Going to Seed with Dan Brisebois

Weed The Soil, Not the Crop by Anne & Eric Nordell.

The Nordell’s defined how I think about crop rotation and farm design. There is nothing like the long series of articles they’ve written for the Small Farmer’s Journal.

As a younger farmer, I would read deeply through each of their articles 5 or 6 times to make sure I understood the nuances of their crop rotations and systems – taking notes in my Crop Rotation notebook – consistently amazed at what you could do with a simple plan and clear intentions.

This book is a collection of Anne & Eric Nordel’s key articles explaining their systems.

It’s not only about Crop Rotation but there’s a lot of Crop Rotation in there. With great charts and diagrams to help you understand how their systems work. 

My favourites are the Crop Rotation Clocks that let you visualize the returning cycle of a solid rotation.

If you’re going to read Weed The Soil, Not the Crop, you should know that the Nordell’s use draft horses to run their market garden.

Do not let that dissuade you from this book.

Yes, there is nothing as elegant or intimate to work the soil with as a horse drawn riding cultivator …

But you don’t need a horse to understand or apply the Nordell’s systems and techniques on your market garden.