Joe and Jackie LOVE "The Dirty Life"

"This book is the story of the two love affairs that interrupted the trajectory of my life: one with farming—that dirty, concupiscent art—and the other with a complicated and exasperating farmer."

Single, thirtysomething, working as a writer in New York City, Kristin Kimball was living life as an adventure. But she was beginning to feel a sense of longing for a family and for home. When she interviewed a dynamic young farmer, her world changed. Kristin knew nothing about growing vegetables, let alone raising pigs and cattle and driving horses. But on an impulse, smitten, if not yet in love, she shed her city self and moved to five hundred acres near Lake Champlain to start a new farm with him. The Dirty Life is the captivating chronicle of their first year on Essex Farm, from the cold North Country winter through the following harvest season—complete with their wedding in the loft of the barn.

Kimball and her husband had a plan: to grow everything needed to feed a community. It was an ambitious idea, a bit romantic, and it worked. Every Friday evening, all year round, a hundred people travel to Essex Farm to pick up their weekly share of the "whole diet"—beef, pork, chicken, milk, eggs, maple syrup, grains, flours, dried beans, herbs, fruits, and forty different vegetables—produced by the farm. The work is done by draft horses instead of tractors, and the fertility comes from compost. Kimball’s vivid descriptions of landscape, food, cooking—and marriage—are irresistible.

"As much as you transform the land by farming," she writes, "farming transforms you." In her old life, Kimball would stay out until four a.m., wear heels, and carry a handbag. Now she wakes up at four, wears Carhartts, and carries a pocket knife. At Essex Farm, she discovers the wrenching pleasures of physical work, learns that good food is at the center of a good life, falls deeply in love, and finally finds the engagement and commitment she craved in the form of a man, a small town, and a beautiful piece of land.

Jackie says:

"Yes, my love of farm tales continues, and is well fed by this charming book. Kristin was very much a city girl until a writing assignment brought her to Mark's small plot of land where he was growing food to feed many, many families. It was love at first sight, at least for the farming. Falling for Mark didn't take too much more time after that. They get together and find a farm that a generous man who fell for the both of them let them have for free for a year. It was no prize, at least to the eye, but they dive in and manage to have it up and running within a year. It's completely organic and very old school--the cows are milked by hand, the chickens free range during the day, and most of the heavy work is done with horses and old fashioned farming tools. Their CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) is a new model--the idea is that the members can be completely supported by the produce, meat, eggs and cheese they can pick up weekly year round that should require very little to no additional
grocery purchasing. They are up to 80 acres that they now own and 100 members and counting. It is a completely fascinating story of what the love of the land and the desire to feed people can do for individuals and communities, and what potential impact that could have on a global scale, with no varnish on how difficult and demanding the work is. Loved it!"

Joe says:

"This memoir joins the ever-burgeoning ranks of city folk moving to the country and writing a memoir. But it is a welcome addition, as it seems more of a cautionary tale than a rosy picture of some perfect, bucolic life.

By reading the back of the book, we know that the writer is still living on the farm, so in some ways we are clued in as to the outcome of this book: writer gets married, keeps on farming in an ethical, sustainable way, and will raise her daughter in a life of values it seems we forgot.

I know it sounds like I'm a little jaded. But I am writing this review from a window overlooking cornfields, fruit trees, and a garden so overgrown I haven't walked into it more than ten feet. You see, I have recently moved from the city to the country in the hopes of turning back to the land, of returning to a way of doing things from yesteryear. And I am terrified.

The vast majority of The Dirty Life really is about the work. The long, long hours on the farm. The huge amount of learning required to do something as seemingly simple as growing a tomato or eggs. And the dirt. Oh, the word dirt doesn't describe what Kristin brings home each night, and since their house needs remodeling as much as their farm, for her there is no respite from the dirt.

I was surprised by the amount of practical advice in this book for the city-cum-farmer, such as simple reminders to keep it simple, keep it local, and admit what it is you do not know. This book is also brimful of the author's good humor and lovely anecdotal stories about her fiance/husband and the folks in their community in the North Country of New York State. It
is true that, at heart, most folks are good and want to help and are not nearly as jaded as many of us think.

So let's say the reader doesn't want to farm, and is beginning to think there are too many books like this on the shelves... what do I say to them? The Dirty Life is a fantastic love story. Their whirlwind romance quickly moves her from New York City to the country and their untested relationship is tested daily by the sheer amount of work involved in keeping their farm alive. An excellent memoir about the importance of keeping true to yourself
while uniting your life with another... and excellent memoir that yes, love can get you through...And yes, that just because a life on a farm is not always bucolic, does not mean it is any less rewarding."