Book Description
Now in paperback, seminal, environmental and agricultural essays by the acclaimed journalist and Ohio farmer, Gene Logsdon, who has written regularly for publications such as Orion, Whole Earth Review, Mother Jones, The Utne Reader, Organic Gardening, and New Farm.
From the Trade Paperback edition.
Customer Reviews:
The garden at the center of the universe.......2003-04-19
The volume titled "At Nature's Pace" is an earlier edition of the better-known one released several years later, with a half-dozen or so additional essays, under the title "Living at Nature's Pace." Not having read the latter yet, I can't comment on what the extra essays added to the ones originally collected. But I can say that I'm definitely looking forward to reading them.
Gene Logsdon is, in his way, just as "revisionist" as many of the historians I've found myself reading lately. He challenges many of the orthodoxies of the "farm crisis" we city folk have been hearing about for decades, arguing that in fact most of the farms succumbing to economic pressure are large-scale "factory farms" that have been uneconomically overextended from the very beginning. Small, family-owned farms that resist the lure of going into debt to purchase more land, more chemicals, and more expensive machinery tend, he argues, to do just fine. Logsdon's prime example of this is the Amish farms of his native Ohio, whose owners have grown positively rich (especially by their own standards) by keeping their farms to manageable size.
Another of Logsdon's key points, especially worth thinking about, concerns the misleading nature of economic calculation as it is frequently applied to farming. Is raising livestock, as well as crops, and using the manure to fertilize your fields a cost, or a cost-savings, relative to using expensive chemicals? What is the value of working with your family on a small farm versus hiring hands to work a larger one? Logsdon raises many questions about "cost" versus "value" that are worth contemplating, even by those of us in the suburbs.
The book begins with contrary, sometimes (by his own admission) angry essays about the economics of farming and the general uselessness of university agricultural-education programs. But they soon transition into portrayals of farming life that are both idyllic (in the original sense) and subtly instructive. The three closing essays ("closing" in this edition; they're toward the middle in "Living at Nature's Pace"), "A Woodcutter's Pleasures," "The Pond at the Center of the Universe," and "My Wilderness," are all deeply moving.
This was my first exposure to Gene Logsdon's work, but it definitely won't be my last. I'm planning on tracking down his many other titles as well. As a third (or more) generation child of the suburbs, my connection to the farm is somewhat attenuated. But Logsdon's writing makes me feel closer to it nonetheless, and it's a feeling I find myself really appreciating.
Wendell Berry in a raspberry patch. Wonderful!.......2000-05-24
This book introduced me to Logsdon work. I've since read it over several times. He speaks what he thinks with no varnish of correctness. Incredibly refreshing these days. Covers apsects of rural society in the modern world. For an outsider that wishes to gain some perspective on the "problem" and the promise of rural America this is a great place to start and finish up.
He's mad as hell and writes straight-from-the-shoulder.......2000-05-09
Gene Logsdon, The Contrary Farmer, is that rare prolific writer who continues to delight me with the breadth of his subject knowledge. He knows modern American farm life as it really is, not only its hard-wrought joy but its deep, dark underbelly. Here he exposes the sad facts of crop subsidies and their effect on people who before political propaganda and intervention had the common sense to farm on a family scale and enjoyed the satisfaction that derived therefrom. Tractors that cost more than a farm should cost. Soil death by toxic chemicals and erosion. The criminal collusion (my words, not Logsdon's) of land grant agriculture colleges, equipment companies, chemical companies and politicians. The stupidity of laws that put Amish minister Henry Hershberger in jail for building a superior house but without a permit because of his religious beliefs. Logsdon also shows what works. The Kemp farm of Jerusalem, Ohio, with only 140 acres but a carefully built herd of cows whose pedigree commands value nationwide. A Berkeley, California, "farm" of one-third acre that grosses more than $300,000. The Amish farmers, whose success embarrasses agribusiness practitioners. Logsdon cares about people and nature. He is mad as hell and speaks plainly. He also has vision. "If we want to remake an agriculture that is technically correct for sustainability, we must make sure it is also culturally correct, or the effort will not succeed."
