Backyard Agrarian

The United States of Arugula is a book about one of the happiest developments of our time: the quantum leap forward in food choice, food quality, and culinary sophistication in America in the last sixty years or so. I was born in 1966, when American adults were in thrall to convenience foods and NASA chic (you know, Tang orange-drink powder and those Pillsbury food sticks that looked like Slim Jims and tasted like Tootsie Rolls), and I’ve been fortunate to witness, over the course of my lifetime, a radical refurbishment of my family’s larder and just about everyone else’s. We have a greater variety of ingredients and products available to us, representing a wider-than-ever range of ethnic influences (it’s shocking how literally white-bread American cookery was in the midcentury), and if we care to, we can eat better, healthier, and more flavorful food than our ancestors could have dreamed.

The book examines not only the social forces that effected this transformation, but the visionaries who changed American food for the better: among them James Beard, Julia Child, Craig Claiborne, and Alice Waters. Too often, these individuals have been portrayed as jolly or silly creatures on the margins of American culture, mere “food people.” I think they don’t get their due. In my view, their contributions to American life are on a par with those of Americans who innovated in other fields: Mark Twain, Susan B. Anthony, Charles Ives, Orson Welles, Walt Disney, Charlie Parker, Elvis. (Well, maybe not Elvis.) What’s more, food people areinteresting people, as passionate, brilliant, charismatic, contrary, and kooky as leaders in other creative fields. Their stories are rich, and they are told in The United States of Arugula. Buy the book.

Backyard Agrarian Notes: A must read for all foodies! As a child, I questioned the need for wonder bread and grape jelly. I was not alone. 

For millennia, fresh olive oil has been one of life's necessities-not just as food but also as medicine, a beauty aid, and a vital element of religious ritual. Today's researchers are continuing to confirm the remarkable, life-giving properties of true extra-virgin, and "extra-virgin Italian" has become the highest standard of quality.But what if this symbol of purity has become deeply corrupt? 

Starting with an explosive article in The New Yorker, Tom Mueller has become the world's expert on olive oil and olive oil fraud--a story of globalization, deception, and crime in the food industry from ancient times to the present, and a powerful indictment of today's lax protections against fake and even toxic food products in the United States. A rich and deliciously readable narrative, Extra Virginity is also an inspiring account of the artisanal producers, chemical analysts, chefs, and food activists who are defending the extraordinary oils that truly deserve the name "extra-virgin." Buy Extra Virginity.

In Food Plants of Coastal First Peoples, renowned ethnobotanist Nancy J. Turner describes more than 100 plants traditionally harvested and eaten by coastal aboriginal groups. Each description contains botanical details and a color photograph to help identify the plant, information on where to find it, and a discussion on traditional methods of harvesting and preparation.

This popular book remains an essential guide for anyone interested in wild edible plants or traditional cultures of First Peoples living on the coast of British Columbia and adjacent areas in Alaska and Washington. Buy Food Plants of Coastal First Peoples.

Farmstead Chef by Lisa Kivirist and John Ivanko whips up a quirky, homespun tale of how we can eat well, nourish our bodies without breaking the bank, and restore the planet. Rediscover the benefits of homegrown and homemade cooking, preserving the harvest and stocking the pantry, all while building community.

Farmstead Chef’s recipes provide a delicious roadmap to restore the planet and revitalize our lives. It’s written to be accessible to all levels of cooking experience. Don’t panic if you don’t have a chef’s knife. Neither do the authors. You don't need to be a chef to be a great cook. What's essential, however, is starting with the best ingredients, perhaps right outside your back door. Fresh. In season. Local.

Join Lisa and John and return to our roots of independence, self-sufficiency and frugality, blended with the spice of modern living. Check out a few recipes!  Buy the book.

A nation of 9-5-ers is giving way to a spirited movement of innovators, searching for ways to make a life filled with purpose and meaning, instead of simply earning a living. And they're thriving in the place-based "honey bee economy" that restores, preserves and conserves the planet. In a workforce where job security, a pension and affordable healthcare are a thing of the past, social trends are moving toward greater self-reliance, relocalization and sustainability. 

