The Complete Illustrated Guide to Farming by Philip Hasheider
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
While browsing through the library’s new books, I came across this gem: The Complete Illustrated Guide to Farming by Samantha Johnson and Philip Hasheider. I grew up on a farm, which was part ranch, so I was instantly drawn to it. I wanted to see how accurate it was for new farmers as well as if anything in the pages can be used for us savvy urban farmers.
It’s a pretty accurate title — provided the reader knows absolutely nothing about farming to begin with.
Years of experience has taught me that farming is complex, in-depth, and full of hard work and surprises. This book does a good job of glossing over a lot of the basics, but doesn’t get in depth into anything really. It spends at most a page or two on every topic, then moves on to the next thing. For reference’s sake, that’s slightly longer than a couple blog posts for most of the topics within the book. This, in itself is a good thing. We all know how much of a pain it is to go searching for something on the internet, only to have 10 or so tabs open while taking notes in Word. This book gathers all the concepts into one tidy, beautifully illustrated book.
For the most part, it is accurate. There are only two parts of the book that I would take issue with, and those are:
1.) Baling hay and straw: No one really uses the square bales any more because they are a lot more physical labour than the round bales. And, if you have the equipment to make bales in the first place, you’re going to choose the round bales which are easier to move around with the equipment you have, thus taking less time and physical labour over all.
2.) Welding, maintenance, and the workshop: I’m married to a welder. The concepts they show in there are somewhat correct, but yet way off the mark. I’ve never been in a farm workshop that looks like what they show. They are not pristine, they are generally not as safe as you’d want (and definitely don’t want government officials in your shop), and they have more half-assed done work because farming isn’t for making money. Often times when things break, you figure out how to make due with what you have. That’s half the beauty of it.
That being said, I have a friend that is a farm vet, and she scoffed at the animal section. I thought it was pretty good, if not more vague than other sections. For example, it goes over the various animals you can raise for pets and farm use, but fails to mention showing them and selling them at clubs like 4H. I was particularly impressed that they show how to raise animals for meat, dairy, and eggs, which not many books do. It’s part of farm life, especially if you aim to have a completely independent farm that is self sustainable.
All things being equal, this book does a great job of hitting most every topic in farming, just not in depth. And, it does have a lot of pictures. It’s great for the novice, but not for people that know more than a thing or two.
The good news is that there is some use for urban farmers in these pages!
Clearly, we can’t raise animals in the city due to laws and regulations. At least not in most cities without a huge push back from our urban farming community. (Hint, hint: If you really want to raise a few chickens, push to have a few of the varieties reclassified as pets, then you can have them!) Despite of this, if you pick up this book with the intent to do some urban farming, you’ll find the most useful pages in the front of the book under crops (chapter 2), harvesting and preserving (chapter 6), and conservation of your land (chapter 7).
This will take you through some of the very basics of how to plant crops, how long you can expect them to take to germinate, and finally when it’s best to harvest them. If you don’t know how to preserve yet, it takes you through the basics of that. Frankly, though, you’d be better off getting the Ball Book of Preserving for more details, walk-throughs, and of course, the delicious recipes to try.
The most interesting part for most of you will likely be the conservation chapter, which goes over nutrient management, wildlife management (how to keep those pests from eating your crops), sheltering your crops, and woodlot management. Many of these things we don’t really think about while in the city, but they are there in different quantities. For example, nutrient management we don’t have to worry about nearly as much as someone taking care of dozens of acres of land — usually our compost pile is enough to refresh the soil’s nutrients year after year. But do you really think about the best ways to shelter your plants from various storms? Most likely not until winter comes bursting through your door. Knowing how to create shelters can keep your crops, pets, and water sources safe.
If you are one of the lucky people to have a woodlot next to your place, there is also a small section on woodlot management so you can keep your mini forest looking fresh and inviting. Unfortunately, they cut off after a couple pages to tell you to talk to a forester about the best way to work with your wood lot in your area. (Interviewing a forester is now on my list of things to do!)
The bottom line is that you may find it worth browsing this book at your local library to see the gorgeous pictures and glean a little information from. But unless you plan on using it to teach kids about the nature of farming with or purchasing a farm in your near future, it’s probably not a good buy for you.
Feature image: Chicago roof-top farming, captured by Wells-Fargo bank. Learn more about their investment here. (This is not an endorsement from Wells-Fargo, but rather a note from me showing where I got the image from and showing that Wells-Fargo has a financial stake in providing for new urban farmers if you should need the equity.)