Gaining Ground: A Story of Farmers' Markets, Local Food, and Saving the Family Farm

by Forrest Pritchard Narrated by Roger Wayne

Overview

One fateful day in 1996, after discovering that five freight cars' worth of glittering corn have reaped a tiny profit of $18.16, young Forrest Pritchard vows to save his family's farm. What ensues-through hilarious encounters with all manner of livestock and colorful local characters-is a crash course in sustainable agriculture. Pritchard's biggest ally is his renegade father, who initially questions his son's career choice and rejects organic foods for sugary mainstream fare. But just when the farm starts to turn heads at local farmers' markets, his father's health takes a turn for the worse. With poetry and humor, this inspiring memoir tugs on your heartstrings and feeds your soul long after you've finished.

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly

Pritchard's engaging memoir opens with him, new English degree in hand, deciding to take over the family farm after fall harvest profits fail to materialize. What follows is a remarkable odyssey of food from farm to table; a classic against-all-odds narrative that will have readers changing their shopping habits. Pritchard is a born storyteller with a shrewd ability to make lively everything from his father's battle with a rogue pig to simple chores like selling firewood or bailing hay. His learned-the-hard-way experiences are thoroughly entertaining and non-farmers will absorb enough about raising livestock and tending land to broaden their expertise at the farmers' market and grocery store. He also addresses the politics involved in supporting local organic meat including issues of price, health, and the environment. By the end of his wonderful book, Pritchard lies in a field pondering his own slim margin of success from slowing things down in our fast paced world; a well-deserved moment of happiness for this important new spokesperson of the future of agriculture and poet of the earth. Agent Stephany Evans, FinePrint Literary. (May)

From the Publisher

"By the end of his wonderful book, Pritchard lies in a field pondering his own slim margin of success from slowing things down in our fast paced world; a well-deserved moment of happiness for this important new spokesperson of the future of agriculture and poet of the earth." ---Publishers Weekly Starred Review

From the Publisher - AUDIO COMMENTARY

"By the end of his wonderful book, Pritchard lies in a field pondering his own slim margin of success from slowing things down in our fast paced world; a well-deserved moment of happiness for this important new spokesperson of the future of agriculture and poet of the earth." —Publishers Weekly Starred Review

FEBRUARY 2014 - AudioFile

Roger Wayne’s warm, lively reading of Forrest Pritchard’s memoir of saving his family’s farm in the Shenandoah Valley is a hopeful and conversational experience. Pritchard comes home from college with an English degree, a vague notion of selling firewood, and a skeptical father. Wayne conveys the absurdist humor as Pritchard chases escaped chickens around the yard and rescues the lid of his freezer that flies off on the highway, and Pritchard's father sells chickens from his Washington, DC, office cubicle. Pritchard’s father is a wonderful character, and in Wayne’s hands his complicated get-rich-quick schemes, taste for processed sugar, and loyalty to his son’s dreams are dazzlingly larger than life. Pritchard is serious about his mission to bring grass-fed meat to farmers’ markets, and that integrity is heard in Wayne’s performance. A.B. © AudioFile 2014, Portland, Maine

Product Details

BN ID:	2940171095802
Publisher:	Tantor Audio
Publication date:	12/30/2013
Edition description:	Unabridged

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