I like these memoirs so much because they’re a bit of a rebellion genre. Funnily enough, tales of women abandoning modern conveniences for a more traditional and self-sustaining way of living is a form of thumbing one’s nose at what has become the norm. Who knew that living like it’s 1930 could seem like such a renegade choice. You raise bees? You get up at what time? You BAKE your own BREAD? YOU KILLED SOMETHING AND THEN ATE IT? Gasp! It’s enough to make you clutch your pearls. Here are two Ladies Who Farm memoirs that I enjoyed, and two I’m excited to read: Barnheart: The Incurable Longing for a Farm of One’s Own by Jenna Woginrich Jenna is a twenty-something-year-old graphic designer living in Vermont, trying to develop a functional farm on rented land, by herself. She raises chickens, rabbits, a goat, and various foodstuffs, all while holding a regular 9-to-5 and biding her time until she can buy a farm of her own. She also wrote a more instruction-focused book called Made From Scratch: Discovering the Pleasures of a Handmade Life, which is equally entertaining and also contains a recipe for country bread that I make at least twice a week. She blogs about the farm she eventually bought at https://coldantlerfarm.blogspot.com/. The Pioneer Woman: Black Heels to Tractor Wheels by Ree Drummond The Dirty Life: A Memoir of Farming, Food, and Love by Kristin Kimball Kristin is a writer from New York City who visits a farm to do an interview for a magazine piece. She falls in love with the farmer, gets married, and together they work to feed their entire community from their sustainable farm. The fact that this is written by a career writer makes me eager to read it- sometimes bloggers just don’t scratch that good-writing itch for me. Plus, most of the reviews I’ve read said this is unsentimental and more accurately portrays the grittiness that comes with everyday farm life. The Feast Nearby: How I Lost My Job, Buried a Marriage, and Found My Way By Keeping Chickens, Foraging, Preserving, Bartering, and Eating Locally (All On $40 A Week) by Robin Mather