Rural Free, first published in 1961, beautifully conveys the joys of family life on an Indiana farm. Marked by the slow pace and rich variety of seasonal change, Rachel Peden s narrative offers an authentic month-by-month chronicle of her family s daily adventures. Today, as the slow-food movement gathers support and more urban dwellers return to the land to plant roots again in honest soil, Peden s stories of country life and her lessons on sustainability, frugality, and wastefulness gain a special resonance. Rural Free will be a source of inspiration for all who rejoice in rural virtues...

A farmwife for 45 years, Rachel Peden believed that the family farm's best crop is a "harvest of the spirit." In Speak to the Earth, she looks at life domestic and wild, human and critter through the eyes of someone who witnesses nine seasons of the year rather than the typical four. Peden views the farm as "a place of opportunity simultaneous with obligation, an immaculate fitting-together of plant and animal life." Each year yields an abundance of small, priceless observations. Through her writings, Peden encourages readers to appreciate both the simple pleasures in life as well as the...