After three years we've learned a thing or two. We are in no way experts at anything, but there are a few worthwhile lessons.

Books Worth Reading

The New Organic Grower, Eliot Coleman (ignore the part where he tells you that you can get by with a broadfork and no tractor, its a lie.)

The Good Life, Helen and Scott Nearing (read this first, and then again three or four times)

Walden, Henry David Thoreau

The 500 dollar 'greenhouse'

We debated about what type of greenhouse structure to use. Eventually, and not entirely out of frugality, we decided to follow the plan at www.highunnels. org. It works just fine.

We did not plan to grow year round. We really just wanted season extension. Our hoophouse cost about 500 dollars and it is still standing, despite occasional 40-50 mile per hour winds. We plan to add another this year.

Top Secret Potato Planting Method

For two years we planted and harvested potatoes by hand. Last year, after many conversations and readings, we divised and used the following method. It was very successful. You need a tractor for this, one of just about any size will do, as long as it can handle an attachment.

Till the ground. Attach a middle buster or one bottom plow to your tractor. Run the implement down your rows to create as deep a furrow as possible. Cut the potatoes and drop them in according to your spacing. Run a heavy rake down each row to lightly cover. (this is the most manual part.) Roll a one ton bale of hay, straw, bean or corn fodder down the row to deeply cover the potatoes. Your bale should roll about 50 feet before you have to manually move the mulch. Water. Grow.

When you are ready to harvest, put the middle buster or plow back on the tractor and run it on its deepest setting, right down the row of potatoes. They will pop to the surface. (We have not figured out a way to have them jump into a bucket.) That's it. Try it.