In her 2011 memoir, The Dirty Life, Kristin Kimball chronicled her completely unexpected transition from an urban to a rural existence. From her high-heel-wearing, frequent-flyer 20s as a freelance writer in New York City, Kimball moved to tiny Essex, N.Y., to build a farm and a life with a tall, exuberant man named Mark. In her second memoir, Good Husbandry, Kimball delves deeper into the narrative of Essex Farm, which is now her home, her livelihood and the center of her universe. With warmth, honesty and vivid anecdotes, Kimball weaves a compelling narrative that gives readers a glimpse into birthing calves, harvesting corn and raising rural kids in the 21st century. At the same time, she muses on the big questions of love, work, parenting and identity, and what happens when those are threatened--sometimes all at once.
Kimball's memoir relates the farm's history alongside her own personal story (and Mark's). The land is their literal and figurative foundation, and Kimball traces the scrappy, cheerful, sometimes rocky first years of making do with salvaged equipment and cooking huge team dinners for their crew of young trainee farmers. Eventually, with a farm and a young child both growing by leaps and bounds, Kristin and Mark had to address questions of boundaries and scale. How could they draw distinctions between work and home life while living at work and working at home? How could they grow enough food to feed their family and satisfy their farm-share customers without running themselves (entirely) ragged or wearing the land completely out? Kimball also continues wrestling with the broader questions of existence: how to be a good parent, a supportive spouse, a responsible citizen of the earth, while finding ways to flourish as a person. Other realities of the farm--sodden fields in a wet year, the constant revolving door of trainee farmers, the push and pull between raising two young girls and tending to the farm--serve as metaphors for Kimball's inner struggle and growth, as well as being the tangible stuff of her day-to-day life.
Alongside the challenges, Kimball writes of the joys: her deep love for the farm dogs, Jet and Mary; the satisfaction of pulling together fresh, healthy meals from in-season food grown on the farm; her delight in watching her girls embrace a rural childhood. She writes movingly about accepting the gifts and the hardships of each season, outer and inner. Good Husbandry is a clear-eyed tribute to a tough but nourishing rural life and the deep, sustainable joy it provides. --Katie Noah Gibson, blogger at Cakes, Tea and Dreams
Shelf Talker: Kristin Kimball's second memoir chronicles the joys, hardships and existential challenges of running a small sustainable farm.