Customer Reviews

Backyard Market Gardening: The Entrepreneur's Guide to Selling What You Grow

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Having read many books on marketing, I feel qualified enough to tell you that this book delivers much good marketing advice. In this book there are many examples of what successful market gardeners have done. If you want to "sell what you grow", this is a good place to start. There are also some good gardening tips included. There are many books that you should read if you want to establish a 'minifarm' or market garden, and this is definately one of them.

If you are tired of the plodding prose of most how-to books, prepare yourself for a pleasant surprise. Andrew Lee has crafted a fantastic guide for those new to organic gardening, and has done so with style, wit and humor. He walks you through soil types, composting, marketing techniques, and tool selection. He also compares and contrasts Community Supported Farms, Farmers' Markets, Subscription Farming, etc. Andrew Lee covers it all. And on top of that he has produced a lively and entertaining read in the process.

As a person who is looking towards expanding my garden, I was looking for a kind of a 'how to' book. While the book does contain 'testimonials,' it is contains a great deal of information on getting your produce to market. The types of ideas that I had not considered prior to reading the book. The book reads fast and concerns itself primarily with marketing your produce. If you're looking for primer on marketing your produce, this is an excellent first choice.

After five years of backyard gardening and selling his produce, author Andrew W. Lee took in $36,000 from his one-acre garden. That is quite an increase from the $1,700 he made in his first year in addition to that being one VERY productive acre! This is a very good book, covering nearly everything a farm marketeer might want to consider before starting a garden and setting up a roadside stand. If you are considering venturing into the lucrative business of growing and selling your own produce, this book will be valuable.

There are over 200 pages on how to market your produce. "Fix the soil and get close to your customers", Lee advises. He shares many of his experiences and entertains numerous marketing ventures from setting out a curb-side table to community-supported farms, cooperatives, sales to restaurants and other farm markets, and peddling door to door (although today this works better through the pre-paid subscription method).

Even if you're not going to plant a garden, this book is well worth looking over as a clear and pragamatic account of how to start your own business. Lee tells how he successfully did that.

We just started into vegetable farming and the hints and tips in this book are great! They are designed for those just starting into the business with both what not and what to do. We have found great advice in this book, detailed harvesting and storage information that I had not even thought ahead to, as well as great business advice. I highly recommend this to anyone starting a market garden.

I found this book very informative, inspiring and motivational. I have been gardening for 7 or 8 years (started when corporate America was killing me)just for relaxation. Now I am retired and have a very big garden, but more than my family and my neighbors can eat. I'm seriously considering a greenhouse, but before such an investment needed some research. This book really helped me make the decision to proceed with the greenhouse. Our Farmers Market kicks in next week and I can't wait. This book will make you think of things you hadn't considered, the ups and downs. I really enjoyed it. Wish me luck!

It's not a step by step guide to how to do it, but more a collection of interesting articles on many aspects of market farming. I love all the conflicting ideas that leads one to believe there is no one way to do this. But you should do it and have fun and hopefully make some money!

This book was written in the early 90's yet the message -- grow and eat REAL food from your own area is finally, albeit slowly, getting through to the masses. This was one of the most helpful farming books I've borrowed from the library in a long time. I came to Amazon to buy my own copy because there is so much in it which will make it a good reference for us. We have a small farm, summer farm stand and take part in local farmers markets. For me, the end of the book where the reasons for eating local, healthy food were presented seems esp helpful, as I plan to pass the info onto my customers. For my husband (the real farmer in this family) the nitty gritty of growing good food will be helpful. I've read a couple of Mr. Lee's other later books on chicken farming and they were good (albeit not as in depth and that first chicken tractor one, well I thought the format was a bit silly) but I feel this is MUCH better and a more useful tool for the small vegetable farmer. If you are not organic, you may tend to move closer to the organic idea after reading this book! Good marketing advice whether you are large or small, part time, full time or just dreaming of a farm.

Not only is this book a great guide to gardening using organic methods, it goes to great lengths to show you how to market you extra production or even to start a full time endeavor. Very good coverage of modern methods in irrigation, crop rotation, pest controls, and marketing. I highly reccomend this to your library!

This is a nice book of anecdotes and they're each short enough that they stay fresh without being overly long winded. There are a few good ideas and some are quite detailed in their recommendations, but I wouldn't say there was anything earth shattering. I mean don't we all know that to be successful you should cater to a niche market and provide top quality produce and service? After all, that's the final message of this book in a nutshell, cater to the niche and cultivate a loyal following.

Still the stories are short and decidedly pleasant to read, so it's impossible for me to give this anything lower than a 4 in rating. This won't be anywhere near my all time favorites, but it does help pass the time.