Many Hands Make a Farm: 47 Years of Questioning Authority, Feeding a Community, and Building an Organic Movement

Two activists, Julie Rawson and Jack Kittredge, have spent nearly half a century questioning authority, raising a family, building a self-reliant community, starting an organic farm, leading a farming organization, and experiencing the struggles and joys of living a purposeful life. Their memoir, Many Hands Make a Farm, chronicles their journey from early excitement to economic stability, forming a thriving community, and creating a growing natural farming movement. They prioritize minimal energy use, organic food production, credit-free living, natural health care, arts participation, and instilling hard work and responsibility in their children. The book resonates with fans of original thinkers and conveys the message of finding roots in a community, respecting the Earth, and combining social justice work with family life.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 208 pages
Publication date: 18 January 2024
Publisher: Chelsea Green Publishing Co

In this deeply personal and uncompromising memoir, two activists recount the nearly half-century they have dedicated to challenging authority while raising a family, building a self-sufficient community, establishing an organic farm, leading a farming organization, and experiencing the struggles and joys of living a purposeful life.

Many Hands Make a Farm chronicles the journey of organic farming pioneers Julie Rawson and Jack Kittredge from their early days of youthful enthusiasm, through the arduous struggle for economic stability, to the establishment of a thriving community and a growing natural farming movement. Along the way, they forged connections with farming leaders across the country during the creation of the National Organic Program.

Julie and Jack met while working as community organizers in Boston. After falling in love and starting a family, they decided to use Jack's irregular earnings as a board game designer to support a move to a rural area where they could grow healthy food and earn their living at home, so they could be present for their four children. What began as a family homestead soon grew into the small, diversified Many Hands Organic Farm.

Julie and Jack have intentionally chosen to live their lives differently than the mainstream, prioritizing minimizing energy use, raising food organically, not relying on credit, favoring natural health care, participating in the arts, working creatively, and instilling the values of hard work and responsibility in their children.

In a time when society at large was 'going along to get along, Julie and Jack stood out as leaders and iconoclasts. They believe that taking risks and making bold decisions can unlock one's potential and lead to actions that enrich the spirit, the family, and the community.

Weight: 567g
Dimension: 229 x 153 x 26 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781645021971