San Antonio College Library

Aging Larry Cook announces his intention to turn over his 1,000-acre farm--one of the largest in Zebulon County, Iowa--to his three daughters, Caroline, Ginny and Rose. A man of harsh sensibilities, he carves Caroline out of the deal because she has the nerve to be less than enthusiastic about her father's generosity. While Larry Cook deteriorates into a pathetic drunk, his daughters are left to cope with the often grim realities of life on a family...

Upon moving to Appalachian Ohio with their two small children, Richard Gilbert and his wife are thrilled to learn there still are places in America that haven't been homogenized. But their excitement over the region's beauty and quirky character turns to culture shock as they try to put down roots far from their busy professional jobs in town. They struggle to rebuild a farmhouse, and Gilbert gets conned buying equipment and sheep - a ewe with an...

"Harvest of Hope is a story of farm family life through the words of those who live it. The saga of the generations who have lived and worked on Basin Spring farm in western Kentucky is the thread that binds together the stories of eighty other farm families. They talk about their family businesses, their way of life, and the forces reshaping their lives." "The challenges of making a living in farming either strengthen families or break them. Technology,...

Why Cows Need Names follows one young Amish family as they dream about and then struggle to establish a profitable and quintessentially American small farm. The story begins with Eli Gingerich's first timid phone call to author Randy James, the county agricultural agent in Ohio's Geauga Amish Settlement -- the fourth-largest Amish settlement in the world -- and traces the family's progress over the next five years. Through gentle dialogue and true...

The grandson of Virginia Woolf's poet paramour Vita Sackville-West traces his passionate efforts to restore his family's celebrated garden, an effort that included a reinstatement of a working farm to grow food for more than 200,000 annual visitors.

Pictures the life of wealthy aristocrats on a large Connecticut estate in 1700, the decline of the estate by 1890 and the possibility of its revival in 1930. Originally published in 1931, this bestselling American family saga from Pulitzer Prize-winning author Edna Ferber shares the story of the Oakes family, as their relationships and property encounter numerous struggles over the course of hundreds of years. In the early 18th century, the Oakes...

"Biotechnology crop production area increased from 1.7 million hectares to 148 million hectares worldwide between 1996 to 2010. While genetically modified food is a contentious issue, the debates are usually limited to health and environmental concerns, ignoring the broader questions of social control that arise when food production methods become corporate-owned intellectual property. Drawing on legal documents and dozens of interviews with farmers...

Thomas Jefferson advocated a republic of small farmers--free and independent yeomen. And yet as president he presided over a massive expansion of the slaveholding plantation system--particularly with the Louisiana Purchase--squeezing the yeomanry to the fringes and to less desirable farmland. Now Roger Kennedy conducts an eye-opening examination of that gap between Jefferson's stated aspirations and what actually happened. Kennedy reveals how the...