A Bushel's Worth: An Ecobiography

by Kayann Short

Overview

NAUTILUS BOOK AWARD WINNER

"A heartfelt meditation on farm, food, and family…a love story of the land and a life spent caring for it."
—HANNAH NORDHAUS, author of The Beekeeper's Lament

In this love story of land and family, Kayann Short explores her farm roots from her grandparents' North Dakota homesteads to her own Stonebridge Farm, an organic, community–supported farm on the Colorado Front Range where small–scale, local agriculture borrows lessons of the past to cultivate sustainable communities for the future.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781937226190
Publisher:	Torrey House Press
Publication date:	08/13/2013
Pages:	160
Product dimensions:	5.20(w) x 7.90(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

KAYANN SHORT, Ph.D., is a writer, farmer, teacher, and activist at Stonebridge Farm, an organic community–supported farm in the Rocky Mountain foothills. She has directed memoir and digital storytelling projects with community elders, adult literacy students, and nonprofit organizations. Her writing has appeared in Women's Review of Books, The Bloomsbury Review, Edible Front Range, and Colorado Gardener. More on her ecology–based memoir work is available at www.ecobiography.com. Besides growing delicious food at Stonebridge, Short teaches the important place of organic food production and agricultural preservation in a healthy, environmentally sustainable community.

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

A Trace of Rural Roots 1

Dreams of Plenitude 8

Seeds of Never-Seen Dreams 19

The Lay of the Land 22

Silos 30

Mountains to the West 34

Marking Her Days with Grace 42

Snowstice 49

The Seed Box 56

Starts 65

Red, Red Barn 78

Horse Barn, Milk Barn 83

Toppings to Share 87

A Bushel’s Worth 99

Cooking for Threshers 104

Rockin’ the Harvest 110

Appling 118

Putting By 127

What Goes Down 138

Salvage 145

And the Earth Gives Again 154

Editorial Reviews

"Scattered in among musings of local food systems, community action, family history, and current farm realities are clear moments of reflection that demonstrate Short's acumen as a writer."
—TERRAIN

"Short's focus on a CSA makes this memoir distinctive from other recent farm–related nonfiction."
—WESTERN AMERICAN LITERATURE JOURNAL

"A Bushel's Worth is my favorite kind of nonfiction. Not only is it about many topics close to my heart—gardening, food, family—it is a beautifully told story, and a love story at that, centered around the love of a couple, their love for the land, and a community's love for a way of life. This book forever changed my perspective and awareness as I 'walk out' in my own garden."
—KATRINA KITTLE, author of The Blessings of the Animals

"A heartfelt meditation on farm, food, and family. A Bushel's Worth tells a love story of the land and a life spent caring for it."
—HANNAH NORDHAUS, author of The Beekeeper's Lament

"An inspiring story, a gift for all of us, both on and off the farm, who are trying to learn how to slow down our frenzied lives so that we may give ourselves to what really matters."
—GREGORY SPAID, author of Grace: Photographs of Rural America

"With a companionable mix of literary and earthy sensibilities, Kayann Short writes with graceful, ferocious attentiveness and finds reassurance for herself and her modern family in 'the old wisdom of the fields.'"
—JOHN CALDERAZZO, author of Rising Fire

"A loving natural history—of a farm, a marriage, and a way of life that has changed interestingly and dramatically over just a few generations."
—JANE SHELLENBERGER, author of Organic Gardener's Companion

From the Publisher