The charming, return-to-the-land memoir of a refugee family who flees Nazi Germany and finds their true home in the backwoods of rural Vermont Alice and Carl Zuckmayer lived at the center of Weimar-era Berlin. She was a former actor turned medical student, he was a playwright, and their circle of friends included Stefan Zweig, Alma Mahler, and Bertolt Brecht. But then the Nazis took over, and Carl’s most recent success—a play satirizing German militarism—impressed them in all the wrong ways. The couple and their two daughters were forced to flee, first to Austria, then to Switzerland, and finally to the United States. Los Angeles didn’t suit them, neither did New York, but a chance stroll in the Vermont woods led them to Backwoods Farm and the eighteenth-century farmhouse where they would spend the next five years. In Europe, the Zuckmayers were accustomed to servants; in Vermont, they found themselves building chicken coops, refereeing fights between fractious ducks, and caring for temperamental water pipes “like babies.” But in spite of the endless work and the brutal, depressing winters, Alice found that in America she had at last discovered her “native land.” This generous, surprising, and witty memoir, a best seller in postwar Germany, has all the charm of an unlikely romantic comedy.

Boots McFarland is an adventurous outdoor-loving cartoon character who has been hiking the trails for over 15 years. On the Trail with Boots McFarland-Volume 1 is a collection of humorous comics capturing the highs and lows of backpacking life, interspersed with entries from the author's Pacific Crest Trail hiking journal. The ideas for most of these cartoons come directly from personal trail experiences... real or imagined. Over the years, Boots cartoons have become popular in the worldwide hiking community and now for the first time, the artist Geolyn J. Carvin is offering these images in book form. You'll be ready to hit the trail after reading these pages!

The Resilient Farm and Homestead is a manual for developing durable, beautiful, and highly functional human habitat systems fit to handle an age of rapid transition. Ben Falk is a land designer and site developer whose permaculture-research farm has drawn national attention. The site is a terraced paradise on a hillside in Vermont that would otherwise be overlooked by conventional farmers as unworthy farmland. Falk's wide array of fruit trees, rice paddies (relatively unheard of in the Northeast), ducks, nuts, and earth-inspired buildings is a hopeful image for the future of regenerative agriculture and modern homesteading. The book covers nearly every strategy Falk and his team have been testing at the Whole Systems Research Farm over the past decade, as well as experiments from other sites Falk has designed through his off-farm consulting business. The book includes detailed information on earthworks; gravity-fed water systems; species composition; the site-design process; site management; fuelwood hedge production and processing; human health and nutrient-dense production strategies; rapid topsoil formation and remineralization; agroforestry/silvopasture/grazing; ecosystem services, especially regarding flood mitigation; fertility management; human labor and social-systems aspects; tools/equipment/appropriate technology; and much more, complete with gorgeous photography and detailed design drawings. The Resilient Farm and Homestead is more than just a book of tricks and techniques for regenerative site development, but offers actual working results in living within complex farm-ecosystems based on research from the "great thinkers" in permaculture, and presents a viable home-scale model for an intentional food-producing ecosystem in cold climates, and beyond. Inspiring to would-be homesteaders everywhere, but especially for those who find themselves with "unlikely" farming land, Falk is an inspiration in what can be done by imitating natural systems, and making the most of what we have by re-imagining what's possible. A gorgeous case study for the homestead of the future.

For farm-to-table cooking and dining like you've never seen it, Vermont is the place. Small, independent farms are the lifeblood of Vermont’s agriculture, from the sweetcorn grower to the dairy goat farmer to the cheesemaker whose locally sourced goat milk chevre becomes the heart of a new dish by a chef in Montpelier. While this farm-to-table cycle may be a phenomenon just hitting its stride in the United States, it has long been away of life in Vermont, part of the ethos that Vermonters use to define themselves. As such, Vermont exemplifies a standard of small-scale, community-minded, unadulterated agriculture that has become a national model. When Tracey Medeiros wrote Dishing Up Vermont in 2008, she wanted to showcase the chefs and restaurateurs who were dazzling taste buds with their fresh, whole-food creations. With The Vermont Farm Table Cookbook, Medeiros has traversed the Green Mountain State once again, in search of not only those celebrated chefs but the hard-working farmers who provide them with their fresh and wholesome ingredients as well. Collecting their stories and some 125 of their delicious, rustic-yet-refined, Vermont inspired recipes, Medeiros presents an irresistible gastronomic portrait of this singular state. Classics like Vermont Cheddar Soup and exciting innovations like Ramp Dumplings or Raisin Hell Pie will send you racing to your local farmers’ market in search of the ingredients. And with dishes that shout “only in Vermont,”like Wood-Fired Blueberry Pizza or Beer-Battered Fiddleheads, no matter where you are you’ll want to transform your tried-and-true menus into fresh and flavorful Vermont farm table suppers. Tracey Medeiros is a freelance food writer, food stylist, and recipe developer and tester. She writes a weekly food column for the Essex Reporter and the Colchester Sun and writes the Edible Farm column for Edible Green Mountains Magazine. Medeiros is also the author of Dishing Up Vermont. She lives in Essex Junction, VT.

