Tuesday 10 March 2009

Meet my Neighbours

My friends and neighbours (500 m. away) here in France have a farm (they have a herd of about 35 cows and they make cheese). I'm here at their house and the discussion of the day is: should they increase production, raise prices or both!

They've also started a new blog http://fermedeshauteschaumes.blogspot.com/ and I'm alarmed to see some very unflattering photos of me as we killed and butchered the two pigs our two families share.

The guy with a green beanie, a long green coat and looking confused is an American English teaching assistant who is spending a year our local high school, after 2 years with the Peace Corps in Togo.




HELP SUPPORT FARM BLOGS FROM AROUND THE WORLD.
A big ask I know, but if you can, please help me support my time on 'Farm Blogs from Around the World' by buying, reading and blogging/reviewing my book:

A Place in My Country: In Search of a Rural Dream

It's about urban downshifting to rural England (and a bit more).

I don't take any advertising on this site but your support would help me show my wife that this blog project is more than me just pursuing my obsessive interest in all things farming/gardening/smallholding!

Please support your local independent bookshop, but (yikes!) dare I say it...

A Place in My Country: In Search of a Rural Dream (Amazon.com)
A Place in My Country: In Search of a Rural Dream (Amazon.co.uk)


A Place in the Auvergne
Ian Walthew




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Cabbage Tree Farm Recommends

Bridget from Cabbage Tree Farm in New Zealand (Recommended by me to Ian) has kindly come back to us with her recommendations for Farm Blogs From Around the World

Eco-Gites
of Lenault in Calvados, France,
Stories from an English family in France who are setting up an eco homestay and intend to supply organic veges and local produce to their guests.

2. Farmlet.co.nz
A NZ family striving towards self-sufficiency, cheese making is one of their interests among other things.

3. The Cottage Smallholder.
Not a farm, however this great blog is about an English couple trying to be more self sufficient with growing their own veg, keeping chickens, curing their own bacon and trying hard (succeeding too) to make gourmet meals from budget priced supermarket food.

HELP SUPPORT FARM BLOGS FROM
AROUND THE WORLD.
A big ask I know, but if you can, please help me support my time on 'Farm Blogs from Around the World' by buying, reading and blogging/reviewing my book:

A Place in My Country: In Search of a Rural Dream

It's about urban downshifting to rural England (and a bit more).

I don't take any advertising on this site but your support would help me show my wife that this blog project is more than me just pursuing my obsessive interest in all things farming/gardening/smallholding!

Please support your local independent bookshop, but (yikes!) dare I say it...

A Place in My Country: In Search of a Rural Dream (Amazon.com)
A Place in My Country: In Search of a Rural Dream (Amazon.co.uk)


A Place in the Auvergne
Ian Walthew




Farm Blogs
Ranch Blogs
Rural Blogs
Countryside Blogs
Smallholding Blogs
Urban Homesteading Blogs
Homesteading Blogs
Homestead Blogs
Allotment Blogs
Apiculture Blogs
Bee-keeping Blogs
Voluntary Simplicity Blogs
Eco Farm Blogs
Modern Homesteading Blogs


Auvergne
Auvergnate
Auvergnat
Auvergnats
France
Rural France
Blogs about France

Saturday 7 March 2009

New Contributor to Farm Blogs: Please meet Liz from the Mad Bush Farm.


I'd like to say a very large thank you to recommended farm blogger Liz at Goings on at the Mad Bush Farm in New Zealand, who has kindly agreed help me edit and keep up to date Farm Blogs from Around the World.


Liz and I will be sharing the workload and I hope this will reduce the delay in getting your recommendations up here.


(She is also going to be handling the blog full-time for a short while during an upcoming hospital stay I have to do in the next few weeks.)




Liz from Goings on at The Mad Bush Farm (NZ) and now Farm Blogs From Around the World Editor

Here's a bit more info about Liz:

Liz was born and raised in Auckland New Zealand.

While she doesn't have a background in farming directly Liz has always grown up around rural life and farming.


Liz has three daughters 24,11 and ten. She live with her two youngest girls on a small twelve acre farm surrounded by the animals they have mostly raised from young.

Her cartoons and articles have been published in Rural Living, Rodney Times and the Dargaville and Districts News.

She has a background in advertising, administration and Real Estate and Liz is also the current editor of their local town newspaper.

Liz is now writing a book and in July will she will be starting a Media & Communications Degree through Massey University.






I can't thank Liz enough and I hope that over time we can improve the quality and presentation of this blog, while keeping it's basic organic growth simple and user friendly - good bloggers recommending better ones leading to the best from around the world.

If you're interested in joining us as a volunteer editor (the workload isn't heavy but easier when shared, then drop me a line).

Onwards.


