The Organic Medicinal Herb Farmer, Revised Edition: How to Produce High-Quality Herbs on a Market Scale

Learn everything you need to know about growing healing herbs with this “gem of a book” featuring profiles of 50 medicinal herbs and 200+ photographs (Nancy Phillips, author of The Herbalist’s Way).Now updated with new information about herb dryers and construction, soil fertility, growing cannabis, and more!In the first edition of The Organic Medicinal Herb Farmer, authors Jeff and Melanie Carpenter presented a comprehensive seed-to-bottle guide for aspiring and experienced growers alike, from basic business considerations to planting and propagation to creating value-added products. Now they’re back with a revised and updated edition, sharing the lessons they’ve learned throughout their 25 years of operating a medicinal herb farm that prizes quality over quantity.The Carpenters offer their insights and tips on every aspect of herb farming, including:• Size and scale considerations • Data management for profit maximization• The herbal marketplace and choosing which herbs to grow• Field and bed preparation and planting, including building soil fertility• Plant-positive weed, pest, and disease control• Harvest and post-harvest processing, including scalable dryer construction• Value-added products and marketing• A new chapter on growing cannabis• And much more!The Carpenters make the case that growing organic medicinal herbs is not only viable and profitable, but also an important step for improving the ecological health of farmland, taking pressure off wild medicinal plant populations, and increasing biodiversity. While local foodways are more often the focus of attention, local medicine ways are equally critical and in need of restoration.The Organic Medicinal Herb Farmer is a one-of-a-kind resource, complete with detailed profiles of 50 medicinal herbs and over 200 color photographs. Whether you’re looking to grow an herb farm from the ground up, incorporate medicinal plants on an existing farm, or add tools to your belt as a seasoned grower, you’ll find the information you need in this volume. Read more