The Accidental Farmers: A story of homesteading, prepping and an urban couple with a dream of farming in harmony with nature

by Tim Young

When Tim and Liz Young decided to leave their comfortable suburban life and become first-time farmers in rural Georgia, they embarked on a journey that would change their lives. The Accidental Farmers reveals how the couple learned that hamburgers, bacon, and eggs don't come from the supermarket but from real animals that forge emotional bonds with their human caretakers. Seeking a middle path between a meatless lifestyle and the barbarism of factory food, Tim and Liz created Nature's Harmony Farm, a sustainable oasis where rare breed animals and humans live together searching for something nearly lost by both humans and the animals...how to live naturally off the land.

Genres: Nonfiction, Gardening, Memoir, Food, Animals, Biography, Agriculture

264 pages, Kindle Edition

First published February 7, 2011

About the author

Tim Young is a farmer, best-selling author and award winning artisanal cheese maker in Georgia.

While flying high over corporate America, Tim Young received a call he couldn't ignore. He shredded his business cards and said goodbye to the conveniences of urban life, to become a farmer and homesteader. Today, Tim is an award-winning cheese maker and author. He lives in Georgia with the most beautiful and caring woman in the world, and a little dog named Alfie that speaks to him in condescending, broken-English.

Reviews

[Shelby *trains flying monkeys* · Rating 2 out of 5]

This type book is generally my very favorite subject matter. Now I don't want to read a homesteading book for awhile. The author comes across as condescending to any other ideas other than his own. He even uses the 3rd person approach when talking about cheesemaking. Oh come on please.
I live in Georgia so I was very excited when I discovered this book and now I'm just shaking my head. I DO know farming is hard, but just to let animals die to strengthen the breed??? Then I proceeded to look up his farm and now only cheeses are available there. What happened to all the animals?? This book is only a few years old so I question what happened?

ETA: I did read chapter 6. Where animals are let die because the know how or care to know how wasn't followed through with.

[Edie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is a mixed bag. The writing is pretty bad, but I forgive him because he is not a writer - he's a corporate exec turned farmer. I'm totally fascinated by the story of city people turning to farming... in any form, really. This is a very personal story, and I admire how bare and honest it is. Tim and his wife Liz made a lot of boneheaded mistakes as they dove head-first into farming with zero experience, and it's interesting to read and learn from their mistakes as well as their successes. (Though in some cases I found myself thinking, "Really? Even I wouldn't be THAT clueless!")

They are committed to a multi-species management intensive/rotational grazing sustainable farming model, which I think is great. If I could buy a lot of acres in the country, that's the kind of farming I would probably want to do as well. Their goal is to heal their land, strengthen their community's foodshed, and give their animals a truly natural life with minimal human intervention. All great.

However, they take this to a pretty extreme level. Hundreds of chickens died of illness that could have been cured with antibiotics, and lots of baby pigs and cows died from bad mothering, worms, or other issues that most other small sustainable family farms could have prevented. By refraining from common interventions, they want to breed animals that are more able to live naturally without human assistance, and they are not at all unfeeling about the loss of life that results from this path.

It's an understandable and admirable goal, but I wonder where I would draw the line if I were in their shoes. These are farm animals, not wild animals. There ARE human interventions inherent in their setup (fencing, providing water, helping birth and bottle-feed calves, etc). And yes, these species have been bred in recent generations to depend on humans to some extent, and maybe serve us a little better as food producers. Is it too much to ask that they survive independently? Is it true that saving some piglets from their bad mothers would really lead to a slippery slope of generations of bad pig mothers? Are there some scenarios where antibiotics are okay? Or are these supports just perpetuating unnatural dependence on humans?

It was a fun story, raised some important questions, though the book itself is no masterpiece.

[Bruce King · Rating 1 out of 5]

UPDATE 10-30-2014. Tim has put natures harmony farm and the cheese business he's promoting now up for sale. http://georgialandcompany.com/artisan...

Guess that answers the question about sustainability.
-------------------review-------------------
Tim and Liz Young have a lot to say about farming; they've blogged, they've done interviews,and they've done a podcast and even tried starting a farming/homesteading forum called farm-dreams. This is a review of the book that they wrote about their farming experiences.

