Book Review: Vegetable Growing with Draught Horses

book review by Lynn R. Miller of Singing Horse Ranch

If You Could Start at the Middle, experience in hand… ? But you cannot, so next best thing? If you could have clear, straight-forward information from people who do what you want to do – now that would be the ticket. You are in luck, an excellent new book has arrived.

Growing vegetables for market on a human scale; every region, culture, time stamp, and packet of personal knowledge comes into play. Context and perspective rule the day. Specific need also rules the day. That’s why, if you are going to try to do this work you must look around.

The folks with Schaff mat Päerd, of Europe, have produced a wonderful, succinct Guidebook #3 that is exactly what today’s impatient – perhaps modestly experienced – fledgling market gardeners, of the horsepower sort, need. Most important of all, this book combines gentle horsemanship with astounding innovation into small plot implements in an intelligent and attractive format. We’ve reproduced a couple of pages in their entirety of this book to illustrate our points. The “Weeding” page showcases a tine weeder, construct and process. Here you see four diffferent implements and four different horse and teamster combinations doing good work controlling garden weeds.

The “Ridging” page gives easy to read instructions, illustrations and photographs concerning potato cultivation. There is a matter-of-fact comfort to postures of both horse and persons in these photographs. But also, and perhaps less obvious, a clear view of the scale of these gardens and fields. At the core of this book is an array of astounding and superlative single horse farm implements which will be familiar to long time SFJ readers. These innovations, for me, point to not only possibility but also the crippling institutional prejudice implicit in U.S. commerce. It is another reason why getting this procedural information out is important. The pictures of how these tools work and what they make possible, they tell a story of bright, accessible and profitable futures.

Bravo Schaff matt Päerd!

Hopefully you are keen about getting a copy of this book. Please know that if you are in the U.S. spring and summer of 2026, political uncertainties may make purchases difficult. Your persistance will be rewarded. Should we, at SFJ, learn of different ways for you to more easily and affordably access copies we will make every effort to let you know. LRM

visit www.schaffmatpaerd.com for ordering information