The Lean Farm Guide to Growing Vegetables

More In-Depth Lean Techniques for Efficient Organic Production

By Ben Hartman
Chelsea Green
November 03, 2017

At Clay Bottom Farm, author Ben Hartman and staff practice kaizen, or continuous improvement, cutting out more waste—of time, labor, space, money, and more—every year and aligning their organic production more tightly with customer demand. Applied alongside other lean principles originally developed by the Japanese auto industry, the end result has been increased profits and less work.

In this field-guide companion to his award-winning first book, The Lean Farm, Hartman shows market vegetable growers in even more detail how Clay Bottom Farm implements lean thinking in every area of their work, including using kanbans, or replacement signals, to maximize land use; germination chambers to reduce defect waste; and right-sized machinery to save money and labor and increase efficiency.

From finding land and assessing infrastructure needs to selling perfect produce at the farmers market, The Lean Farm Guide to Growing Vegetables digs deeper into specific, tested methods for waste-free farming that not only help farmers become more successful but make the work more enjoyable. These methods include:

Using Japanese paper pot transplanters
Building your own germinating chambers
Leaning up your greenhouse
Making and applying simple composts
Using lean techniques for pest and weed control
Creating Heijunka, or load-leveling calendars for efficient planning

See the book.