Grow a Sustainable Diet: Planning and Growing to Feed Ourselves and the Earth

P
RAISE FOR

grow a
sustainable
diet

Grow A Sustainable Diet
is just the book you have been looking for!

—JOHN JEAVONS, author,
How To Grow More Vegetables (and Fruits, Nuts Berries, Grains and Other Crops) Than You Ever Thought Possible On Less Land Than You Can Imagine

Amid the plethora of how-to garden books, this book stands out as the comprehensive resource written from the lifetime of rich experience of a successful gardener.

Cindy not only gives us experienced guidelines for the management of a healthy organic garden, but clearly explains the practical details of every aspect of managing a successful garden-homestead from planning, tending, harvest and storage to preserving the harvest. If you are seeking one book to to carry you through the full cycle of gardening, seek no further!

—ELI ROGOSA, Heritage Grain Conservancy,
growseed.org

Grow a Sustainable Diet
is both timely and timeless. Cindy Conner’s book is a valuable addition to current locavore lexicon. The practical down home advice she provides will be of use for generations of gardeners to come. Cindy speaks with authority, drawing on her real life experience, her teaching skills and her love of the earth, providing practical guidance to help readers to design the garden and to grow, store and use the fruits of their labor. A combination of bio-intensive gardening, permaculture planning, and straight forward down home wisdom
Grow a Sustainable Diet
shows us that good nutrition is a close as our own back yard.

—DARRELL E. FREY, Three Sisters Farm, author,
The Bioshelter Market Garden

Are you looking for ways to better nourish your family, care for your garden, and walk more lightly on the planet? Come spend a day, a season or the cycle of seasons with one of the nation’s leaders in ecological home food production in the pages of
Grow a Sustainable Diet
. Ms. Conner’s practical innovations will guide your homesteading endeavors, and her commitment to living in harmony with all life will inspire you.

—MARK SCHONBECK, consultant in sustainable agriculture

Too many of us see gardening as an analog in miniature to Big Ag — an essentially extractive process powered by machines and fossil fuel, requiring purchased inputs to replace depleted soil fertility and protect crops from insects. Imagine gardening instead as a process which improves the soil even as we grow our crops, helps balance and enrich the ecology, relies on free services of nature rather than purchased inputs — and is powered with energy from the nearest star. That is the way of gardening Cindy Conner offers in G
rowing a Sustainable Diet
.

—HARVEY USSERY, author,
The Small-Scale Poultry Flock

Grow a Sustainable Diet
provides a can-do, critical step towards a health and independence on every level—from the soil, to yourself, your communities and our planet. The most powerful action you can take to navigate these transition times is to plant gardens and participate in local foods. Once you do, fear fades and hope sprouts. This book helps show the way.

—PATRICIA FOREMAN, author,
City Chicks: Keeping Chickens as Garden Helpers, Compost Creators, Biomass Recyclers and Local Food Suppliers

grow a
sustainable
diet

T
ODAY, MORE THAN EVER BEFORE
, our society is seeking ways to live more conscientiously. To help bring you the very best inspiration and information about greener, more sustainable lifestyles,
Mother Earth News
is recommending select books from New Society Publishers. For more than 30 years,
Mother Earth News
has been North America’s “Original Guide to Living Wisely,” creating books and magazines for people with a passion for self-reliance and a desire to live in harmony with nature. Across the countryside and in our cities, New Society Publishers and
Mother Earth News
are leading the way to a wiser, more sustainable world.

For more information, please visit
MotherEarthNews.com
.

Copyright © 2014 by Cindy Conner. All rights reserved.

Cover design by Diane McIntosh.

Gardening tools image © iStock (Mark Swallow); plate/table © iStock (sorendis); garden plots © iStock (Skystorm); all interior illustrations by Betsy Trice.

New Society Publishers acknowledges the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund (CBF) for our publishing activities.

Paperback ISBN: 978-0-86571-756-5 / eISBN: 978-1-55092-553-1

Inquiries regarding requests to reprint all or part of
Grow a Sustainable Diet
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

Conner, Cindy, author

Grow a sustainable diet : planning and growing to feed ourselves and the earth / Cindy Conner ; illustrations by Betsy Trice.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Issued in print and electronic formats.

ISBN 978-0-86571-756-5 (pbk.). — ISBN 978-1-55092-554-8 (ebook)

1. Permaculture.2. Organic gardening.3. Gardens — Planning.4. Gardening — Environmental aspects.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

Contents

Foreword
by John Jeavons

First, a little history…

1.Sustainable Diet

What If the Trucks Stop Coming?

Making Changes

2.Garden Maps

Plan Outside the Box

Permaculture Plan

Tools for Map Making

3.Crop Choices

Growing Calories

Growing Protein

Growing Calcium

Oils and Sweeteners

Other Crops

More Planning Tools

Worksheet:
Temperatures

Worksheet:
Precipitation

4.How Much to Grow

Worksheet:
How Much to Grow

Biosphere 2

Homegrown Fridays

Oils and Sweeteners

Keeping Records

5.Cover Crops and Compost—Planning for Sustainability

Beware of Bringing in Outside Inputs

Grow Your Own Compost

Sixty Percent Compost Crops

Worksheet:
60/40 Bed Crop Months

Cutting Rye at Pollen Shed

Harvesting the Grain

6.Companion Planting

Potatoes

Achieving Balance

Borders

7.Plan for Food When You Want It

Frost Dates

Worksheet:
Plant/Harvest Times

Plant/Harvest Times

Length of Harvest

Determinate and Indeterminate

Plant and Harvest Schedule

Worksheet:
Plant/Harvest Schdeule

Plan for Special Events

8.Rotations and Sample Garden Maps

Transition Garden

Quartet of Beds

Garden of Ideas

9.Seeds

Seed Inventory

Worksheet:
Seed Inventory

How Many Seeds?

Worksheet:
Seeds and Plants Needed

Germination Test

Save Your Own

10.Including Animals

Chickens

Dairy — Goats and Cows

Swine

Rabbits

11.Food Storage and Preservation

Make Use of the Space You Already Have

Crawl Space Root Cellar

Pantry

Cooling Cabinet

Fermentation

Canning

Solar Food Dryers

Grain Mills

12.Sheds, Fences, and Other Stuff

Garden Shed

Water Storage

Outdoor Washing Station

Coldframe

Chicken House

Trellises

Fencing

13.Rethink Everything!

Endnotes

Resources

Index

About the Author

Foreword

by John Jeavons

Grow A Sustainable Diet
is just the book you have been looking for!