It's been done before, but rarely better than this........1997-11-18
Gene Logsdon, writing from anger and experience, has put together a collection of poignant, and persistent essays. His discomfort follows you long after you have envisioned a strip of grains from the midwest to Florida, the workings of dung beetles, and the mission of the "contrary farmer." Logsdon gives insight into the weaknesses of industrial agriculture and how its woes are most painfully obvious in rural communities. Such a reasonable subject is rarely taken on so furiously and so well...Logsdon has become a spokesman worthy of friend Wendell Berry's praise as the finest of the farmer essayists.
Book Description
You'll never fall into the tourist traps when you travel with Frommer's. It's like having a friend show you around, taking you to the places locals like best. Our expert authors have already gone everywhere you might go—they've done the legwork for you, and they're not afraid to tell it like it is, saving you time and money. No other series offers candid reviews of so many hotels and restaurants in all price ranges. Every Frommer's Travel Guide is up-to-date, with exact prices for everything, dozens of color maps, and exciting coverage of sports, shopping, and nightlife. You'd be lost without us!
Frommer's Philadelphia & the Amish Country, 13e:
- Points visitors to Philly's best museums, nightlife, and recreational activities.
- Delivers the details on renovations to Independence National Historic Park and the new Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts.
- Covers exciting developments in Philadephia's dining scene, including a new restaurant from Iron Chef Masaharu Morimoto.
- Lists all the best places to eat, drink, and even bathe in chocolate in Hershey
- Offers side trips to Bucks County, Valley Forge, and the Brandywine Valley—plus complete coverage of Lancaster County, home of the Amish.
Download Description
You'll never fall into the tourist traps when you travel with Frommer's. It's like having a friend show you around, taking you to the places locals like best. Our expert authors have already gone everywhere you might go—they've done the legwork for you, and they're not afraid to tell it like it is, saving you time and money. No other series offers candid reviews of so many hotels and restaurants in all price ranges. Every Frommer's Travel Guide is up-to-date, with exact prices for everything, dozens of color maps, and exciting coverage of sports, shopping, and nightlife. You'd be lost without us!
Frommer's Philadelphia & the Amish Country, 13e:
- Points visitors to Philly's best museums, nightlife, and recreational activities.
- Delivers the details on renovations to Independence National Historic Park and the new Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts.
- Covers exciting developments in Philadephia's dining scene, including a new restaurant from Iron Chef Masaharu Morimoto.
- Lists all the best places to eat, drink, and even bathe in chocolate in Hershey
- Offers side trips to Bucks County, Valley Forge, and the Brandywine Valley—plus complete coverage of Lancaster County, home of the Amish.
Customer Reviews:
Pretty good.......2007-09-09
We stayed a long weekend, and this guide was useful. Note, its several years old. They have lists of recommended things to do and where to stay. I didn't really follow all of that, but it was still helpful. We found the Holiday Inn Historic on AAA web site at a great price, and knew more information about it because of this guide.
A Bit Out of Date.......2007-07-07
We used this a lot while planning and touring in Philadelphia. This edition is out of date. Nearly all prices were wrong, sometimes buy more then $15. I also would quibble with some of the restaurant price catagorys. It's a convenient size and weight for carrying.
Great Guide For a 2 Day Trip to Philly.......2006-12-16
My family and I used this guide to plan and have a great trip to Philly. We used restaurant, hotel, and sight portions of the guide, but focused mostly around Liberty Square. I wish it had pointed out a couple tips: go to the visitors center when it first opens in the morning, no matter how hard, and get tickets to liberty hall. Then, walking down to the Bell, you will avoid the 1 hour lines you have most of the day, and get right into the Liberty Hall tour. Then you've got time for a stroll before lunch, and the rest of the day to relax. I can't believe how many people were standing in long lines, or missed out on tickets because they showed up at 10am. Anway, good guide, and I'd buy another again from them.
Average customer rating:
- Natural History Writing at Its Best
- Antidote for institutionalized scizophrenia
- Kline's book became a companion
- Enchanting look at nature on a most personal level.
- Thoreau has a modern counterpart.
|
Scratching the Woodchuck: Nature on an Amish Farm
David Kline
Manufacturer: University of Georgia Press
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Great Possessions : An Amish Farmer's Journal
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Plain Reader
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You Can Go Home Again
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A Plain Life
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A Very Small Farm
ASIN: 0820319384 |
Customer Reviews:
Natural History Writing at Its Best.......2001-12-15
Scratching the Woodchuck is quite simply the best piece of natural history writing I have read in decades. David Kline is a keen observer, a competent naturalist, and an eloquent writer. We need more books like this in our all too technology-based, human-centered society.
