Table of Contents
Foreword Deborah Madison xi
Preface to the Second Edition xv
A Change of Life: On Becoming a Farmer 1
Regarding Chickens and Their Eggs 7
Buy It at the Farmers' Market 15
An Apprentice Workforce 21
The Unpeaceable Kingdom 32
Thursday at the Farm 37
Wild Weather 43
Small-Farm Economics-Watching the Bottom Line 48
A Garlic Affair 53
Barn Swallows 61
Organic Certification and the United States Department of Agriculture 66
A Good Knife 71
In Praise of Herbs 76
Farm Dogs 86
Marriage of Body and Mind 93
It's a Long Road to a Tomato 97
The Price of Milk 103
The Hidden Cost of Farming 111
Winter Work 116
Growing Potatoes 123
Kuri Encounters a Porcupine 132
A Day at the Market 137
Brave New Vegetables 144
Putting it Back 151
The Driveway Rabbits 158
Sustainable vs. Organic-Who Loses? 164
Inner Sanctum-An Office with a View 170
A Reversal of Fortune 175
The Unweeded Garden 179
Farms on the Block 188
The Heart of Winter 195
On the Eve of War 203
A Man and His Tractor 205
The High Price of Milk 215
Working Man's Mesclun 222
Tiny Tim and His Bovine Harem 229
Farm Politic 237
Kuri-circa 1985 to 2003 246
Breakdown: Perils of the Truck-Farming Life 258
About Seeds 268
A Beaver before Breakfast 277
The Even Longer Road to a Tomato, or The Rain It Raineth Every Day (Midsummer 2009) 284
What Will Happen to the Land? 294
A Farm in Perpetuity 305
Epilogue 313
Appendix-Keith's Farm Bird List 317
Acknowledgments 319
About the Authors 323