I’m Mark the founder of Self Sufficient Me and now I’m also the proud author of my first (and probably only) book: 100 Top Crops You Can Grow.

After nearly 20 years of practical food-growing and gardening experience, I’ve compiled a list of the top 100 crops I recommend people grow.  Actually, it’s technically the top 80 crops, because 20 of the 100 are crops that I recommend you avoid growing. I grew and tested them so you didn’t have to go through the heartache.

The main reason this book took over two years to write was the extra thought and research I needed to do to decide on the top 100 crops. Part of this research took me down the nutritional value of these foods, so I called on my good friend Kate Di Prima (a practising dietician for over 30 years) to help sum up the “nutritional power status” for each crop, which is very interesting!

I wanted a book that not only inspired people to grow food through the information, but also through the images. My vision was for an informative book that would look great on the coffee table. Initially, I was warned that a complete colour book with lots of big, glossy pictures would be too expensive to print; however, I insisted we find a way to include a ton of fantastic images while keeping the end cost down to a reasonable price for a quality book. In the end, after all the proofreading, amendments, and editing, we were able to produce a book that exceeded my expectations and made me incredibly proud.

100 Top Crops You Can Grow is written for everyone from the beginner and advanced food gardener through to the prepper and/or self-sufficiency enthusiast. Whether you’re working with a sprawling backyard paradise or making magic happen in a few pots on your apartment balcony, this book has got you covered.