This book takes the reader back to humanity's roots, and to our essential relationships with other species that inhabit this planet with us. Something beautiful and important is found here that has been lost to many of us for a long, long time.
Antidote for institutionalized scizophrenia.......2000-07-19
Scratching the Woodchuck, Nature on an Amish Farm by David Kline sits on my credenza at work. I reach for it when I need an antidote for institutionalized schizophrenia.
Scratching the Woodchuck is a collection of about 60 short essays. They are organized into four catagories: The Farmstead, The Fields, The Woods, Creeks and Sky and The Community. The essays are rich in adjectives and read at a slow and leisurely pace.
For example:
"I was startled the other day to see a meadow vole (one of those fat little short-tailed mice that abound in meadows and fields) come charging out of the grass-covered ditch and dash across the road as fast as its stumpy legs could carry it. Before the sprinting vole had reached the safety of the opposite ditch, it was followed by two more of its kin. These, however, instead of racing across the road, made large half-circles and then ran back into the same ditch twenty feet down the road.
I stopped and watched the spot where the meadow voles had emerged. Soon a small pointed nose poked through the grasses and two obsidian eyes glared at me--a weasel. No wonder the voles were scared silly. Of all their enemies, nothing alarms the mouse family as much as the weasel, because there is no place to hide from the long, slender killer." Page 42.
Plusses:
*The essays are short. You can pick up the book and regain sanity in about 2.76 minutes.
*The essays are consistently high quality writing. There is none of the unevenness that results when a book is banged out in a hurry.
Minuses:
*The book does not come back quickly when loaned out. "Oh, I was going to bring it back today but my wife started reading it." kind of thing.
*Ultimately, you finish the book and you want more.
Scratching the Woodchuck is a good book to pick up if you feel like the pea-in-a-whistle. Mr. Kline's prose will slow your heart rate and reduce your blood pressure. Mr. Kline assures us that life only appears to be fragmented. The patient observer can find the connections.
Scratching the Woodchuck is probably *not* a good choice if your preference for escapism-liturature tends toward verb-packed, staccato writing (like Tom Clancy). You will find Scratching the Woodchuck maddeningly slow and boring.
Kline's book became a companion.......1998-10-29
This story was a wonderful, lighthearted portrayal of nature on Kline's farm. The stories were short and a quick read. I found myself reading one story, every night before bed. I was not looking forward to the end of what became a daily companion. Kline is able to paint with words. He excels at describing life's simple, natural pleasures. This book could be compared to a more recent Sand County Almanac, but I didn't find that book as interesting. A good read!
Enchanting look at nature on a most personal level........1998-09-14
Reading Kline's book makes one want to immediately ditch city life. This talented writer takes a look at nature in simple, basic terms, bringing it close to everyone who has ever watched a spider in a web, or looked at tracks in fresh snow. His unpretentious approach is precisely the way that nature should be viewed. . . with knowledge, joy and kinship with the out of doors. (Review by Judy Wade, author of Seasonal Guide to the Natural Year; Southern California and Baja, published by Fulcrum and also available through Amazon.)
Thoreau has a modern counterpart........1998-03-17
Any one who has a personal copy of Walden with heavy underlining and pages falling away from the binding will read the words of David Kline with respect. This is a man so completely at one with his physical world, so at peace with his chosen lifestyle, and so appreciative of his environment that he makes Thoreau seem under-developed. While Kline, an Amish farmer who lives an economic life far out-of-step with his contemporary American culture, writes little about his religious philosophy, he is man at peace with himself and his God and he is able to convey that without talking directly about his theology. He expresses appreciation for his heritage of the family farm which has become his, and for his early teacher who taught him to see the wonders of the natural life which was found on that farm and in that area of Ohio. The life of a farmer is one of seasonal cycles which dictates the work, and the habits of the creatures of the wild. The book is roughly cyclical in scope, but has no straightforward time line. Kline writes as though engaging in easy conversation, reminiscing about berry-picking and manure-spreading, bird-watching and gardening. His life is an out-of-doors life, but he does not complain about the weather! Bad weather seems to be a time to read, and he cites authors from Kathleen Norris to A. Leopold, evidence that he is as much at home with the written word as with the topography of his farm Kline's little book makes me want to know more about him, to know how he relates to the strange and stressed humans with whom he shares this land. The book is as much spirtitual as scientific in content, bringing a sense of peace in a too-busy world. One waits for another from this delightful author.
