January 3, 2016 (Wisconsin Public Radio) - A farmer and author of a book about running a small-scale organic farming, said he has has found a way to make a good living on a one and a half acre organic farm.
Jean-Martin Fortier, author of "The Market Gardener: A Successful Grower's Handbook for Small-scale Organic Farming," said that no one really believes him when he says he does it without a conventional tractor.
To encourage others who might have thought of this type of farming, he shared a few tips on his success:
Raised beds
Fortier’s farm consists of 180 permanent raised beds. The beds are 100-feet long, 4 to 5 inch mounds of soil without a container around them.
"After every two seasons, they tend to settle down so we need to re-raise them again," Fortier said. "With shovels or with the rotary plow, a tool that takes the dirt from the aisle and shoots it on to the bed like a shovel would do."
Continue reading at Wisconsin Public Radio...
Jean-Martin Fortier, author of "The Market Gardener: A Successful Grower's Handbook for Small-scale Organic Farming," said that no one really believes him when he says he does it without a conventional tractor.
To encourage others who might have thought of this type of farming, he shared a few tips on his success:
Raised beds
Fortier’s farm consists of 180 permanent raised beds. The beds are 100-feet long, 4 to 5 inch mounds of soil without a container around them.
"After every two seasons, they tend to settle down so we need to re-raise them again," Fortier said. "With shovels or with the rotary plow, a tool that takes the dirt from the aisle and shoots it on to the bed like a shovel would do."
Continue reading at Wisconsin Public Radio...
