On the farm, workers pick vegetables, collect eggs, and make cheese. At the market the next day, the workers set up their stands and prepare for shoppers to arrive. Amy, the baker at the Busy Bee Café, has a very special meal in mind-and, of course, all the farmers show up at the café to enjoy the results of their hard work. This informative book introduces children to both local and urban greenmarkets and paints a warm picture of a strong, interconnected community.
2002 IRA-CBC Children's Choices Oppenheim Toy Portfolio, Gold Seal Award Ka-choo! Who's sneezing? It's the cow, the chickens, the pigs, the turkeys, the donkey and the sheep! All the farm animals have the flu, and Mom is out of town. Luckily, her son knows just what his mom would do, if it were he who had the flu!
* MOONBEAM GOLD AWARD * * GROWING GOOD KIDS AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE IN CHILDREN'S LITERATURE, AMERICAN HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY AND NATIONAL MASTER JUNIOR GARDENER PROGRAM * Milk doesn't just appear in your refrigerator, nor do apples grow in the bowl on the kitchen counter. Before We Eat has been adopted by the USDA’s Agriculture in the Classroom program. Before we eat, many people work very hard—planting grain, catching fish, tending farm animals, and filling crates of vegetables. With vibrant illustrations by Caldecott Medalist Mary Azarian, this book reminds us what must happen before food gets to our tables to nourish our bodies and spirits. This expanded edition of Before We Eat includes back-of-book features about school gardens and the national farm-to-school movement. Fountas & Pinnell Level L
A delicious celebration of food and farming sure to inspire readers of all ages to learn more about where their food comes from - right this very minute! Here are the stories of what farmers really do to bring food to the table.
George Rock grew up in the 1950’s on a central Alberta farm that was very typical in some ways, but unusual in others. Thanks to the Rock family’s inherited expertise, knack for innovation, and openness to ideas from colleagues and hired hands, the farm thrived through the 1940’s and 1950’s. They specialized as suppliers of breeding stock and registered seed to other farms, while extending the business into more unusual endeavours, including purebred sheep and thoroughbred racehorses. As George matured, he also witnessed the widespread impact of mechanization, which enabled the farm to expand in the 1960’s but also brought new challenges. Despite being from a small, geographically isolated community, George was exposed early on to the larger world through stories from his extended family and the farm’s ethnically diverse hired hands. Third in a family of four, his education included not only a one-room schoolhouse, but also trips to the US and neighbouring provinces. Even as he grew, learned, and got up to mischief with his younger sister; mourned the untimely death of his eldest brother when he was eleven and saw his family embroiled in a national political scandal when he was thirteen. Begun as reminiscences for his grandchildren, the stories in this book recall a rural world that is much changed, while also reflecting universal themes of innovation, humour, and family adaptation.
The industrial expansion of the twentieth century brought with it a profound shift away from traditional agricultural modes and practices in the American South. The forces of economic modernity—specialization, mechanization, and improved efficiency—swept through southern farm communities, leaving significant upheaval in their wake. In an attempt to comprehend the complexities of the present and prepare for the uncertainties of the future, many southern farmers searched for order and meaning in their memories of the past. In Southern Farmers and Their Stories, Melissa Walker explores the ways in which a diverse array of farmers remember and recount the past. The book tells the story of the modernization of the South in the voices of those most affected by the decline of traditional ways of life and work. Walker analyzes the recurring patterns in their narratives of change and loss, filling in gaps left by more conventional political and economic histories of southern agriculture. Southern Farmers and Their Stories also highlights the tensions inherent in the relationship between history and memory. Walker employs the concept of “communities of memory” to describe the shared sense of the past among southern farmers. History and memory converge and shape one another in communities of memory through an ongoing process in which shared meanings emerge through an elaborate alchemy of recollection and interpretation. In her careful analysis of more than five hundred oral history narratives, Walker allows silenced voices to be heard and forgotten versions of the past to be reconsidered. Southern Farmers and Their Stories preserves the shared memories and meanings of southern agricultural communities not merely for their own sake but for the potential benefit of a region, a nation, and a world that has much to learn from the lessons of previous generations of agricultural providers.
In this captivating collection of stories, Marie-Laure Valandro shares her adventures and insights from her life and work on a sixty-acre biodynamic farm and garden in a small rural town in eastern Wisconsin. Readers get a rare and intimate glimpse into the realities of modern farm life, replete with its beauty and magic, challenges and demands.
An entertaining and educational mirror into the past, filled with heartwarming stories, essays, photographs and artwork recounting life on the family farm.