HELP SUPPORT FARM BLOGS FROM AROUND THE WORLD.
A big ask I know, but if you can, please help me support my time on 'Farm Blogs from Around the World' by buying, reading and blogging/reviewing my book:

A Place in My Country: In Search of a Rural Dream

It's about urban downshifting to rural England (and a bit more).

I don't take any advertising on this site but your support would help me show my wife that this blog project is more than me just pursuing my obsessive interest in all things farming/gardening/smallholding!

Please support your local independent bookshop, but (yikes!) dare I say it...

A Place in My Country: In Search of a Rural Dream (Amazon.com)
A Place in My Country: In Search of a Rural Dream (Amazon.co.uk)


A Place in the Auvergne
Ian Walthew




Farm Blogs
Ranch Blogs
Rural Blogs
Countryside Blogs
Smallholding Blogs
Urban Homesteading Blogs
Homesteading Blogs
Homestead Blogs
Allotment Blogs
Apiculture Blogs
Bee-keeping Blogs
Voluntary Simplicity Blogs
Eco Farm Blogs
Modern Homesteading Blogs


Auvergne
Auvergnate
Auvergnat
Auvergnats
France
Rural France
Blogs about France



Friday 6 March 2009

Cabbage Tree Farm (Kaipara District Northland New Zealand) Recommended




Cabbage Tree Farm was recommended . Here's a word from Bridget in New Zealand

The Cabbage Tree Farm blog aims to describe some of the day to day happenings on our 10 acre piece of rural land in Northland, New Zealand. Our priority is to produce for ourselves as much fresh, natural food (i.e. not sprayed with pesticides) as we can. We moved from the city onto our ‘block’ (short for lifestyle block, the common NZ description of our land) in mid 2006.



We are working on the land: establishing an orchard, trying to maintain a good year round supply of vegetables and herbs in our garden, landscape our surroundings for privacy and wind protection, and raise a small number of stock. At present we have our own supply of fresh eggs, some meat from our chickens and 5 cows (for meat later).

We are striving towards being more self sufficient. We're interested in growing food, hunting/fishing and gathering. Future projects could include bee keeping, cheese making, making homemade wine, various crafts such as candle making (beeswax) and weaving flax (Phormium tenax) baskets.


I suppose the majority of my posts are recipes. Also I post details of progress (and failures!) in our veg garden and orchard, and details of other projects we're doing around the farm.


HELP SUPPORT FARM BLOGS FROM AROUND THE WORLD.
A big ask I know, but if you can, please help me support my time on 'Farm Blogs from Around the World' by buying, reading and blogging/reviewing my book:

A Place in My Country: In Search of a Rural Dream

It's about urban downshifting to rural England (and a bit more).

I don't take any advertising on this site but your support would help me show my wife that this blog project is more than me just pursuing my obsessive interest in all things farming/gardening/smallholding!

Please support your local independent bookshop, but (yikes!) dare I say it...

A Place in My Country: In Search of a Rural Dream (Amazon.com)
A Place in My Country: In Search of a Rural Dream (Amazon.co.uk)


A Place in the Auvergne
Ian Walthew




Farm Blogs
Ranch Blogs
Rural Blogs
Countryside Blogs
Smallholding Blogs
Urban Homesteading Blogs
Homesteading Blogs
Homestead Blogs
Allotment Blogs
Apiculture Blogs
Bee-keeping Blogs
Voluntary Simplicity Blogs
Eco Farm Blogs
Modern Homesteading Blogs


Auvergne
Auvergnate
Auvergnat
Auvergnats
France
Rural France
Blogs about France

Wednesday 4 March 2009

What is the best American memoir about urban downshifting/downsizing/voluntary simplicity/modern homesteading/ moving to the USA countryisde?

Since the publication of my book in the U.S.A. about moving from city life to the countryside (A Place in My Country: In Search of a Rural Dream), I've been involved in an interesting dialogue over at www.amazon.com about what is the best memoir written by an American, leaving city life for one of 'voluntary simplicity'. I specifically asked for some recommendations and was pleased to get quite a few which I'll share here.

One person involved said that to find a contemporary memoir, one is better off looking to the blogosphere than to main stream publishers, and that may be why I am finding it difficult finding a good contemporary memoir on this subject.

Anyway, you can take part in the discussion either here, or at www.amazon.com but for now the books that have been recommended to me:

MsBecky says:
"There are books out there. The concept of downshifting is not yet in mainstream American vocabulary. "Voluntary Simplicity" is the more common phrase people here identify with. The NYTimes published an article about a family who sold all their possessions, the house and expensive cars for an RV. (Chasing Utopia, Family Imagines No Possessions: By RALPH BLUMENTHAL and RACHEL MOSTELLER Published: May 17, 2008.)

The article author and headline writer eluded to "Utopia" and that is the biggest hindrance the Voluntary Simplicity movement has these-days: The hippie allusion.

