Stone - The urban farmer: growing food for profit on leased and borrowed land

Praise for The Urban Farmer

The Urban Farmer is simply the best guide out there for anyone wanting to grow vegetables for market. Chock full of practical information on costs, business planning, the best crops to grow, how much land to farm, growing techniques, and how to develop markets, this book covers it all. Curtis Stone shares his hard-won knowledge on setting up and succeeding at small-plot intensive (SPIN) farming in lively, easy-to-grasp prose, in all the detail youll need to get started. Curtis not only tells us what works, he reveals, based on his own experience, what didnt work for him, and that alone is worth the price of the book. This is a comprehensive real-world manual from someone whos done it, and any market farmer will profit greatly from reading it.

Toby Hemenway, author of Gaias Garden and The Permaculture City

I have no hesitation in saying that The Urban Farmer by Curtis Stone is one of the most important, and overdue, books on urban agriculture ever published. It is simultaneously deeply visionary and immensely practical, always a heady brew. It allows us to look at urban land in an entirely different way. If I were 18 again and given this book, it would put fire in my belly and set me on a career path that is cutting edge, deeply entrepreneurial and profoundly responsible. It deserves to be a best seller.

Rob Hopkins, Founder of the Transition movement and author of The Power of Just Doing Stuff.

Curtis Stone is at the forefront of a stirring revolution. Urban farming will change what local food means and I know of no other farmer that is as successful at it as he is. And the best part is his willingness to share what is a successful business model. If youre interested in learning to profitably start a farm on a shoestring budget, Curtis Stone is the go to guy.

Jean Martin Fortier, author of The Market Gardener

A first-rate, hands-on guide to successful and profitable farming on the very small scale, Curtis Stones The Urban Farmer should be required reading for anyone who thinks that growing food requires hundreds of acres off in the countryside. Highly recommended.

John Michael Greer, author of Green Wizardry

Curtis Stone has artfully blended my three favorite things entrepreneurship, independence and sustainable food production into one amazing book. He has also done so in a way that lowers the entry point for anyone who is truly motivated to no longer have any excuse for not getting started. To say I recommend this book highly is a gross understatement. I consider it required reading for anyone with a goal to start a business, not matter what niche they end up in.

Jack Spirko, TheSurvivalPodcast.com

If factory farms are not the solution to the biggest issue of our time how to feed 9 billion people without cooking the planet what can we do? Grow more food in the cities where we live. Urban agriculture is a tradition dating back thousands of years as well as an innovation reshaping modern city design. Its also a lure for a growing number of idealists drawn by a vision of reconnecting with the land while becoming part of the solution. But hold on. Anyone whos tried it as a business knows theres more to urban agriculture than romance. It takes hard work and common sense two gifts Curtis Stone has in spades, and hes always been generous with sharing it. Local growers have appreciated the lectures and workshops where he spells out the dollars and sense behind growing city food. Now readers everywhere have the opportunity to tap into this valuable resource.

If youre going to invest in your future as city food grower, start with a copy of The Urban Farmer.

David Tracey, author of Guerrilla Gardening and Urban Agriculture

This book is a treasure for anyone really serious about making a decent living off an urban farm. Back-to-the-lawn urban farming might look easy, but Curtis Stone shows exactly how that ease grows out of getting a thousand details right. Theyre all in this book, generously shared. This is not just a well-written business text, illustrating the myriad technical, entrepreneurial, marketing, accounting, farming and people skills Curtis developed to work smarter, not harder. It is even more a quintessential how-to manual, taking the reader step by step by step to the roots of running a profitable urban farm.

Peter Ladner, author of The Urban Food Revolution and a long-time urban food gardener

Copyright 2016 by Curtis Stone. All rights reserved.

Cover design by Diane McIntosh.

Upper left cover photo Andrew T. Barton.

Unless otherwise noted, all cover and interior photographs by Curtis Stone.

All interior illustrations by Anthony Ross (flexanimousart.blogspot.ca).

Printed in Canada. First printing January 2016.

Inquiries regarding requests to reprint all or part of The Urban Farmer should be addressed to New Society Publishers at the address below.

To order directly from the publishers, please call toll-free (North America) 1-800-567-6772, or order online at www.newsociety.com

Any other inquiries can be directed by mail to:

New Society Publishers

P.O. Box 189, Gabriola Island, BC V0R 1X0, Canada
(250) 247-9737

LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA CATALOGUING IN PUBLICATION

Stone, Curtis, 1979-, author

The urban farmer : growing food for profit on leased
and borrowed land / Curtis Stone.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Issued in print and electronic formats.

ISBN 978-0-86571-801-2 (paperback). ISBN 978-1-55092-601-9 (ebook)

I. Title.

New Society Publishers mission is to publish books that contribute in fundamental ways to building an ecologically sustainable and just society, and to do so with the least possible impact on the environment, in a manner that models this vision. We are committed to doing this not just through education, but through action. The interior pages of our bound books are printed on Forest Stewardship Council-registered acid-free paper that is 100% post-consumer recycled (100% old growth forest-free), processed chlorine-free, and printed with vegetable-based, low-VOC inks, with covers produced using FSC-registered stock. New Society also works to reduce its carbon footprint, and purchases carbon offsets based on an annual audit to ensure a carbon neutral footprint. For further information, or to browse our full list of books and purchase securely, visit our website at: www.newsociety.com

by Diego Footer

Do you dream about becoming a farmer... making a living with your hands in the soil, being outside far away from the confines of the cubicle, working your own piece of land and growing the nutrient-dense food that you want to eat?

Its a nice thought. A worthy ambition.

But if you are seriously going to go down that road then you need to ask yourself: How are you ever going to make a living farming?