What do a memoir about farm life and a photo-diary of the world’s eating habits have in common? Why, they’re both June Simple, Good, and Tasty Book Club Picks, of course!
Instead of choosing between Sheepish: Two Women, Fifty Sheep, and Enough Wool to Save the Planet by Catherine Friend and Hungry Planet: What the Word Eats by Peter Menzel and Faith D’Aluisio, our book club planners have decided to go with both of these fantastic books.
Coming up on Thursday, June 30th:
- At Mississippi Market Natural Foods Co-op, we’ll check out Hungry Planet and gather from 7:00 - 8:30pm at the Selby Avenue location.
- At Harmony Co-op in Bemidji, we’ll dive into Sheepish while meeting from 5:30 - 7:30pm.
In Sheepish, Catherine Friend takes us on another laugh-out-loud journey into her life as a farmer. Friend continues her tales of her boundry-testing life on her Minnesota farm first introduced in Hit by a Farm: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Barn (Friend is also the author of a number of children’s books and the non-fiction The Compassionate Carnivore: Or, How to Keep Animals Happy, Save Old McDonald’s Farm, Reduce your Hoofprint, and Still Eat Meat). I don’t know about you, but the titles alone were enough to rope me in. And for a cool bonus? Nifty Sheepish mitten and hat patterns are included at the back of the book!
From Amazon.com: 
Sheepish by Catherine Friend
What do you do when you love your farm . . . but it doesn’t love you? After fifteen years of farming, Catherine Friend is tired. After all, while shepherding is one of the oldest professions, it’s not getting any easier. The number of sheep in America has fallen by 90 percent in the last ninety years. But just as Catherine thinks it’s time to hang up her shepherd’s crook, she discovers that sheep might be too valuable to give up. What ensues is a funny, thoughtful romp through the history of our woolly friends, why small farms are important, and how each one of us—and the planet—would benefit from being very sheepish, indeed.
A few thoughts to kick off the conversation:
- Do you have any “wild and crazy” ideas about how you’d change your job, your lifestyle, your location? How do you bring those ideas to life, or at least bring them into your life?
- One of the key themes in this book is the idea of traversing the middle -- getting through the in-between stages of life, love, commitments. Have you experienced “middles” in your life? How have you made your way through? What lessons have you learned?
We look forward to seeing you at book club!
Tracy Morgan is a frequent contributor to Simple, Good and Tasty. She also runs Segnavia Creative, a business development and marketing firm, and is co-owner of the new Kitchen in the Market. Tracy serves on the board of directors for the Mississippi Market Natural Food Co-op in St. Paul.
