At a Glance
discover himself in his other 30s and feeling vagabond , Arlo Crawford decide to return home to New Morning Farm , a 95 - acre , USDA Certified Organic farm in south central Pennsylvania owned and operated by his parent , Jim and Moie . Since leaving nursing home for college years earlier , Crawford had not hark back home to the farm in any major capacity , save episodic visit . This meter , however , he was come in home to work as an apprentice for the farm ’s entire growing season , hoping to find a new counseling in life , similar to how his don had begun grow almost 40 years premature .
Crawford has take his experience from that yr and spun them intoA Farm Dies Once a Year , a poignant , remindful memoir of rural life rediscover . Tying together an exploration of his past with rumination on his present and future , and an examination of what a farm demands of its owners , he has crafted an unflinchingly realistic portraiture of the highs and lows of agriculture . ( A subplot even finds him explore alocal murderthat guide place in his youth and what it meant to him and his family . )
Anyone who ’s ever work on a farm — no matter how small the farm or how unforesightful the time — will immediately connect with Crawford ’s discussion of day-to-day farm life . From waking hours before cockcrow to backpack crop for market to spending countless hours pick squash rackets , clavus and raspberries , Crawford readapt to the rhythms of rural aliveness , taking heavy pride in building a makeshift shelter for himself and his girlfriend ( who pass the latter one-half of the summer on - farm ) and making successful deliveries to the local co - op grocery store . revisit the farm project and chores of his youth again as an adult affords him a unequaled nostalgic perspective that he harnesses and maximizes throughout the book .
Crawford himself may be our sole perspective to life on New Morning Farm , but the most challenging theatrical role the book presents is his father , Jim . A ego - confessed control freak and workaholic , Jim ’s eccentricities provide a palate for the total piece . Late in the Scripture , Jim is confronted with the actualization that all four generations of his tomato crop — unremarkably one of New Morning ’s biggest yearly moneymakers — have been afflicted with blight , and he reluctantly gives the order to torch the entire field . Crawford does n’t flinch away from describe his male parent ’s unbridled , sporadic rage one morning as the distich load a truck for market : “ The wrath was a febricity that prey on itself , a cps of recrimination and rue . The farm , the place that he had give everything to , had betrayed him . If he did n’t have control over those estate , over those fields of tomatoes , over the boxes of shekels that he was attempt to chock up into the back of the truck now , then what could he master ? ”
However , not five pages later , Crawford describes his father at market place , mere hours after his tomato - induced ire : He is a natural - turn out people soul and salesman , answering dozens and loads of customer questions patiently and intently as he checks on a unconstipated customer ’s health issues or announces how yummy this batch of immature edible bean is . ( Unsurprisingly , those immature bean sell out minutes later . ) After that wildly successful morning — even without tomatoes — Crawford ’s Padre is as excitable as a little kid : “ ‘ Sometimes , I just think we could sell doubly as much ! People just have it off this stuff , they have sex it ! ’ He seemed surprised , even after doing the same affair for all these geezerhood , that he could still being vegetable to the city , determine them out on the pavement , and sell them all . ”
And therein lie the power of Crawford ’s portrait : His parents overcome rigourousness again and again , and jounce back even advantageously than before . Even after a hard class and the loss of a potential six - figure of speech Lycopersicon esculentum earnings , his gruff , old - school farmer father is positively woozy with the rush of people line up for hours to buy his green groceries . The struggle of agriculture , specially that of constituent farming , is almost always worth it in the end , no matter how many time you have to burn down a spoilt crop .
A good portion of Crawford ’s book focuses on his parent ’ ritual killing and dedication to their lifestyle — one narrate anecdote finds Crawford looking through his parents ’ meager library to find a copy of an old John Updike novel ; his female parent had not only marked her station in the book with his sister ’s bassinet ID carte , but she had even scribble billet about that twelvemonth ’s growing time of year on the back .
Maybe the greatest accomplishment ofA Farm Dies Once a Yearis the work ’s overarching attitude of tenaciousness . Even in the championship , Crawford alludes to the farm ’s inevitable “ end ” at the end of each yr , but one dim-witted truth is always kicking around the back of his creative thinker : Every year , “ the farm would incline to itself in one way or another , ” just as his parents do .
The Final Word : Even if you ’ve only ever tend a modest garden , pick upA Farm Dies Once a Yearfor a moving paean to the difficult yet rewarding rural modus vivendi and the lessons get word from the generations before .
Get more agrarian book reviews from Plowing Through :
« More Plowing Through »
