Good Husbandry
Growing a Family on a Community Farm
Format:Hardback
Publisher:Granta Books
Published:2nd Jan '20
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An evocative and life-enhancing account of running a community farm and raising a family in New York State
When Kristin Kimball fell in love with a farmer and left behind her life in Manhattan to start a new farm with him in the Adirondacks, she had to learn a lot about farming - and fast. But, it turns out that starting a farm is not as challenging as sustaining it. Over the next five years, as two children are born and more land is acquired, the farm has its ups and downs, but then the downs keep on coming. Kristin's husband gets injured, the weather turns against them, the financial pressures mount. Suddenly, Kristin is facing not only the daily juggle of planting and milking and putting dinner on the table, but bigger questions about the life she has chosen. Is she still a farmer or is she now a farmer's wife? What does the farm need in order to survive? What does a family need in order to thrive? Beautifully written and refreshingly honest, Good Husbandry is about farmers and food, friends and neighbours, love and marriage, birth and death, and about how to grow and harvest the good things in life.
I've been making an effort to read more narrative nonfiction and I couldn't have found a better choice than Good Husbandry by Kristin Kimball. From her naïve beginning and the capriciousness of weather and time, to the particular challenges she faced as a partner and a mother, I felt as invested in Essex Farm as she is. Like all good stories - fiction or nonfiction - Kimball's memoir considers what it means to build a good, happy life, and how we are tested in that endeavor. You don't need to know the first thing about farming to love this book -- Mary Beth Keane
A likeable, engrossing and sensible piece of writing. It has much wisdom on food, agriculture and ordinary human relationships, and tells the stories of lives across species... compelling and useful in its honesty * TLS *
An honest and unsentimental portrayal of what country life is like in the early 21st century... An enjoyable and insightful read... Beautifully written * Irish Tech News *
ISBN: 9781783784684
Dimensions: 225mm x 142mm x 23mm
Weight: 385g
304 pages