My husband and I enjoy taking road trips. We have traveled many roads over the years, sharing amazing experiences such as seeing rattlesnakes sunning themselves on dirt roads in Arizona, crossing snowy mountain passes under moonlit skies, or watching fire tankers scoop up water from the Columbia River. In the summertime, one of our favorite reasons for hitting the road is stopping at fruit stands to buy fresh melons, corn, peaches, nectarines, tomatoes – well, the list goes on. On a recent trip, we stopped at a farm near Hermiston, Oregon and found beautiful, fresh-picked watermelons, cantaloupe and corn. Yum!
Bringing a bounty of farm-to-table fruits and vegetables to our home isn’t the only perk of our summer road trips. We love driving past miles of farmland, trying to identify what’s growing in fields of green, marveling at the acres of agriculture planted and tended to by farmers. It’s easy to take for granted where our food comes from, but seeing the expanse of land devoted to fruits, vegetables, nuts and grains is a reminder that it takes hard work, time and money to supply fresh food to stores.
Today’s farm-themed column highlights all that is challenging and rewarding by taking on farm life. Tractor on!
- Bootstrapper: From Broke to Badass on a Northern Michigan Farm by Mardi Link
- Dear County Agent Guy: Calf Pulling, Husband Training, and Other Dispatches from the Heart of the Midwest by Jerry Nelson
- Farm Anatomy: The Curious Parts & Pieces of Country Life by Julia Rothman
- The Growing Season: How I Built a New Life – and Saved an American Farm by Sarah Frey
- The Rural Diaries: Love, Livestock, and Big Life Lessons Down on Mischief Farm by Hilarie Burton Morgan
- This Blessed Earth: A Year in the Life of an American Family Farm by Ted Genoways
New at the Library
Fiction
- A Death in Cornwall by Daniel Silva
- Peg and Rose Play the Ponies by Laurien Berenson
- The Stardust Grail by Yume Kitasei
Nonfiction
- Frostbite: How Refrigeration Changed Our Food, Our Planet, and Ourselves by Nicola Twilley
- Gertie’s Charmed Sewing Studio: Pattern Making and Couture-Style Techniques for Perfect Vintage Looks by Gretchen Hirsch
- What This Comedian Said Will Shock You by Bill Maher
Children
- Flamingos are Pretty Funky: A [not so] Serious Guide written and illustrated by Abi Cushman
- Help Wanted: One Rooster written by Julie Falatko, illustrated by Andrea Stegmaier
- Hocus and Pocus and the Spell for Home written by A. R. Capetta, illustrated by Charlene Chua
This is just a small sampling of the many new titles added each week to the Fort Vancouver Regional Library District collection. Visit the district’s 15 locations, our website at www.fvrl.org, or call (360) 906-5000 to reserve titles or find additional listings.
You can email Jan at readingforfun@fvrl.org.