ECOpreneuring is a fresh and dynamic approach to entrepreneurial thinking, blending passion for the planet with small business pragmatics and smashing the stereotype that "doing good" and "running a business" can't go hand in hand.

Part small business manifesto, part personal finance primer, ECOpreneuring is essential reading for small business owners, prospective entrepreneurs, social entrepreneurs starting non-profit organizations and anyone who dreams of a livelihood based on independence, creativity, passion and a commitment to green practices and sustainability.

In the '60s it was called the "back to the land" movement, and in Helen and Scott Nearings' day, it was "living the good life." Whatever the term, North Americans have always yearned for a simpler way. But how do you accomplish that today?

Blending inspiration with practical how-to's, Rural Renaissance captures the American dream of country living for contemporary times. Journey with the authors and experience their lessons, laughter and love for the land as they trade the urban concrete maze for a small organic farm and bed and breakfast, Inn Serendipity, in Wisconsin. Rural living today is a lot more than farming. It's about a creative, nature-based and more self-sufficient lifestyle that combines a love of squash, solar energy, skinny dipping and serendipity. Buy the book.

The first edition of Gaia’s Garden sparked the imagination of America’s home gardeners, introducing permaculture’s central message: Working with Nature, not against her, results in more beautiful, abundant, and forgiving gardens. This extensively revised and expanded second edition broadens the reach and depth of the permaculture approach for urban and suburban growers.

Many people mistakenly think that ecological gardening—which involves growing a wide range of edible and other useful plants—can take place only on a large, multiacre scale. As Hemenway demonstrates, it’s fun and easy to create a “backyard ecosystem” by assembling communities of plants that can work cooperatively and perform a variety of functions. Buy the book. 

Backyard Agrarian Rating: Pivotal. An exceptional first read for aspiring Permaculturalists.Written by one of the rock star teachers and heros of the movement.  

Confessions of an Economic Hit Man reveals a game that, according to John Perkins, is “as old as Empire” but has taken on new and terrifying dimensions in an era of globalization. And Perkins should know. For many years he worked for an international consulting firm where his main job was to convince LDCs (less developed countries) around the world to accept multibillion-dollar loans for infrastructure projects and to see to it that most of this money ended up at Halliburton, Bechtel, Brown and Root, and other United States engineering and construction companies. This book, which many people warned Perkins not to write, is a blistering attack on a little-known phenomenon that has had dire consequences on both the victimized countries and the U.S. Buy this book.

A manifesto for a radically different philosophy and practice of manufacture and environmentalism

"Reduce, reuse, recycle" urge environmentalists; in other words, do more with less in order to minimize damage. As William McDonough and Michael Braungart argue in their provocative, visionary book, however, this approach perpetuates a one-way, "cradle to grave" manufacturing model that dates to the Industrial Revolution and casts off as much as 90 percent of the materials it uses as waste, much of it toxic. Why not challenge the notion that human industry must inevitably damage the natural world, they ask.

In fact, why not take nature itself as our model? A tree produces thousands of blossoms in order to create another tree, yet we do not consider its abundance wasteful but safe, beautiful, and highly effective; hence, "waste equals food" is the first principle the book sets forth. Products might be designed so that, after their useful life, they provide nourishment for something new-either as "biological nutrients" that safely re-enter the environment or as "technical nutrients" that circulate within closed-loop industrial cycles, without being "downcycled" into low-grade uses (as most "recyclables" now are). 

Elaborating their principles from experience (re)designing everything from carpeting to corporate campuses, the authors make an exciting and viable case for change. Purchase Cradle to Cradle.

Backyard Agrarian Notes: A book that, for sustainability reasons, is not even printed on paper.  It asks, why do we engineer our products to become toxic waste and shows us that we no longer need to or should. Extremely important. A must read. 

"The engaging writings gathered in this new book explore an important but little-publicized movement in American culture - the marked resurgence of agrarian practices and values in rural areas, suburbs, and even cities. It is a movement that in widely varied ways is attempting to strengthen society's roots in the land while bringing greater health to families, neighborhoods, and communities. The New Agrarianism vividly displays the movement's breadth and vigor, with selections by such award-winning writers as Wendell Berry, William Kittredge, Stephanie Mills, David Orr, Scott Russell Sanders, and Donald Worster.

