farming

London based paralegal, Flora, has desperately pined over her American boss for years. He doesn’t know she exists. Flora has all but resigned herself to unrequited love, until one day he calls her into his office. But the love affair of her dreams doesn’t start there, instead she is sent on assignment to the island of her origins, Mure. The Scottish island is not somewhere she planned on returning, but maybe she’ll get a love affair after all.  

Continue Flora’s story along with her brothers and friends in Colgan’s sequel: The Endless Beach. The story just gets sweeter in this follow-up to Th

When Steve Jenkins agrees to adopt an abandoned micro pig from an old friend, he has no idea that his life is about to drastically change forever. Rather than maxing out at 70 pounds, the wee “micro pig” turns out to be a commercial sow who grows to a whopping 600 pounds. As Esther grows in size, Steve and his partner transform from bacon-eating and city-dwelling folks to buying and operating a farm to use as a sanctuary for animals in need of a safe home. Happily Ever Esther Farm Sanctuary is located in Canada, and you can keep up with the farm on one of Esther the Wonder Pig’s many popular

As Animal, Vegetable, Miracle celebrates its 10th year of being published, I decided to finally give it a try.

Much of what the Kingsolvers put forth about the food industry still rings true. 

It was fascinating to hear about the decisions for choosing to only consume food that they are in direct contact with, whether growing it themselves or knowing its origins. This leads to some interesting situations: what do you do when you invite 150 friends and family to your house to celebrate a birthday? How do you make food that you have in abundance during the summer last the whole year? 

The

Sometimes you just need something wholesome and peaceful in your life.  Welcome to Stardew Valley.

This simple little indie game that could has made its way from a Steam trial to major consoles. Your completely customizable character gives up on corporate life and goes to live on the farm inherited from your grandfather. You have absolute control over how you live your life from there.

The neighboring town is full of interesting characters, twelve of whom are potentially romanceable.  There are hidden intrigues and depictions of realistic problems, but nothing will drag you down.

The

When Jason Amundsen drops an egg farm bomb on his wife Lucie, she understandably balks at the idea. He’s already dragged her from city to city chasing his supposed dreams, but those dreams at least came with health benefits. This one? It’s too much, and Lucie successfully puts the kibosh on the idea. Until Jason gets laid off.

He gets laid off, and this silly dream of his won’t die. The rest of the story is of Lucie, Jason, and their two children, Abbie and Milo, all walking the tightrope between family and farm. Lucie must hold her home, husband, and children close to her heart, while the

Even if you have no desire to ever own backyard chickens, Chick Days is wonderful fun. After making a case for keeping chickens, Woginrich describes her top ten breeds, and then illustrates the day-to-day development of three varieties of chickens. Professionally photographed, the pictures and layout are easy to follow, fun to look at, and complement the accompanying text perfectly.

Woginrich’s background in web design lends itself well to book design, and the book couldn’t be more informative. Not owning chickens, I have to trust Woginrich knows her stuff. If you are interested in her

For me, the novelty of year-long project books wore off long before A.J. Jacobs dulled my enthusiasm with The Year of Living Biblically and Gretchen Rubin killed my tolerance completely with The Happiness Project. Happily, I didn’t notice from the sub-title that The Quarter-acre Farm is one of these very projects.

In 2008, amidst mad-cow disease, sky-rocketing fuel costs, salmonella outbreaks and news reports of genetically altered food and pesticide risks, Spring Warren announced to her family that she would transform their suburban lawn into a garden from which they would eat. And thus, a

MUDBOUND  is Hillary Jordan’s award winning debut novel. This riveting novel won the Bellwether prize which was founded and is fully funded by the renowned author,  Barbara Kingsolver.  The intent of this award is to promote literature of social responsibility.  This is one of Ms. Kingsolver's comments about Mudbound  from an NPR interview:  “I love the voices of the novel. I love that you understand everybody, even though everyone isn't right, and in the long run some people are very wrong.  But you begin by feeling their own perspective, and you have some sympathy for every character.”   

When Novella Carpenter and boyfriend Bill move from Seattle to Oakland, they choose their apartment for its cast of eccentric neighbors and the empty lot behind the building. In short order, Novella has taken over the lot, not only with a garden of heirloom vegetables, but chickens, bees, and even pigs. Because she is essentially squatting on another’s property, she is very generous about allowing strangers to partake of the fruits of her labor, while waiting for bulldozers to clear her space for condominiums. Being in the heart of what she describes as “the ghetto”, her neighbors all turn a