Since 1990, Scott Chaskey has worked as a land steward and farmer for the Peconic Land Trust at Quail Hill Farm in Amagansett, New York, an organic community farm. Over the years, he has recorded his meditations on weather, wildlife, soil, seed, root, plant, and flower, and in This Common Ground, he has organized some of these reflections season by season, through the course of one year on the farm. ChaskeyÂs observations reflect a doerÂs respect for the rhetoric of the fields and a firsthand knowledge of the interdependence of soils, plants, animals, and humans. His contagious sense of wonder and artistic sensibility illustrate why planting and reaping are such an important part of what defines the human community and the human condition.Like Joan GussowÂs This Organic Lifeor Verlyn KlinkenborgÂs The Rural Life, this inspirational evocation of a life spent working the earth is certain to become a classic of nature writing, as well as appealing to todayÂs burgeoning organic lifestyle audience.
From the community