Small-Scale Grain Raising: An Organic Guide to Growing, Processing, and Using Nutritious Whole Grains for Home Gardeners and Local Farmers, 2nd Edition

I bought this book years ago and still use it often. Covers lots of grains and has in-depth information.Well worth the cost.

I confess to being a child of the 60's, sat in line during gas rationing in the 70's (were your license plates odd or even numbered; which day was your gas day?) and once again, the cost of living is far outrunning my paycheck. I did not read the first book, but I am so glad I did read this one!Right off the bat, the author states that this "revised edition" has most of the "hot air" taken out. The Internet puts a lot of current and updated information at your fingertips. Easy access via Internet searches, which the author repeatedly recommends, makes contacting local groups for seeds cleaning services and agricultural support for the small farmer, the easiest thing to do... You are left with a book full of great information, recipes, planting estimates and advice that is timeless. This is for the back yard/smaller grower who wants to make really fresh food from their own grain, feed a chicken or two and in general get back in touch with the land..you know, become self sustaining.When I first started this book, I though the author was exaggerating, being too much a gloom and doom Gus. HOWEVER, with the ever changing state of the world, the rising cost of oil, and also food stuffs, perhaps we should listen. It just might benefit us all to learn how to grow our own! If that is what you want, then you've come to the right place starting with this book!

There was a lot of great info in here about a large variety of grains, including ancient ones, and even old-homes methods of threshing and winnowing and recipe ideas and fun stuff like that. The only down side was that it was specific to Maine so the lists of what specific species to plant was irrelevant. But I still would have kept the book except that I already have most of the info that was valuable to me in another book I own.

Well written. Very useful for small growers.

Thank goodness, we can now put our 32-year-old copy of this book out to pasture; it is falling apart at the seams. We bought a copy from a used bookseller about 5 years ago, and have used it to formulate an approach for small-scale grain raising. Our old book has become considerably more threadbare than it already was.This book introduces grain growing to the gardener or small-acreage homesteader. It offers many options for expediently producing and using grains (for both human and animal consumption) without needing to own the big iron usually associated with grain farming. It brings out the character of each type of grain as well as how to grow, harvest, and use it. And it introduces some grains that many gardeners might not be familiar with. There are great descriptions of hand tools which are no longer in use commercially, but which can still be quite useful to the small-scale grain producer.On top of that, the book is well written and a pleasure to read. This is one of our most treasured homesteading reference books.

If you are a small sustainable farmer or gardener this is a great book. I have already tried barely and corn planting is coming soon and I really look forward to trying pole beans with my corn; it seems like this will work wonderfully.I was interested in growing small grains for lots of reasons but the main reason was to feed to my hogs in the winter. I do not eat much grain for health reasons but I hate buying bags of industrial corn to feed to my pasture pigs and chickens. I do my best to keep the animals grain free but in the winter months I need something that will store well and supplement my feed rations; plus I bed the animals with carbon like straw to keep them clean and healthy all winter. The low cost ideas and processes proposed in the book was exactly what I was looking for, many of these methods have been lost to industrial processes and Gene Logsdon does a great job preserving older systems in an understandable manner.I am sure this book with be relevant for me 50 years from now.

Before I was even done with the book, I told my husband I needed a grain mill. When he asked why, I said I needed it to grind the wheat and corn I was going to grow. I kinda got the fish-eye. But that was what this book did for me. It made me want to grow things I had wanted to try but had no idea how to do it. It is written with detail but also with humor, The reading was easy and a lot of the books out there that are meant to teach are also a bit dry and some are downright boring. Not this one. I enjoyed every page!

I bought this book after I purchased my first 90 acre organic farm this fall. I raise poultry mostly, but we are also trying to be far more self sufficient. Logsdon's book is not only very readable with funny anecdotes and information, but very logical and precise. He gives you the pro's and con's of raising grain and how to rotate your crops in a healthy and logical manner. I can't wait to try growing my own chicken feed for next year. I'd definitely recommend this book as a great resource tool to anyone interested in growing their own grains, even for a home garden.

It's not too often that I find a book that was exactly what I wanted, but this one delivers. He talks about the practicalities of how to grow grain, and the associated plants that you can grow with it. As opposed to growing grain as a mega crop, this book explains how we can obtain a higher level of self sufficiency growing it by hand - Wonderful book. As a complete pair, I would highly suggest the book "The Ideal Soil 2014 - A Handbook for the New Agriculture" by Michael Astera.

Vielleicht nicht so viel technische Details zu Getreide, und die Angaben basieren alle auf Amerikanische Einheiten (Fahrenheit, acre), aber dieser Klassiker enthält wichtige Hinweise zu alle Aspekten von Getreide, von Anbau, über Werkzeuge bis zu Rezepten.

You get what you pay for and then some.

This is an interesting introduction to the topic and covers most aspects of growing grain on a small scale. But it is intended for the American and some of the terminology and conditions do not apply here.

I really liked it. It's not a fancy coffee-table book. It's an honest, helpful guide to grain growing. It could use some more information on harvesting and processing, especially for a small farm.