Saturday, March 11, 2006
Magazines
I recieved my copy of Country Smallholding a couple of days ago and have flipped through most of it and read a couple of articles. I was particularly attracted to a front cover article for people starting out in smallholding, You've got the land, what next? I eagerly turned to it and read "Once the house is in reasonable condition and a certain amount of disposable income is available..." That neatly cuts us out. Without a decent house on the land we are, it seems, not even ready to begin thinking about next steps. I feel a great relief. No need to clean our pasture this year, or beat the hazel brush into submission on the edge of the orchard. Instead I can sit around in shorts and drink beer while sorting out only those problems associated with house-building in the Latvian countryside. I jest, of course, but the sheer homely practicality of Country Smallholding is sometimes overwhelming, as is the insistence of various authors that one simply must have lambs, goats, alpacas, cows, pigs, bees, apples, leeks, heritage beans or whatever else is that author's obsession of the moment.
A far more readable magazine is Mother Earth News, all the way from the USA. Although they cannot seem to get their overseas subscriptions correct with any degree of accuracy, there is a very charming lady who replies to all emails almost immediately. And the magazine is obviously written by writers who have a real enthusiasm for "organic, independent living" rather than by smallholders who are trying to write. To be fair, Mother Earth covers a wider range of issues than Country Smallholder and is obviously aimed as much at the dreamer (i.e. me) as at practical issues, but the fact remains that Mother Earth can be a real pleasure to read, while Country Smallholding feels more like a textbook.
In the meantime, while waiting for Mother Earth to correct my delivery details again, I have little better to do than go and prematurely complete some of the tasks outlined in Country Smallholding.
A far more readable magazine is Mother Earth News, all the way from the USA. Although they cannot seem to get their overseas subscriptions correct with any degree of accuracy, there is a very charming lady who replies to all emails almost immediately. And the magazine is obviously written by writers who have a real enthusiasm for "organic, independent living" rather than by smallholders who are trying to write. To be fair, Mother Earth covers a wider range of issues than Country Smallholder and is obviously aimed as much at the dreamer (i.e. me) as at practical issues, but the fact remains that Mother Earth can be a real pleasure to read, while Country Smallholding feels more like a textbook.
In the meantime, while waiting for Mother Earth to correct my delivery details again, I have little better to do than go and prematurely complete some of the tasks outlined in Country Smallholding.
