Pennsylvania
Gene
“Walk with me over our little farm where biological diversity is our first order of business,” writes garden farmer Gene Logsdon. “On this farm lives a human family along with several families of corn, oats, wheat, orchard trees, grasses, legumes, berries, and garden vegetables, the whole domestic tribe living in a sort of hostile harmony with the wild food chain: animals, insects, and plants in such diversity that I have not been able to name them all. On our little farm, I have identified 130 species of birds, 40 species of wild animals (not counting coonhunters), over 50 species of wildflowers, at least 45 tree species, a myriad of gorgeous butterflies, moths, spiders, beetles, etc., and about 593,455,780 weeds.”
“Garden farmers are those who have another job or career and look to their home pursuits as a form of enjoyment that at the same time provides good food and meaningful work. On many days a garden farm requires nothing more than sitting at the breakfast table or reclining in a hammock while watching animals graze. And what the garden farmer is learning, from the hammock, he or she may someday turn into a commercial farming venture.”
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Gene and Carol Logsdon have a small-scale experimental farm in Wyandot County, Ohio. Gene is the author of numerous books and magazine articles on farm-related issues, and believes sustainable pastoral farming is the solution for a stressed agricultural system.
Books Authored:
The Gardener’s Guide to Better Soil 1975
Small-Scale Grain Raising 1977
Gene Logsdon’s Practical Skills: A Revival of Forgotten Crafts, Techniques, and Traditions 1985
The Low-Maintenance House 1987
The Contrary Farmer (Real Goods Independent Living Book) 1995
The Contrary Farmer’s Invitation to Gardening 1997
The Big Things in Life are the Little Things 1998
Good Spirits: A New Look at Ol’ Demon Alcohol 2000
Living at Nature’s Pace: Farming and the American Dream 2000
The Man Who Created Paradise: A Fable (Ohio Bicentennial) 2001
All Flesh Is Grass: Pleasures & Promises Of Pasture Farming 2004
The Lords of Folly (novel) 2007
The Mother of All Arts: Agrarianism and the Creative Impulse (Culture of the Land) 2007
The Last of the Husbandmen: A Novel of Farming Life 2008
Review of All Flesh Is Grass from The Ethecuriean (2008)
More stoking of Gene’s ego and promo of his book The Lords of Folly
An Afternoon With Gene Logsdon (recent interview)
Audio Interview With Gene (2001)
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Gene’s Posts
Tiny Homestead Discoveries Inspire Big Wild Ideas
Looks Like The New Agrarian Age Has Arrived
The Race Goes Not Always To The Fastest
“No One With Land Should Be Without A Job”
Kill People But Not Dogs and Cats
An Offbeat Way To Make Good Hay
We’ve Been Going “Back To The Land” For A Long Time
Our House Frog Liked Beethoven
My Clunker Pickup Is Too Old To Junk
Good Farming Was More Advanced A Hundred Years Ago
The Two Sides of an Organic vs. Chemical Story
A Startling Lesson in Pasture Farming
Sometimes Its Hard To Tell the Vegetables From the Flowers
More Choices at Garden Farm Markets
Gardeners and Farmers Less Fearful of Death?
The Gentle Art of Non-Gardening
Time To Start Growing Your Own Bread
Manure More Precious Than Gold
Pole Beans Need Better Public Relations
Harlan Hubbard - Painter, Writer, Agrarian Homesteader
“Grazing” The Trees On Your Garden Farm
Our Love-Hate Relationship With The Red Cedar Tree
The Pond at the Center of the Universe
The Percheron On The World’s Most Famous Farm
Did The Amish Get It Right After All?
Mulch Can Cover A Multitude Of Sins As Well As Weeds
Unexpected Benefits From Pasture Farming
The Garden Farm Guide To Beekeeping
Stoking Up The Woodstove: Winter’s First Ritual
The Garden Farm Guide to Feeding, Catching, and Butchering Chickens
What’s Organic Farmland Worth? Or Is It A Pearl Without Price?
A Chicken Coop for a Small Flock
Getting The Most Out Of A Farm Or Garden Tractor
The Minimum Tools For Small-Time Garden Farming
Cheapskate Haystacks For Contrary Garden Farmers
Garden Farming: The Best Investment
Thinking Eco-logically and the Food Web of a Bluebird
Taming The Wild Black Raspberry
Building Hotbeds For Your Garden
An Ode To Horse Manure And Other By-Products Called Waste
A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Farms, Or Maybe A Million
Pasture: The Foundation of Garden Farm Success
More Than One Reason Why Bluegrass Is Blue
A Farm Is A Large Garden (or A Garden Is A Small Farm)
The Anatomy of a Homestead Landscape
Getting The Corn Planted This Year
Organic Garden and Small Farm Skills - Hoemanship
What Organic Homesteading Is All About
Peach Trees Light Up The Old Hen House - And Vice Versa
Our Ewes Are Having Lots Of Lambs, But Is More Better?
A Fairly Simple Way To Save Millions In Energy
Yes, I Care For Animals And Then I Eat Them
How Organic Corn Triumphed Over Chemical Corn - A Story Of Farming Life
A Farmer Goes To A Rock Concert
The Acorn Tree Syndrome Strikes Again
Wood Is More Precious Than Gold
What Kind of Tree Do Acorns Grow On?
Sweet Corn From the Garden - In December
Easy Way To Start A Grove Of Trees (with Black Walnut Jam Cake Recipe)
The Lovely, Life-Saving Virtue of Laziness
One Man’s Fertilizer Is Another Man’s Bomb Or Illegal Drug
A French Picnic (But Not Quite In Manet’s Style)
In the Fields of Home: What’s the Best Farm Fence?
In the Fields of Home: Through Flood and Drought
The Making of Some Very Rare Organic Wine, Not To Mention Organic Liqueur
Thoughts On Economic “Inevitability”
The Great Organic Potato Race (With Johnny Carson Potato Chip Video)
The Adventures of Uno the Chick
Gems from the Lives of Contrary Farmers
Oh Deer, What Can the Matter Be?
Uhhh, explain that carbon credit deal again please…
Gardening In The Nude (or New Use For Rhubarb)
Do we need a new definition of Organic?
Just What We Need: Faster Tractors
Corn Is For Eating… Or Drinking
A Quiet Revolution Coming to a Farm Near You
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Image Credit: Tom Gettings
