Hobby Farm: Living Your Rural Dream for Pleasure and Profit

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From Fast Lane to Farmland

From the publisher of Hobby Farm magazine—the premier source of news and developments in the lifestyle farm industry—comes Hobby Farm, the perfect book for anyone who dreams of life in the country. This beautifully illustrated book offers an intimate look at life on a hobby farm, providing sound guidance to those who want to get started.

Live Your Rural Dream!

• Choose the right farm for your needs
• Anticipate lifestyle changes
• Navigate legal and real estate issues
• Plant sustainable gardens
• Select and care for a variety of livestock
• Preserve your harvested goods
• Enjoy fresh meat and dairy products
• Prepare delicious dishes from homegrown crops
• Tackle nature's troublemakers
• Turn a profit from hobby farming

Packed with advice, recipes, photographs, and anecdotes, Hobby Farm illuminates just how fulfilling and rewarding a life away from the big city can be.

Table of Contents

• Back to the farm
• Are you ready for the country?
• Jumping in
• Nature's troublemakers and farm safety
• Gardening: the land
• Gardening: the planting
• Farm animals
• Preserving the harvest: fruits and vegetables
• Preserving the harvest: dairy and meat
• Agripreneurship
• Resources
• Photo credits
• Index

The land gives back tenfold to those who tend it, supplying them with the freshest ingredients for their own mouth-watering meals or to sell at market; and the countryside offers shelter from the din and pollution of the metropolis.

Those who move back to the land—to farming—reap more than fresh air, wide-open spaces, and crops—they acquire a whole new way of life than is homier, closer to nature, and more deeply satisfying.

Hobby Farm author Carol Ekarius draws on her own extensive years of experience to describe life "down on the farm" and offering a cornucopia of practical advice. From finding a farm to creating a business, to choosing what to plant to canning fruits, Hobby Farm will teach you how to reap the benefits of rustic life and plant the seeds of hobby farming success.

Whether you want to create your own vegetable garden, consider starting a bed and breakfast, or sell eggs at the farmer's market, this book will inspire you to realize your rural dream.

About the Author

Carol Ekarius is a leading writer on sustainable agriculture and hobby farming, emphasizing practices that are good for the environment and the farmer's bottom line. She is a regular contributor to Hobby Farms magazine. She and her husband Ken have farmed for more than twenty years (nine years as commercial farmers), raising cattle, sheep, pigs, horses, mules, donkeys, poultry, and fowl. They reside in Hartsel, Colorado, near Denver.