cut Flowers, Lee Sturdivant (Book)
Everything you need to know to start a cut-flower business. Which flowers to grow, how to harvest and condition flowers, where to sell, how to price, and how many successful growers operate.

Specialty Cut Flowers, Allan M. Armitage (Book)
Provides information on annual, perennial, bulbous, and woody species for cut flower production. Gives detailed information on specific species and cultivars,including propagation and growing-on methods, environmental factors, yield in the field, greenhouse forcing, stage of harvest, postharvest handling, pests and diseases.

Postharvest Handling and Storage of Cut Flowers, Florist Greens, and Potted Plants, Joanna Nowak and Ryszard M. Rudnicki (Book)
Focus is on practical information on the plant-handling cycle from grower to consumer.

The Orchard Almanac, Steve Page and Joseph Smillie (Book)
This practical handbook, organized around the seasons in an easy-to-follow format, is a useful tool for commercial orchardists and backyard fruit growers. Author explains a strict organic approach as well as integrated pest management techniques.

The Chemical-Free Lawn, Warren Schultz (Book)
Tells you how to have a great lawn without herbicides, pesticides, and chemical fertilizers. Explains how to choose the correct grass, mix and match grasses for a longer lushness, cut down on mowing, fight damage from grubs, dogs, moles and other pests, identify and control weeds and diseases without chemicals, and feed your lawn without "fattening" it.

Diet for a Poisonous Planet, David Steinman (Book)
Discusses pesticide residue in foods and rates them by content. Extremely thorough and informative, it is consumer oriented.

The following are unedited videos from Northeast Organic Farming Association (NOFA) annual conference - filled with advice from the experts, the farmers themselves.

Deep Organics - Discussion is based on the belief that a true organic approach involves trying to regain "wholeness" in ourselves as well as our environment. Bring organic awareness into all aspects of your life, and learn techniques to make this easier.

Weed Management - Managing weeds at the farm and garden level for vegetables and other food crops. Discusses cover crops, mulches and other management techniques.

Cover Cropping - Learn the role of cover crops in fertility, erosion control, and weed suppression. Strategies such as winter covercropping using legumes, summer smother crops and undersowing into standing vegetables will be discussed.

Local vs. Organic Food: A Discussion - We all would like to purchase local, organic food. But if it’s not available, should we buy local conventional food, or organic food which is remotely produced?

Goat or Cow? Picking a Dairy Animal - Learn the basics in care and management of a goat or cow, including the pros and cons of each species. Includes hands-on milking demo.

Raising Pigs - Covers pig breeding, farrowing, food & shelter, parasite control, fencing, slaughter and sale. Discusses pig behavior, shows different designs for housing, containment, and rotation with crops.

Raising Sheep - Covers fences & rotational grazing, health care, hoof trimming, shearing, parasites and predators. Learn about the finances of a sheep operation, plus ideas for marketing.

Livestock Feeds and Feeding - Learn the principles governing proper animal nutrition, how to mix a ration to maintain sufficient energy and growth at each stage of the animal’s life, including using supplements.

Herbal Farm Animal Treatments - A veterinarian discusses general and specific herbal treatments of farm animal disorders.

Free Range Turkeys and Broilers - Discusses raising them from day old birds through marketing; brooding, finding and mixing organic feeds, range housing feeders, water systems, protection from predators, fencing disease control, slaughter and sales.

Keeping Draft Horses - Using draft horses: breeds, temperament, equipment, training, shelter, fences and paying the bills through fun & work.

Market Gardening with Horses - New York couple describes the market garden operation in which they use draft horses. Topics include soil prep, direct seeding, weed control, green manuring & undersowing.

The Organic Backyard Orchard - Covers all the topics necessary for establishing your orchard; tips about varieties, soil requirements, site conditions, pruning, tree size and shape, plus disease control.

Organic Strawberry Production - Discusses site selection & preparation, berry varieties, planting systems, rotations, pest & weed control. Aimed at small commercial or large home grower.

All About Blueberries - Covers choice of cultivars, proper soils, need for water, pruning methods, diseases - diagnosis and treatment. Focus on up to 5 A. plantings.

Raspberries & Blackberries - Covers all aspects of planning, planting, trellising, pruning and harvesting the brambles. Includes quick overview of problems & how to avoid them.

Growing a Flower Cutting Garden - Advice on choosing varieties, setting up the garden marketing cut flowers, and display. Beginning level.

Dried Flowers and Herbs - An experienced farmer discusses growing & creating beautiful, useful products from herbs & flowers. Includes information on marketing, pricing & production.

The following videos are Farmer-to-Farmer strategies for Sustainable Agriculture produced by the Rodale Institute. Video topics are:

Field Crops Rotational Grazing - Vegetables - IMP for Apples - IPM for Vegetables and Small Fruits - High Value Marketing

Audiotapes from the 1996 Upper Midwest Organic Farming Conference on a variety of topics are also available.

The following handbooks are also available.

Technical Resources for Sustainable Agriculture in Iowa and

Sustainable Agriculture ISU Extension, In-Service Training, April 1996

Alternatives in Agriculture: 1995 Report

Thompson On-Farm Research and Wallace Institute

Harold Wright has loaned us his entire collection of books and publications. Although all of his books have not been catalogued they are available upon request. For a complete list of his collection send a SASE to Prairie Talk. The following inspirational books are catalogued and immediately available.

By Wendell Berry
Farming-A Handbook (Poems) The Wheel
The Unsettling of America Home Economics

By Richard Cartwright Austin
Hope for the Land Reclaiming America

Charles Lutz Farming the Lord’s Way

Essays by Bill Willers Learning to Listen to the Land

Lavonne Godwin Platt and Gregory D. Cusack Hope for the Family Farm

For more information about Prairie Talk write: PO Box 733, Solon, IA 52333,