With all the news about GMO's, GE, and the horror stories about Monsanto, it was refreshing to read this memoir and know that there are still simple people, doing hard work the right way.

Well written details giving the reader information on what worked and didn't work for this family when it came to farming. It has some funny stories and maybe some as readers we can relate. It is not a cookbook, but talks about life on the farm and creating an organic farm. The truth about starting this way of life and sustaining it.

My thanks to NetGalley and Abrams Press for an eARC copy of this book to read and review.

Note the part that bothered me may not be in the finished copy. This is from a review copy.

I did not get past the prologue with this book. Hard DNF. Now, what bothered me about it may not bother you, this is my personal opinion. I am sure the rest of the book is interesting. The topic is one that I am drawn to, but I just couldn't read more. The following is why.

CAUTION: TRIGGER WARNING-ANIMAL ABUSE/CRUELTY and SPOILER for the prologue only.

Now, maybe the title of the prologue/forward with the word "euthanasia" should have been a warning for me. But that word doesn't conjure up the image of what was later described.

The writer talks about five of his chickens, young ones, still in the cute stage, having a wing removed by a feral cat. He tells his wife, who contacts her mother (who has a farm also) and asks her what they should do. She gives advice on how to treat the damage. He contacts his local supply/feed/farm store. The guy there says something along the lines that a bullet would fix it.

So the writer, ignoring the perfectly good advice of his mother-in-law, that could save some to all of the injured chicks, who are acting like the un-injured chicks, that he has to kill the chicks to put them out of their misery. What misery? He said they were acting fine? I'm sure chickens can live without a wing. What would he do if one of his three kids lost an arm, decide to forgo treatment and take the child out back with a shotgun?!?

so first he decides to drown them in a bucket. The chick he sticks in just holds its breath and is alive when he uncovers the bucket. So obviously the chick wants to live, as I presume the other four do as well. He doesn't take the hint and goes slightly unhinged, as he states. Strangulation and a 2X4 were involved in the killing of the five chicks.

That turned my stomach. Seriously?!? He couldn't try the mom-in-law's idea of treating them to see if they would survive? He had to KILL them? I say kill and not slaughter, because slaughter implies killing an animal for food. He didn't not do that. He decided they weren't good enough with only one wing and that they would suffer without one wing.

There are many documented cases of animals and humans surviving and thriving without a limb. Why are chickens different?

This was done one YEAR after they had started the farm. This isn't a newbie decision. This is a decision to make the end of the lives of the chicks terrifying and I am sure they suffered worse at his hands (and 2X4) then if they had been allowed to try to live with one wing.

I am not going to read more of this book, as the beginning has turned my stomach. I don't think I can read more from someone who did something like this and admitted it. I trust he's telling the truth, I just don't want to read more of his truth.

No stars, since I didn't read more than about 19 pages. I am sure the rest of the book is interesting. I just can't make myself get to it. I wouldn't recommend it, but tastes differ and I am sure there are those out there who won't mind the beginning and will enjoy and get something out of this book. I am not one of those people.