City and Country Farm Memoirs


I recently read The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck. I was shocked at just how relevant it is to my current lifestyle. It provides such an interesting and informative look at the beginnings of Big Agriculture in the United States which of course has lead us to our current model of food as an industry. While this is of course a work of fiction, it is also a great look at our past and provides a way to look at that history in a touching, personal way. For that reason I am putting it on my list of books about small farms and food sovereignty.

There aren't always other homesteaders I can talk to about my experiences or ask questions and share stories with so I often find myself reading homesteading memoirs. I usually get my books from the library or on loan from kind friends as a part of my quest for self-sufficiency but there are a few on my Christmas list this year, those I have read and re-read and want to own. I am rarely without a homesteading or "how-to" farming book in my hands, especially in winter. A few people have asked me for some of the names of the books and as I have a terrible memory for titles, I am listing some of them here. For a quick list, scroll to the bottom of the page. The very first one I ever read was Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life by Barbara Kingsolver (http://animalvegetablemiracle.com/). I read this book while I still lived in the city, had had a baby and was shopping more and more at the local Farmer's Market and really starting to think about where our food comes from, even our "organic" food.


The next great book I read in this genre was a book by Linda Cockburn called Living the Good Life.(http://togetherpress.com/goodlife.html). I have read and re-read this book. It delights, surprises and informs me over and over. Next there is a Canadian tale by Kristeva Dowling called Chicken Poop for the Soul: A year in Search of Food Sovereignty.

 The Feast Nearby:How I lost my job, buried a marriage, and found my way by keeping chickens, foraging, preserving, bartering, and eating locally(all on $40 a week), the title says it all. Really good read.

Currently I am enjoying Goat Song by Brad Kessler. He loves goats and while I don't have goats I do enjoy adventures about goats, funny stories and struggles of when this acclaimed writer decided to chuck a New York lifestyle in for homesteading. Hit by a Farm: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Barn (http://www.hitbyafarm.com/) by Catherine Friend is a heartfelt story of two women sheep farmers really figuring out who they are. My favorite type of farm memoir is one of struggle and one in which the farmers are not experts but struggle and make it up as they go along, like I have to sometimes!






The Unlikely Lavender Queen was a mediocre read for me. Sometimes the author seems to come from such a place of privilege it is hard to relate but there are enough wonderful moments in this book to be worth reading it. I now dream of having a lavender field. Jenna Woginrich has written two books. Made from Scratch which I liked but didn't love due to it's rambling and somewhat disjointed nature and Barn Heart which I liked much more as it describes her farming adventures. I admire Jenna's tenacity in seeking her rural life, on her own and as a young farmer.

My Empire of Dirt by Manny Howard is an amusing look at city farming and how hard it is. It is more of an experiment than a complete commitment to the land but an interesting read anyway. Did you ever wonder what it would be like to chuck it all in and fly by the seat of your pants into farming? Kristen Kimball gives us  a good read with The Dirty Life and makes us ask "who are these people?"
Fifty Acres and a Poodle by Jeanne Marie Laskas was amusing but I have to admit I am not as drawn to people with means who follow their dreams of a farm, not that I don't respect them but I just can't always relate to their problems or their solutions, namely being able to use money to fix them instead of making do. I like the bare bones farmers who come up with amazing solutions to problems on the spot. Speaking of bare bones how about Novella Carpenter's book, Farm City:The Education of an Urban Farmer is all about creating a farm in a city ghetto, feeding her pig from restaurant discards among other experiments. It is a tale of inspiration and turning nothing into something. One of my favorite books about urban farming.

Barnyard in Your Backyard by Gail Damerow  and The Complete Beginner's Guide to Raising Small Animals by Carlotta Cooper have  become our small animal reference books of choice lately.


So many more for me to still read which is great because I can use all of the inspiration and camaraderie I can get! Here is my long list of good memoir reads:


Animal, Vegetable, Mineral                 Barbara Kingsolver
Living the Good Life                            Linda Cockburn
Chicken Poop for the Soul                  Kristeva Dowling
Goat Song                                             Brad Kessler
Hit by a Farm                                         Catherine Friend
The Unlikely Lavender Queen            Jeannie Ralston
Made from Scratch                             Jenna Woginrich
Barn Heart                                          Jenna Woginrich
My Empire of Dirt                                Manny Howard
The Dirty Life                                      Kristen Kimball
Fifty Acres and a Poodle                    Jeanne Marie Laskas
And I shall have some peace there    Margaret Roach
Farm City                                              Novella Carpenter
We Took to the Woods                      Louise Dickinson Rich
The Feast Nearby                               Robin Mather
Coop                                                   Michael Perry
Better Off                                            Eric Brende
The Wisdom of the Radish                 Lynda Hopkins
Woodswoman I and II                         Anne LaBastille







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