As editor Eric Freyfogle observes in his stimulating and original introduction, agrarianism is properly conceived in broad terms, as reaching beyond food production to include a wide constellation of ideals, loyalties, sentiments, and hopes. It is a temperament and a moral orientation, he explains, as well as a suite of diverse economic practices - all based on the insistent truth that people everywhere are part of the land community, as dependent as other life on its fertility and just as shaped by its mysteries and possibilities. Read the Full Review. 

Backyard Agrarian Notes: This is the book that inspired the name Backyard Agrarian. Freyfogle's introduction alone will change your perspective on your life, your garden, your social interactions and lots of other important things. A must read. 

We are poisoning and depleting our fresh water, and no one is paying attention.  

Prud’homme’s The Ripple Effect is a masterwork of investigation and dramatic narrative. With striking instincts for a revelatory story, Prud’homme introduces readers to an array of colorful, obsessive, brilliant—and sometimes shadowy—characters through whom these issues come alive. Prud’homme traversed the country, and he takes readers into the heart of the daily dramas that will determine the future of this essential resource—from the alleged murder of a water scientist in a New Jersey purification plant, to the epic confrontation between salmon fishermen and copper miners in Alaska, to the poisoning of Wisconsin wells, to the epidemic of intersex fish in the Chesapeake Bay, to the wars over fracking for natural gas. Michael Pollan has changed the way we think about the food we eat; Alex Prud’homme will change the way we think about the water we drink. Informative and provocative, The Ripple Effect is a major achievement. BUY The Ripple Effect. 

Starhawk's epic tale, set in 2048, California. In a time of ecological collapse, when the hideously authoritarian and corporate-driven Stewards have taken control of most of the land and set up an apartheid state, one region has declared itself independent: the Bay Area and points north. Choosing life over guns, they have created a simple but rich ecotopia, where no one wants, nothing is wasted, culture and cooperation are uppermost, and the Four Sacred Things are valued unconditionally. But the Stewards are on the march northward, bent on conquest and appropriation of the precious waters. It’s the love story of Bird the musician and warrior and Madrone the healer, and of Maya, Bird’s grandmother, ninety-eight year old story teller, whose vision provides a way for them to  defend their city from invasion without becoming what they are fighting against. 


Backyard Agrarian Notes: Visionary in a good way. If you're not sure where we are headed, or where we should be headed, read this exceptional novel. 

…a book about the health and environmental threats created by man-made chemical contaminants that interfere with hormones in humans and wildlife.

Endocrine disrupting chemicals alter development of the fetus in the womb by interfering with the natural hormonal signals directing fetal growth. Their impacts, sometimes not detectable until years or decades after exposure, include reduced disease resistance, diminished fertility and compromised intelligence and behavior.

Our Stolen Future tells the story of how endocrine disruption was discovered, how it works what it means, and how families can protect themselves and their communities, all in clear, simple language intended for a general audience. Buy the book. 

The Unsettling of America was published twenty-five years ago; it is still in print and is still being read. As its author, I am tempted to be glad of this, and yet, if I believe what I said in that book, and I still do, then I should be anything but glad. The book would have had a far happier fate if it could have been disproved or made obsolete years ago.

It remains true because the conditions it describes and opposes, the abuses of farmland and farming people, have persisted and become worse over the last twenty-five years. In 2002 we have less than half the number of farmers in the United States that we had in 1977. Our farm communities are far worse off now than they were then. Our soil erosion rates continue to be unsustainably high. We continue to pollute our soils and streams with agricultural poisons. We continue to lose farmland to urban development of the most wasteful sort. The large agribusiness corporations that were mainly national in 1977 are now global, and are replacing the world’s agricultural diversity, which was useful primarily to farmers and local consumers, with bioengineered and patented monocultures that are merely profitable to corporations. The purpose of this now global economy, as Vandana Shiva has rightly said, is to replace “food democracy” with a worldwide “food dictatorship.” ...Article

(Published in the Summer 2002 issue of Orion magazine)

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