Chicago Botanic Garden

Education — Lenhardt Library

Current Books & Book Reviews

PHOTO: bookcover

William Paul Winchester.
A Very Small Farm.
Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2006.
Paper, 229 p., ISBN 0–806–13778–9, $12.95.

Documenting the everyday life on his small farm in Oklahoma in a collection of essays, author William Winchester tells of building his house and barn; tending his garden, orchard, and field crops; and caring for his chickens, cow, and bees. Though his lifestyle is simple, his days are full and rewarding: he has the time to learn about himself and the world around him. A modern day Thoreau, he expresses in a simple literary style his views on weather, the changes through the seasons, nature, and the general impact that frugality has on a subsistence farmer. Though from a distance this appears to be a bucolic existence, this gem of a book brings us back to the reality of what life was like for our forebears. Few urbanites today would likely be willing to face the many challenges of such a lifestyle.

— Marilyn K. Alaimo, garden writer and volunteer, Chicago Botanic Garden.