Tim is the author of the book, and I'll talk about what is said as if Tim said it, but Liz has some part of the farm and is involved in the day-to-day operations; not ignoring her, just working with the book as written. Hi, Liz!

This book is self-published, which is perhaps the easiest way to get published. You really don't have to have anyone proofread or edit it, or write about something that a publisher would consider interesting to a wide audience, and this book shows some of that. A good editor is always a good investment. Chapter 9, written entirely in the third-person, is a bit of a slog for that reason.

Tim decides to become a farmer
Tim had a prettty typical midlife crisis; of confidence, of desire, of goals. Riding horses one day at a resort, he decided to become a farmer, and set about purchasing land.

Having impulsively purchased the land, the problem soon became what the heck to do with themselves, and so began the pattern that runs throughout the entire book:

1) Decide that something is a good idea
2) Start trying to build a market, or promote whatever it is as the best thing ever
3) Buy/build/grow the good idea and broadcast the good idea to a wide audience.*
4) Decide that the good idea isn't such a good idea, or didn't work out as planned
5) Dump everything involved with it, and start over with the next Good Idea

Here's an example: In chapter 5 he talks about purchasing berkshire pigs, which of course are the best thing since sliced bread according to Tim. (In fairness, I raise berkshire pigs, and know the breed very well, and they are pretty great). Step 1

He starts talking about how great pastured pork is and looks to line up customers before he has pork to sell. Step 2

He buys an electric fence setup, and puts the little pigs out on the pasture, only to be shocked to find out that the pigs ignore it. Various mishaps ensue. He has a hard time with breeding. he has a hard time with farrowing. He loses a litter of piglets. He loses several litters of piglets. Step 3 and 4

Tim concludes from these struggles that it's the pigs fault -- that they have no mothering skills or instincts, and eventually gets rid of everything but a feral breed of pigs, step 5. Ossabaw pigs, a feral breed, being the next Good Idea that he's promoting. And he goes back to step 1 and starts the process all over again.

If the goal was to raise animals that could live in the wild, why start with chickens and pigs? Deer do just fine on their own.

Tim does this over and over again with different breeds of livestock. He lets his sheep die of parasitic infection, watching them waste away despite having an easy cure available. He allows hundreds of laying hens to get sick, and so many die that he has to use his tractor to pick up the bodies; when a simple vaccination may have solved his entire problem, and throughout this he talks about the evils of factory farming, and how the instincts have been bred out of the animals - and having had hands-on experience with the animals he's talking about, I just don't agree. I have a big problem with the basic philosophy of letting everything die when there are cures readily available.

When you're a new farmer, as Tim is, you're going to make mistakes and lose animals. I have no problem with that; we all hate it, but it's part of the process; what I object to is the overall feeling that he's trying to fit a square peg in a round hole: He makes an assumption about livestock, it turns out wrong, and he doesn't learn anything from it and hundreds of animals suffer needlessly. All of the animals he tried are raised all over the country by thousands of farmers successfully.
Here's what a reviewer said on Amazon, about this practice:

" Also, the ideology involved in wanting their animals to live completely "natural" lives doesn't jive with the fact that livestock are not wild animals. The point to which they expected their animals to live with minimal support on depleted soil scares me a little, and I wonder if these chapters will end up as fodder for the animal rights movement and conventional ag to argue that pasture-based agriculture is not a viable solution."

Tim talks about his experience in corporate america, and his marketing background. That's a field where it actually makes quite a bit of sense to cut your losses and move on if things don't work out, but my experience of farming is that it's slower, more deliberate, and not at all intuitive. Not accidental in the slightest.

With any venture it takes time and effort to become proficient at it. What Tim does over and over again is set himself up for farming failure. With the pigs/chickens/rabbits/sheep/beef/bees, he doesn't stick with it long enough to know what it looks like to succeed at it, and at this point he's not raising any commercial quantities of many of the animals he describes in his book; beef cattle, laying hens, rabbits, large black and berkshire pigs, bees and sheep. None of those products are for sale from Natures Harmony now.

Tim talks about Joel Salatin in this book. The difference between them is that Joel is still in business, still producing food, and still using the methods he promotes. Natures harmony isn't doing the majority of what Tim describes in the book, and he never talks about the reasons he stopped doing any of it.

In my opinion, sustainable means you're still in business, and by that measure, Natures Harmony as described in this book is unsustainable.

