Introduction
Why A Photo CD?

Why should we write at all - when there is so much already written about gardening and farming? We are writing because every time someone says to us "when are you going to write a book" this quote comes to mind.

"For many years I have had the cause of the small farm at heart. I have been privileged to teach, help and encourage those who would farm well in a small way. As a farming author I have advised many of my pupils that they too should write a book, in due course, on their experiences, to tell others how worth while it has all been. Miss Ruck is the first to take my advice in this direction."

Foreword by George Henderson
to 'Place Of Stones' by Ruth Ruck
Faber & Faber mcmlxi

We feel that we should indulge ourselves here and give you a little of the history of how we came to know about Ruth Ruck.

After reading Eliot Coleman's 'The New Organic Grower' (see below) Mike decided to try and procure some of the books in Eliot's wonderful bibliography. 'The Farming Ladder" by George Henderson was hailed as a 'must read' and so after quite a bit of effort we got hold of it. It is a fantastic story about quite a remarkable man. He seemed to have extraordinary energy and discipline and although he was happy to divulge plenty about his brother's home life, the book would have you believe that George led the life of a hard working hermit. Not so! When we had the privilege of meeting Eliot Coleman we got on to the subject of George Henderson. He told us about Ruth Ruck, Henderson's housekeeper/apprentice and her book and how she talks all about George, his wife Elizabeth and all their children. What we want to know now is what happened to Ruth Ruck and where are George's children? Did any of them go on and farm? - let us know if you find out anything.

We could have written a book - we may still do so, however, most of what we know comes out of books so the question is "do vegetable growers need another book?"
What we have done is given you an annotated bibliography of the books we have found useful in our quest to grow vegetables (see Cht 19?).

At this point we will declare our preference for what we believe is the best book ever written on small scale commercial vegetable gardening.

Eliot Coleman's "The New Organic Grower - A Master's Manual of Tools and Techniques for the Home and Market Gardener.
Chelsea Green (1989)

Finding a mentor - The best way of all to learn the craft of gardening/farming is to become an apprentice/intern.

Most people (including us) cannot do this but we have always found the knowledge that we have gained from personal contact with other growers invaluable. In particular, our time spent with Eliot Coleman helped us to organise our farm and workload in an efficent, pleasureable and financially viable way.

These days we are sometimes able to take apprentices but only ever one at a time.

What books cannot offer - is the answer to the question "could you just show that to me again?"

Most gardening manuals offer more words than pictures and for many people it is hard to visualise a technique straight from the written word. In fact if you have got this far you are probably one of the lucky ones who loves to learn by reading. Those who don't will hopefully be well into the photographic section of this CD-ROM by now.

Pictures - shown in sequence, like frozen images from a video, can give the whole story.

The medium of CD allows us to present our photographic manual in a concise, relatively inexpensive form giving you information and the personal link to how we do things. The "browser" style interface provides powerful tools for viewing the manual. The amazing convenience of clickable links would, on its own, have persuaded us to try publishing our photographic manual electronically.

Our body of knowledge is always growing and with it our collection of photographs. Another big advantage of electronic media is the ease with which upgrades can be created and circulated.