The Contrary Farmer

Gene Logsdon is known as a rabblerouser in progressive farm circles, for stirring up debates and controversies with his popular New Farm magazine column, "The Contrary Farmer." One of Logsdon's principle contrarieties is the opinion that - despite popular images of the vanishing American farmer - greater numbers of people in the U.S. will soon be growing and raising a greater share of their own food than at any time since the last century. Instead of vanishing, more and more farmers will be cottage-farming, part-time. This detailed and personal account of how Logsdon and his family use the arts and sciences of agriculture will inspire all those who seek an enjoyable and ecologically sane way of life. The Contrary Farmer offers the thoroughgoing, practical advice of a handbook for cottage farmers, as well as the subtler delights of a meditation in praise of work and pleasure. Logsdon gives his readers tools and tenets, but also hilarious commentaries and beautiful evocations of the Ohio countryside that this particular husbandman knows as his place in the universe.