Rosalie tries to find a way to save her beloved Morgan horse, Major, when her father goes away to fight in the Civil War, and her mother decides to sell the horse to make ends meet. Original.

From world-renowned cheddar cheeses to the delectable dinners turned out by talented chefs, the Green Mountain State has its own unique and rich food traditions. Learn new ways to use maple syrup, recreate that meal you enjoyed at a fancy restaurant, bake tree-ripened local apples into delicious desserts, and find out how the farmers growing the tastiest microgreens like to eat them. Filled with inspiring profiles of local food producers, Dishing Up® Vermont will quickly have you hooked on the joys of Yankee cooking.

One farm’s decades-long journey into regenerative agriculture—and how these methods enhance biodiversity, pollinators, and soil health Northern Vermont’s Nancy and John Hayden have spent the last 25 years transforming their draft horse–powered, organic vegetable and livestock operation into an agroecological, regenerative, biodiverse, organic fruit farm, fruit nursery, and pollinator sanctuary. In Farming on the Wild Side they explain the philosophical and scientific principles that influenced them as they phased out sheep and potatoes and embraced apples, pears, stone fruits, and a wide variety of uncommon berry crops; turned much of their property into a semi-wild state; and adapted their marketing and sales strategies to the new century. As the Haydens pursued their goals of enhancing biodiversity and regenerating their land, they incorporated agroforestry and permaculture principles into perennial fruit polycultures, a pollinator sanctuary, repurposed greenhouses for growing fruit, hügelkultur, and ecological “pest” management. Beyond the practical techniques and tips, this book also inspires readers to develop greater ecological literacy and respect for the mysteries of the global ecosystem. Farming on the Wild Side tells a story about new ways to manage small farms and homesteads, about nurturing land, about ecology, about economics, and about things that we can all do to heal both the land and ourselves.

A great book for horse lovers.

Take a chilling tour of spooky New England legends . . . Visit Vermont with this comprehensive collection of tales, legends, folklore, ghost stories, and strange-but-true facts—and enjoy supernatural side trips to the surrounding areas of New York, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Quebec—with this delightful guide to the region’s haunted history. From Chittenden’s Ghost Shop to the Hubbardton Horror to the Mystery of the Bennington Triangle, Green Mountain Ghosts is filled with local lore and characters more colorful than any fall foliage!

A new approach to growing local medicine, including information on geo-authenticity, wildcrafting, and developing a good business plan "[A] beautiful and informative book . . . A dirt-smudged copy should be within easy reach of every home gardener or farmer who grows—or wants to grow—medicinal plants."—Michael McGuffin, President, American Herbal Products Association Both a business guide and a farming manual, The Organic Medicinal Herb Farmer will teach readers how to successfully grow and market organic medicinal Western herbs. Whether you’re trying to farm medicinal plants, culinary herbs, or at-risk native herbs exclusively or simply add herbal crops to what you’re already growing, successful small-scale herb farmers Jeff and Melanie Carpenter will guide you through the entire process―from cultivation to creating value-added products. Using their Zack Woods Herb Farm in Vermont as a backdrop, the Carpenters cover all the basic practical information farmers need to know to get an organic herb farm up and running, including: Size and scale considerations Layout and design of the farm and facilities Growing and cultivation information, including types of tools Field and bed prep Plant propagation Weed control, and pests and diseases Harvesting, as well as wild harvesting and the concept of geo-authentic botanicals Post-harvest processing Value-added products and marketing The authors also provide fifty detailed plant profiles, going deeper into the herbs every farmer should consider growing, including: Arnica Calendula Echinacea Ginko Ginseng Peppermint Saint John’s Wort Valerian In an easy-to-understand, practical, and comprehensive manner, readers will learn how to focus on quality over quantity, and keep costs down by innovating with existing equipment, rather than expensive technology. Market farmers who have never before considered growing medicinal herbs will learn why it’s more important to produce these herbs domestically. The Organic Medicinal Herb Farmer makes a convincing case that producing organic medicinal herbs can be a viable, profitable, farming enterprise. The Carpenters also make the case for incorporating medicinal herbs into existing operations, as it can help increase revenue in the form of value-added products, not to mention improve the ecological health of farmland by encouraging biodiversity as a path toward greater soil health.