Following the success of Welcome to the Farm, Shaye Elliott shares how she celebrates family and farm traditions year-round in Seasons at the Farm. With her engaging storytelling and gorgeous full-color photos,Shaye brings to life how to entertain simply yet beautifully without mortgaging the farm. Simple recipes, decorating advice, and projects make this an inspirational and aspirational sequel to her beloved previous books.
“[A] lyrical portrait of a central Illinois sustainable farm . . . Brockman covers her subject with hard-earned expertise and organic passion.” —Publishers Weekly Henry’s Farm, run by Henry Brockman, is in central Illinois—some of the richest farming land in the world. There, he and his family—five generations of farmers, including sister Terra, the author—have bucked the traditional agribusiness conventional wisdom by farming in a way that’s sensible, sustainable, and focused on producing healthy, nutritious food in ways that don’t despoil the land. Terra Brockman tells the story of her family and their life on the farm in the form of a year-long memoir (with recipes) that takes readers through each season. Studded with vignettes, digressions, photographs, family stories, and illustrations of the farm’s vivid plant life, the book is a one-of-a-kind treasure that will appeal to readers of Michael Pollan, E. B. White, Gretel Ehrlich, and Sandra Steingraber. “Here’s what you get when the farmer’s sister turns out to be a masterful writer: a compelling argument for rebuilding our nation’s food security that is threaded within a lyrical, funny, suspenseful narrative of life on her brother’s Illinois farm.” —Sandra Steingraber, author of Having Faith “Terra Brockman's new book is such a delightful synergy of poetic inspiration and realistic descriptions of life on a farm. Here is everything from the joy and satisfaction of growing garlic and raising turkeys, to tending fruit trees and growing vegetables . . . Given the recent renewed interest in gardening and urban farming, the appearance of this inspiring book could not be more timely.” —Frederick Kirschenmann, president, Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture
Told through the voices of the children, this inside view of life on their farm is authentic and sometimes surprising. Readers will learn about baling hay, tending cattle, work dogs, hunting, manure, and other activities on the Bennett farm, as well as some insights into the culture of living in a rural area.
Visit the acclaimed 19th-century Maryland farmstead that serves as home and studio to James Cramer and Dean Johnson—two greatly admired artists and craftsmen with a love for old-fashioned gardens, natural handcrafts, and homespun holiday celebrations. Season by season, through lush watercolors and photos, you’ll see how the grounds and the projects evolve.
In her first book, which won the L. L. Winship/PEN New England Award, Jane Brox writes of going back to the farm where she grew up, to help her aging father and the troubled brother who works the land with him. She memorably captures the cadences of farm life and the people who sustain it, at a time when both are waning.
New Jersey's bounty is ripe for the picking. The state boasts thousands of thriving farms, hundreds of CSAs, dozens of community farmers' markets and countless residents dedicated to the locavore lifestyle. Jersey food writer and chef Rachel J. Weston takes a seasonal tour of the state, showcasing the bounty that its down-to-earth farmers, creative artisan producers and innovative chefs produce for their patrons throughout the year. See how globally inspired cuisine representing New Jersey's diverse population is created and adapted using locally sourced products. Savor a juicy August peach, pucker up for a tart cranberry in October and nourish body and soul with local bok choy, asparagus and tomatoes. With local recipes for every season, this book shows why New Jersey is the Garden State.
In the tradition of Michael Pollan, Joan Gussow, and Verlyn Klinkenborg's The Rural Life, This Common Ground is an inspirational evocation of a life lived close to the earth, written by the head farmer at one of the country's first community-supported farms. By reflecting on four seasons of activity at his beloved Quail Hill Farm in eastern Long Island, Scott Chaskey offers stirring insight into the connections between land and the human family. Whether writing about the voice of a small wren nesting in the lemon balm or a meadow of oats, millet, and peas rising to silver and green after a fresh rain, this poet-farmer's contagious sense of wonder brings us back to our bond with the soil.
Barbara Damrosch and Eliot Coleman are America’s foremost organic gardeners—and authorities. Barbara is the author of The Garden Primer, and Eliot wrote the bible for organic gardening, The New Organic Grower. Today they are the face of the locavore movement, working through their extraordinary Four Season Farm in Maine. And now they’ve written the book on how to grow what you eat, and cook what you grow. The Four Season Farm Gardener’s Cookbook is two books in one. It’s a complete four-season cookbook with 120 recipes from Barbara, a master cook as well as master gardener, who shows how to maximize the fruits—and vegetables—of your labors, from Stuffed Squash Blossom Fritters to Red Thai Curry with Fall Vegetables to Hazelnut Torte with Summer Berries. And it’s a step-by-step garden guide that works no matter how big or small your plot, with easy-to-follow instructions and plans for different gardens. It covers size of the garden, nourishing the soil, planning ahead, and the importance of rotating crops—yes, even in your backyard. And, at the core, individual instructions on the crops, from the hardy and healthful cabbage family to fourteen essential culinary herbs. Eating doesn’t get any more local than your own backyard.