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:

Two Acre Eden 1971

Homesteading 1973

Successful Berry Growing 1974

The Gardener’s Guide to Better Soil 1975

Small-Scale Grain Raising 1977

Getting Food from Water 1979

Organic Orcharding 1981

Wildlife in the Garden: How to Live in Harmony With Deer, Raccoons, Rabbits, Crows, and Other Pesky Creatures 1983

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

You Can Go Home Again 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

Wyeth People 2003

The Pond Lovers 2003

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

Small-Scale Grain Raising: An Organic Guide to Growing, Processing, and Using Nutritious Whole Grains, for Home Gardeners and Local Farmers (2nd Edition) 2009

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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”

Harvest Art

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

Burning Off The Asparagus Bed

Down with raised beds

Time To Start Growing Your Own Bread

Manure More Precious Than Gold

Chore Time

The aim is joy

Pole Beans Need Better Public Relations

Harlan Hubbard - Painter, Writer, Agrarian Homesteader

“Grazing” The Trees On Your Garden Farm

An Ecologically Sane 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?

Knowing One’s Place

The Fire Fiddler

The Barn Raising

Mulch Can Cover A Multitude Of Sins As Well As Weeds

My Wilderness

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

Hunting For Your Dream Place

Our Hidden Wound

What’s Organic Farmland Worth? Or Is It A Pearl Without Price?

A Chicken Coop for a Small Flock

A Nutting Expedition

Getting The Most Out Of A Farm Or Garden Tractor

Organic Money

The Minimum Tools For Small-Time Garden Farming

The Irony of Giant Ragweed

The Man Who Created Paradise

Cheapskate Haystacks For Contrary Garden Farmers

Oxen Power For Family Farms

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)

Listening To The Trees

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

First Spring Things

Yes, I Care For Animals And Then I Eat Them

Bouncing In The Wool Sack

How Organic Corn Triumphed Over Chemical Corn - A Story Of Farming Life

A Farmer Goes To A Rock Concert

A Death In The Family

The Acorn Tree Syndrome Strikes Again

Organic Art?

Wood Is More Precious Than Gold

Snow Pastures

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 Grove Of Trees To Live In

A French Picnic (But Not Quite In Manet’s Style)

An Organic Hero

Big Tractor, Green Hypocrisy

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?

Pssst. Got Bootleg Milk?

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?

Haymaking Revolution

Just What We Need: Faster Tractors

Corn Is For Eating… Or Drinking

A Quiet Revolution Coming to a Farm Near You

The Contrary Farmer

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Image Credit: Tom Gettings

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