Review: Country Grit: A Farmoir of Finding Purpose and Love

Country Grit: A Farmoir of Finding Purpose and Love by Scottie Jones
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I received a copy of this book from Edelweiss+ in exchange for an honest review. I have no connection with the author or her farm but do provide links below for informational purposes.

3.5 Stars rounded up to 4 stars because FARMS and FARM STAY!

Country Grit is a farm memoir or farmoir by Scottie Jones, who started the 'Farm Stay' movement in the USA and who is the founder and executive director of Farm Stay USA. Her farm, Leaping Lamb Farm in Alsea, Oregon, was the inception of the Farm Stay concept in the US back in 2006. If you don't understand how important Farm Stay as a concept is, go check out this Washington Post article in which children don't understand a distressing amount about what they eat and drink. (No Sally and Bobby, chocolate milk doesn't come from brown cows.) The story of how Scottie and her husband Greg came to own a farm in Oregon after a hectic life in Phoenix was an interesting one to read, but the compelling stories of the animals and interesting humans around Leaping Lamb Farm are what really captures the reader.

Scottie chooses to respect the privacy of her community by melding stories of the people in it, and indeed the town itself which she calls Elsie, into composites. She has done a good job with keeping these composite characters real, and some of their stories are quite poignant. I am still on the fence about the episodic nature of the vignettes she presents, some of which I wasn't always getting the feeling where in chronological order, thus making the memoir aspect slightly confused. I felt that the book would have benefited from better editing, which might have toned down the episodic tone and made a smoother, and maybe even slightly longer memoir. Nevertheless, I really enjoyed this book and am happy to provide their first review.

Scottie has also authored another book, Paco the Dusty Donkey about her friend Jack's pet burro. I'm really feeling that her horse Tater deserves his own children's book, about horses with the magical power to open latches.

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