Average customer rating:
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Frommer's Philadelphia and the Amish Country
Jay Golan
Manufacturer: Frommers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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Streetwise Philadelphia (Streetwise)
ASIN: 0764567470 |
Book Description
Top-flight guidance for anyone visiting Philadelphia or Pennsylvania Dutch country.
* Points visitors to Philly's best museums, nightlife, and recreational activities.
* Delivers the details on renovations to Independence National Historic Park and the new Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts.
* Covers exciting developments in Philadephia's dining scene, including a new restaurant from Iron Chef Masaharu Morimoto.
* Offers side trips to Bucks County, Valley Forge, and the Brandywine Valley-- plus complete coverage of Lancaster County, home of the Amish.
Book Description
Hidden Philadelphia and the Amish Country details top sites, including Independence National Historic Park, then leads travelers away to little-visited side streets, parks, and museums. This publication includes a special guided tour of the city's architectural gems, including many buildings that date back to Colonial and Victorian eras.
Readers are directed to a wide variety of dining options, from authentic ethnic eateries and five-star restaurants to the best of the city's famous cheesesteaks and hoagies.
This new guidebook features in-depth coverage of pastoral getaways near Philadelphia with charming bed-and-breakfasts, fascinating Amish markets, and relaxing hiking trails through woodland valleys.
Customer Reviews:
Touring with humor.......2007-08-21
This is definitely the guide to have in your hands if you are touring Philly and surroundings. The author's humor makes it fun! fun! fun!
Not your regular run-of-the-mill guide book!.......2007-08-17
I've lived in Philly all my life and recently picked this book up off the clearance rack at Walmart. I've discovered places in in the city of brotherly love that I never knew existed. As a lifelong fan of butter cakes, I especially appreciated the tips on new places to go to try out these confections! C'est magnifique!
Book Description
You'll never fall into the tourist traps when you travel with Frommer's. It's like having a friend show you around, taking you to the places locals like best. Our expert authors have already gone everywhere you might go—they've done the legwork for you, and they're not afraid to tell it like it is, saving you time and money. No other series offers candid reviews of so many hotels and restaurants in all price ranges. Every Frommer's Travel Guide is up-to-date, with exact prices for everything, dozens of color maps, and exciting coverage of sports, shopping, and nightlife.
Frommer's Philadelphia & the Amish Country, 14th Edition:
- Points visitors to Philly's best museums, nightlife, and recreational activities.
- Delivers the details on the new 57-story Comcast Center and the Franklin Institute's King Tut exhibit.
- Covers exciting developments in Philadelphia's dining scene, including new restaurants from the city's top chefs
—plus "The Ultimate Cheesesteak Taste Test."
- Lists all the best places to eat, drink, and even bathe in chocolate in the town of Hershey.
- Offers side trips to Bucks County, Valley Forge, and the Brandywine Valley—plus complete coverage of Lancaster County, home of the Amish.
Average customer rating:
- The Best Guide to Amish Country!
- Just what I was looking for!
|
Guide to the Amish Country
Bill Simpson
Manufacturer: Pelican Publishing Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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Moon Handbooks Pennsylvania (Moon Handbooks)
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Amish Home (Sandpiper Paperbacks)
ASIN: 1565541138 |
Customer Reviews:
The Best Guide to Amish Country!.......2000-01-30
This book certainly comes in handy to anyone desiring to explore Lancaster county's Amish Country. It was full of useful facts and information needed to fully enjoy this beautuful and simple lifestyle and country. I highly recommend it to all readers.
Just what I was looking for!.......1999-07-30
Very detailed. Other PA guide books are too general and only have one chapter on PA Dutch. This is a whole book dedicated to just the PA Amish Country. My favorite part was the self-guided tour of the Amish farmland (complete with approx. miles, etc.) and the covered bridges! It includes places to eat and stay (including B&Bs). It's a great guide that covers all the bases. I've been visiting Pennsylvania Dutch Country since I was little and this book really gave me the information I needed to get the most out of a recent long weekend there.
Average customer rating:
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Back Roads & Buggy Trails: A Vistor's Guide to Ohio Amish Country
Lorraine A. Moore
Manufacturer: Bluebird Press
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Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 1881122034 |
Books:
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- Ciao! (with Audio CD)
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- Dark Noon
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