By Brent Preston | Random House Canada
There are few people who haven’t at least a time or two, considered swapping the sidewalks, bike lanes and clamour of urban existence for the pitchforks, hay bales and focus of a more halcyon life. Brent Preston and Gillian Flies actually did it, and Preston tell us how in The New Farm. These former city slickers learned to grow crops and built a certified organic family farm in southern Ontario, on the crest of the Niagara Escarpment. If you’re envisioning fresh air, fresh-picked vegetables and fresh appreciation for the back-to-the-land movement, the author sets you straight. He describes “a decade of grinding toil and perseverance.” Chapter titles include School of Hard Knocks, The Groundhog Wars, A World of Pain and Castration. This family is still there, though, and not only have they figured out how to succeed at the business of farming, they’re also helping to grow Ontario’s good food movement.
