Reading the History: Burley

Once iconic American symbols, tobacco farms are gradually disappearing. It is difficult for many people to lament the loss of a crop that has come to symbolize addiction, disease, and corporate deception; yet, in Kentucky, the plant has played an important role in economic development and prosperity. Burley tobacco (a light, air-cured variety used in cigarette production) has long been the Commonwealth's largest cash crop and an important aspect of regional identity, along with bourbon, bluegrass music, and Thoroughbred horses.

In Burley: Kentucky Tobacco in a New Century, Ann K. Ferrell investigates the rapidly transforming process of raising and selling tobacco by chronicling her conversations with the farmers who know the crop best. She demonstrates that although the 2004 "buyout" ending the federal tobacco program is commonly perceived to be the most significant change that growers have had to negotiate, it is, in reality, only one new factor among many.

Burley

Kentucky Tobacco in a New Century

by Ann Ferrell 

University Press of Kentucky, 2016

Out of the Past
History and American West Titles
Outrider Reading Group

Exploring the Nature of... Dirt.

Community farms. Mud spas. Mineral paints. Nematodes. The world is waking up to the beauty and mystery of dirt. This anthology celebrates the Earth's generous crust, bringing together essays by award-winning scientists, authors, artists, and dirt lovers to tell dirt's exuberant tales.

Geographically broad and topically diverse, these essays reveal life as lived by dirt fanatics--admiring the first worm of spring, taking a childhood twirl across a dusty Kansas farm, calculating how soil breathes, or baking mud pies. Essayists build a dirt house, center a marriage around dirt, sink down into marshy heaven, and learn to read dirt's own language.

Dirt

A Love Story

by Barbara Richardson

ForeEdge, 2015

The Nature Pages
Nature Writing and Natural Histories
Farm and Garden Books

Review: The Illustrated Guide to Cows.

Written for backyard farmers and smallholders interested in pasturing cows, this book describes some 50 breeds and their temperaments, giving basic advice on selecting animals and their husbandry. Nicely illustrated, the volume is certainly not encyclopedic in its coverage, but is rather more a friendly homage to keeping cows.

"Cattle are one of the most undemanding and rewarding domestic animals to keep, being in the main healthy and temperate. They are the smallholder's staple, providing the essentials of milk and beef. There are numerous breeds to choose from...," author and illustrator Celia Lewis explains.

A practical volume with useful advice on how to milk a cow, acquire stock, feed, tan a hide, and even make a cow horn, this handsome guidebook will make a decorative addition to the ranch-style decor of any living room or library.

The Illustrated Guide to Cows

How to Choose Them, How to Keep Them

by Celia Lewis 

Bloomsbury USA, 2014

continued in The Book Stall
Reviews Archive
Animal Husbandry Books
Outrider Reading Group

Exploring the Nature of... Four Fields.

In this book, Tim Dee tells the story of four green fields spread around the world: their grasses, their hedges, their birds, their skies, and both their natural and human histories. These four fields—walkable, mappable, man-made, mowable, knowable, but also secretive, mysterious, wild, contested, and changing—play central roles in the sweeping panorama of world history and in the lives of individuals.

In Dee’s telling, a field is never just a setting for great battles or natural disasters, though it is often this as well. A field is the oldest and simplest and truest measure of what a man needs in life, especially when looked at, contemplated, worked in, lived with, and written about.

Four Fields

by Tim Dee

Counterpoint, 2015

The Nature Pages
Nature Writing and Natural Histories
Book Notes Wild

Farm and Garden Picks: The Illustrated Guide to Cows

Keeping cattle as a smallholder can be a rewarding enterprise, supplying you with food and milk and helping with the management of grassland on your property. This delightfully illustrated and informative book is ideal for anyone interested in keeping a cow or two, who would like to choose the best breed for their circumstances.

The Illustrated Guide to Cows by Celia Lewis covers the 58 most familiar breeds of cattle in Europe and North America.

The Illustrated Guide to Cows

How to Choose Them, How to Keep Them

by Celia Lewis

Bloomsbury USA, 2014

Animal Husbandry Books
Husbandry
Outrider Reading Group

A New Guide To... Artisanal Foods.

Artisanal foods are making a comeback as more and more people seek to stock their pantries, and their bellies, with handcrafted or locally grown and made foods. Specialty markets and sections at grocery stores are catering to this new desire for the special, the unique, the carefully made foods.

This book colorfully details the landscape of the newest wave of the artisanal food revolution by looking at four foods that whet our appetites for specialty.

Small Batch

Pickles, Cheese, Chocolate, Spirits, and the Return of Artisanal Foods

by Suzanne Cope

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2014

Outrider Reading Group
Guidebooks and How-to Titles
Specialty Foods
Farm Kitchen

Book Stall Review: The Five Seasons

This is a self-help guide to achieving an enlightened, enjoyable life by establishing balance with nature in your mind, body and spirit. Based on the idea that each season has its own unique natural energy, it offers holistic techniques for balancing your emotions, creativity, productivity, decision making and more.

The holistic and non-pharmaceutical techniques, are familiar: using music, meditation and breathing exercises, positive thinking, walking outside.

The Five Seasons

Tap Into Nature's Secrets for Health, Happiness, and Harmony

by Joseph Cardillo

New Page Books, 2013

continued in The Book Stall

Reviews Archive
Outrider Reading Group
How To Do It Books