Tim, you could make this book much more interesting if you included a few pages on the end of each one of your farming attempts (sheep, bees, beef, etc etc) that talks about why you don't do that any more. As it is, the reader is left with the impression that he's still out there doing this, when in fact, the interns have been dismissed, the equipment sold or given away, and the farm train has left the station.

As a book that would like to influence farmers, I'd find it much more credible as a "sustainable" farm if it had lasted more than a year or two.

Would I recommend this book to a new farmer? No. I wouldn't because it doesn't have any way to overcome the hardships that are talked about here. I'd rather that they started with a more balanced book that talks about problems and solutions, perhaps one that is based on a farm that has figured out and overcome the typical problems and has found a way to make a profit.

Tim does spend a bit of time in this book talking about making a profit; in fact, chapter 10 is mostly about Tims view of farm economics and making a profitable farm. With this much animal death and destruction, purchase and then disposal of equipment and the huge sums of money spent on the custom house, swimming pool and acreage (and 14,000 feet of woven wire fence and 8,000 feet of water lines installed), in my opinion I can't see Tims farm as having pulled a profit at any time by any reasonable measure.

* While Tim does like to broadcast his views, he takes a dim view of anyone who has any view that is in any way contrary to his. He's banned me from his site, his blog, farm-dreams and any other venue where he has editorial control. Tim is strictly broadcast-only with his view on farming. It's not a dialog.

[Toni · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was a fantastic read. This author really opened up and shared the good, the bad and the ugly about his (and his wife's) transition from corporate suburban couple to sustainable farmers. Loved the authenticity.

When I started the book, I very quickly fell into the "man, I would love to be a farmer" mindset. By the time I finished, I knew I was not cut out for it. But I am incredibly grateful that some people are. Some parts of Young's life are very enviable. Primarily, cheesemaking! But also, settling down on a farm at night to enjoy cheese, wine, meat and vegetables that you produced. However, many parts of farming are equally unsavory, like waking up to find that disease has ravaged a herd of livestock. Making the decision of whether or not to intervene and/or euthanize to combat a particular ailment.

I really enjoyed reading about the ins and outs of farm life. My grandfather was a farmer, and I felt this book gave me insight on what life was like for him when he was farming. Many of us now have little to no appreciation for the hard work and investment of small farmers. And far too few of us even think about the source of the food we eat. This book will definitely get you thinking about from where your food comes, as well as your own personal philosophy of how farming should be conducted in our technologically advanced society. I have been wanting to make the transition to local, sustainable meat for sometime now, and this book only reinforced my decision.

The book also addressed the larger concept of what it is like to give up security, to take a risk, and pursue a dream. Any exploration of this topic gets me every time. Young notes, "While we all may have different abilities we also each have the opportunity to manufacture a vision for ourselves that is within our own ability. It seems to me that making a dream come true takes hard work, luck, timing, planning and the assumption of risk." Preach! What a world we would have if people had the courage to leave comfort and security to pursue their dreams!

We can only hope that at the end of the day, we can all say, like Young, that "...thinking that I have sacrificed something is definitely a thought that does not enter my consciousness. For we have sacrificed nothing but gained everything. It's simply a matter of perspective." He later concluded with the following: "Still our path was not the easiest choice and has required us to develop a different perspective and adapt a different set of expectations from our urban rearing. By a wide margin this is the worst-paying job I have ever had. By an equally wide margin it is also the most rewarding. After decades of my searching hopelessly in vain, my calling finally found me. I am so deeply thankful that it did." May we all be so blessed.

Thank you, Tim and Liz, for sharing your story with us. We are grateful for all that you do at Nature's Harmony.

[Jim Maroon · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book. I had a couple of problems with it, but my favorite chapter by far was the one where the author detailed his travails. Farming is very difficult, and sustainable farming is incredibly difficult.

