On occasion, being broadminded folks, we allow the non-reader to visit our home. They are frequently confused as to why someone would possess a couple of thousand books. The farming and gardening section, alone, in my home library contains approximately 300 titles. Seeking to expose some dark awful secret, they ask, “so, you’ve read all these books?” “No, not all,” I reply. They nod their head, having confirmed something. I nod mine, having confirmed something as well.
However, clearly, I do love to read. Here are five titles that inspired me to want to farm.
Country Life: a handbook for realists and dreamers (Paul Heiney). A book that falls broadly in the category of coffee table book. It is the type of work that launches a thousand would be farmers. Pictures of spotless and well-maintained barns and farms, gleaming piles of produce, pictures of cured hams and bacon, beautifully plowed fields, rosy cheeked little kids, populate the pages. And, heck, even the mounds of manure looked well-scrubbed in this book. Nevertheless, as a work to inspire dreaming and then buying a farm, it does its job remarkably well. And, it manages, despite its overly idealistic tone, to provide some solid information. We bought our copy a couple of years before we bought the farm. Soon we found ourselves spending our downtime cruising the backroads of Tennessee looking for a place of our own.
We Farm for A Hobby, and make it pay (Henry Tetlow). There have been hundreds of these farming memoirs published. Middle class family chucks the city life and moves to the country. And, on the whole, as a genre, they work. I had this on my shelf for over ten years before I pulled it down and read it, maybe a year before the title above. Written in the 1930’s it had all that was needed to suck me in to this life. It seemed so reasonable, economical, and fun. Written with a wry sense of humor, Tetlow covers all the essentials of a small diverse farm operation.
Lost Country Life: how English country folk lived, threshed, thatched, rolled fleece, milled corn, brewed mead (Dorothy Hartley). Using Thomas Tusser’s instructional poem on English farming, she provides an encyclopedic assembly of farm life in the 1500-1600’s. Following the calendar, it covers the whole of the farm and village productive life, with plenty of history and wit added for texture. Beautifully written, completely engrossing, I highly recommend that I reread it.
A Farm: reflections of yesteryear (Philippe Dumas). A beautiful collection of watercolors that document the daily life on a farm that belonged to the artist’s wife’s grandfather. Each print illustrates a part of the life on a large and highly diversified farm before the arrival of the automobile. A lovely way to spend an evening is to turn the pages in this book.
My Summer in a Garden (Charles Dudley Warner). The next-door neighbor of Samuel Clemens, the author wrote this charmer in 1870. It covers a single season in his vegetable garden. Warner was a newspaper editor and clearly an influential man, even General Grant pops into his garden at some point. But, he did all his gardening himself. And, he has a fine self-deprecating sense of humor about his successes and failures. Which, of course, is the mark of a true gardener or farmer, that ability to laugh at oneself.
Each of these titles is still available, although the Dumas title is now at a dear price.
A wonderful list and description of each, indeed.
Thanks!
And so my list grows.
None of us have even scratched the surface, Grant. In retrospect, those five, along with many others, happened across my path at the right moment in life. There is a wonderful randomness about the accumulation of books. I have plenty that rest on my shelves waiting to leap to my attention, should I require. I also give or sell off several dozens each year that I have read and chose not to keep. But, knowing that if the occasion arises I have an annotated Shakespeare to peruse, quiets the chatter of the outside world.
Looking forward to seeing the farm,
Brian
I highly recommend that I reread it.
A marvelous tribute. And it leads me to the next bit:
My Summer in a Garden (Charles Dudley Warner). The next-door neighbor of Samuel Clemens
Because even at this later stage in my life there is a VERY short list of things I have reread (Huckleberry Finn being one, and as it was written by Mr Clemens – mention of his next-door neighbor seems relevant. One wonders if Mr Warner assisted with whitewashing the fence??).
Thanks, Clem. BTW Warner and Clemens were neighbors in Hartford, CT. So, long past their white-washing years, I would imagine. Apparently they were close friends. The book in question is available in paperback from Modern Library. It is part of a series of lost gardening classics that is edited by Michael Pollan. The other title, Lost Country Life, is a real gem, worth seeking out.
Brian,
I found Lost Country Life on amazon and added to an order of a few other books that had been hanging out in my cart for awhile. Does your book collection contain any by Gene Logsdon? Here is the memorial blogsite started in his memory. He was a prolific writer, who wrote from his experience on his own farm. His books are filled with good information. https://thecontraryfarmer.wordpress.com/
Like you I love to read and collect good books. One of the reasons I fell in love with our home was the many built in book shelves throughout the house and a library. One day after we had settled in the daughter came by to see how we liked the dream home her parents had built. She said “I’m glad to see you’re a book person. Dad would love knowing someone appreciated all the shelves he had built.” I sent with her pictures I had taken of the woods. It seems her dad wasn’t as much into photography as me and he didn’t have many pictures. I thought he might like remembering how the sunset looks across the top of the hill that covers our home.
Yes, it’s wonderful being able to see all my books on shelves instead of tucked away in boxes. And it’s nice to live in a home that has been filled with love even before it was dreamed of.
cheers,
Jody
Jody,
Lost Country Life is the real gem on the list. Enjoy. I should have four-five Logsdon books: Shit Happens, Letters to…, Small Grain Farmer, and a work he did for University of Kentucky on the arts and agrarianism. And, there may be another kicking around on those shelves.
Your account of your house reminds me of a great New Yorker cartoon. A couple are being shown an apartment, which is full of empty bookcases. The woman says, “Holy cow! What kind of crazy people used to live here anyway?”
Cheers,
Brian