So most people chalk it up as crazy talk, or impractical, or "a bit extreme" is what I most often hear when talking to people. They couldn't be more wrong.

There is a strong blog world out there documenting life and times of families choosing voluntary simplicity.

The family in the NYTimes article can be found at www.cagefreefamily.com.. I'm sure they can put you in contact with other families keeping blogs who have downshifted.

Runners World this month has a short article about Jim Simpson who downshifted to single living in his overcab camper and travels the nation running marathons with his 50 state marathon friends. He does not have a book out, but its proof that there are folks out there choosing voluntary simplicity downshifting!

If the concept is "a bit extreme" for mainstream Americans, then finding a published book on the subject is also a challenge. But, yes there are a few out there.

(1) Simple Gifts by June Sprigg about her time in the 1970s when she lived a summer with the elder women of the last remaining Shaker community;

(2) Simple Days : A Journal on What Really Matters (Paperback) by Marlene Schiwy, and while she doesn't embrace the ditch everything and start over concept she does tackle the same questions you ask about;

(3) A Walk Across America by Peter Jenkins is a "classic" in the eyes of some. In a school I taught at it was used as the novel in a HS Geography class, and is the story of a disillusioned man who walked from New York to New Orleans 1973-1975, mostly along the Appalachian trail. A good read, but probably not as contemporary as you seek;

(4) Choosing Simplicity: Real People Finding Peace and Fulfillment in a Complex World (Paperback) by Vicki Robin and Linda Breen Pierce is a collection of stories from people today who have chosen voluntary simplicity. Vicki Robin co-authored Your Money or Your Life: 9 Steps to Transforming Your Relationship with Money and Achieving Financial Independence: Revised and Updated for the 21st Century (Paperback) and Linda B. Pierce has written books on living deliberately. This book may be the closest "book memoir" out there.

Other books that I've read that have helped solidify the option of downsizing, is A Walk Across France about a British Couple, and Sagittarians Always Want to be Somewhere Else: A Memoir by Karen McCusker (Paperback - Nov 21, 2006) about being an Ex-Pat all over the world.

But again, those are about overseas experiences, not a contemporary American memoir.

My vote?

The Voluntary Simplicity families in the blog world are your best bet.

Check in with the Cage Free Family!

Happy Reading!

Oh! I almost forgot! If you are looking for books about relocating to the countryside, then you may want to use a search term like "Modern Homesteading." This is the US term people most use when describing families who choose farm life, chores, using a well, organic farming, rain water collecting.

"Eco Farming" is a less used term. I know some of the smaller, family based organic farms have blogs, but may not have memoirs out yet.

http://www.simpleliving.net/main/ is a site you may find helpful. They have many of the how-to books you note that you don't want to read, but perhaps writing them an email may put you in touch with self published memoirs or other memoirs that won't be at a larger bookstore chain.

These folks are overwhelmingly helpful to those who are leaping into voluntary simplicity / downshifting / homesteading.

Hope this helps Ian! The reason you may not be finding the book you seek is because the people living those lives are blogging instead of contacting publishers about their memoir!

Happy hunting!

Nancy Diggins says:
Hi Ian,You may like Elizabeth Gilbert's The Last American Man. I found it very interesting, and although not as contemporary as you may like, a very good read about a man who leaves the modern "American lifestyle" to seek living within the wilderness, and being as self sufficient as the pioneers of days long past.

Karen R. Lindquist says:
I don't know if it helps, but Helen and Scott Nearing wrote Living the Good Life (1954). They became the leading gurus of dropping out and opting for a sustainable existence in the USA before it was fashionable. Seems perfect for you.




HELP SUPPORT FARM BLOGS FROM AROUND THE WORLD.
A big ask I know, but if you can, please help me support my time on 'Farm Blogs from Around the World' by buying, reading and blogging/reviewing my book:

A Place in My Country: In Search of a Rural Dream


It's about urban downshifting and voluntary simplicity in rural England (and a bit more).

I don't take any advertising on this site but your support would help me show my wife that this blog project is more than me just pursuing my obsessive interest in all things farming/gardening/smallholding!

Please support your local independent bookshop, but (yikes!) dare I say it...

A Place in My Country: In Search of a Rural Dream (Amazon.com)
A Place in My Country: In Search of a Rural Dream (Amazon.co.uk)


A Place in the Auvergne
Ian Walthew



Farm Blogs
Ranch Blogs
Rural Blogs
Countryside Blogs
Smallholding Blogs
Urban Homesteading Blogs
Homesteading Blogs
Homestead Blogs
Allotment Blogs
Apiculture Blogs
Bee-keeping Blogs
Voluntary Simplicity Blogs
Eco Farms Blogs
Modern Homesteading Blogs

Auvergne
Auvergnate
Auvergnat
Auvergnats
France
Rural France
Blogs about France