The self-fed farm and garden : A return to the roots of the organic method

In his first all-new book in fifteen years, renowned organic grower and bestselling author Eliot Coleman presents his "self-fed" growing method that continuously sustains soil fertility and produces delicious, exceptionally nutritious vegetables with no need for purchased fertilizer or compost.Once you implement a self-fed system, Coleman explains, then you alone--and not the farm and garden products industry--are master of your destiny. A self-fed system is safe from contamination by pollutants, which is a key point in this era of widespread contamination of soil and water by PFAS and other forever chemicals. The self-fed system also has the benefit of far lower expenses than those that rely on purchased fertilizers from off the farm. The book also delves into the underlying causes in the shifts in the organic movement, calling out the erosion of standards in the National Organic Program and the greenwashing of the new trend of regenerative agriculture. Eliot includes specific examples, such as how;large corporate interests acted to lobby against those who sought to protect the need for pure ingredients in composts for organic farms. In the book's conclusion, Eliot describes the next chapter in the life of Four Season Farm as he and his wife, awarding-winning garden book author Barbara Damrosch, step away from the farm-scale production, making space for a new farming couple to steward the land.