Those who criticize the authors for their treatment of animals are off the mark. Withholding artificial props such as chemical wormers and antibiotics is scientifically sound, if you goal is to create a sustainable farm. It is no different from withholding chemical fertilizer and insecticides in the garden, except watching animals suffer is far more difficult than seeing plants wilt and die. If you prop up your livestock with antibiotics, then you aren't selecting for the hardiest of your animals. You are just feeding into the same old same old trap of industrial farming. Instead, you should artificially (key word that separates this from "survival of the fittest" NATURAL selection) select for animals that can fight off disease and resist parasites on their own. It takes a long time to select for such traits, given the state of our agriculture now days where the only things that matter are speed of growth and size. The techniques Tim and Liz use are widely accepted practice within the sustainable farming community. We apply it on our farm, except to say we probably euthanize more quickly than the authors do. No sense in allowing an animal to suffer when it is clear they are not likely to make it.

Where I quibble with this book is how it views other sustainable farmers, Joel Salatin in particular. There is much about use of the Cornish Rock Cross as being unsustainable, but the fact is, customers do not want to spend what it would take to raise a bird 6 months for a heritage breed, only to get a scrawny, 3 pound bird in the end. While there should be a concerted effort in the sustainable ag community to develop a chicken that can grow fast and big and breed true, much like the Broad Breasted breeds of turkeys, we aren't there yet.

I have also noticed that Tim and Liz are no longer raising chickens at all. That would indicate to me their model for meat chickens isn't sustainable, either.

All in all, though, this is a good book that I highly recommend, and the more difficult chapters to read in particular. Especially for new farmers and those thinking of taking the plunge.

Farming isn't a cakewalk.

[E · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book gave me whiplash. It started out with a great story, a lot of inspiration and humor, and great ideals. Then it got dark - and not necessarily in the way the author warned the reader about. Yes, farming/homesteading involves illness, death, and and unfortunate circumstances. But this book descended rapid from the lofty heights of the charming first half to a ugly, featureless plain – I felt like I was a psychiatrist listening to the author defend his methods with the same arguments over and over and over, to little interest or effect.

I feel bad for him; he is obviously hurt, tired, and jaded by all the flak his methods have drawn. Those ceaseless repetitions of cycles of negative thought one can get stuck in when ruminating over a bad experience were brought to life in the last half of the book, where we were repeatedly shown an example of a hard situation, a difficult choice that was made, with intricate and repetitive defenses of ideals and the actions taken woven throughout. This pattern was occasionally departed from (there was one chapter in third person that made me want to quit reading even though I completely agree with the ideas expressed), but a tone of self-righteous defensiveness was persistent. I wanted to give up, but I pushed through – with a lot of skimming – because I wanted to see the author and his wife find some peace, equilibrium, and healing in their lives.

The book did take a more positive turn, finishing with the author spending a lot of time discussing the satisfaction they get from their chosen life, the simple self-made luxuries they enjoy and how they don't miss the modern city things they used to enjoy. I hope that is true and that they are even happier these days.

[Julie p · Rating 2 out of 5]

Although I loved that this book was so informing regarding farming culture, I felt that the tone of the language to be a bit self righteous and condescending. It is always interesting to read about couples that take the deep step from a nine to five into self employment, and for that i give the authors kudos. I felt that this book was a little more about creating a good marketing campaign about farming then it was an honest retelling of life on the farm. That is not to say that the book was not graphically descriptive about farm life. I just feel that the type of farm creation this couple embarked upon would not be feasible for the average person starting a farm with limited income. Interesting read, made me think, but in the end, i left this book feeling that i disliked these people and their ethics.

[Allison · Rating 1 out of 5]

I'm done. I give up and couldn't finish it. The immature writing style and atrocious editing alone were enough to discourage me, but I was interested enough in the subject matter that I kept pushing through. Eventually though, his condescending tone and arrogance in his approach to people, crop management, and animal husbandry were ... painful. His inept and grasping, failed, attempts at learning from his mistakes became too much to keep reading about, especially after he had revealed that he had the knowledge, the networks, the resources, and all of the self importance to believe himself in need of none of it -- to the detriment of his book, his business, his ranch, his animals' well-being, and most commonly revealed, his character.

Atrocious book. Definite hard pass.

[Beth Lequeuvre · Rating 2 out of 5]

I would have liked this more had it been a little less preachy and a little more book rather than an advertisement to read their blog. I'm really torn on how I feel about how they handle their animals. I see the point, but it does seem cruel too.

[Andi · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was fascinated by Tim and Liz Young's sudden life change as they gave up the city for the country. As the title describes, they seemed to 'accidentally' fall into farming, since, once they had purchased 72 acres they really had no idea what to do next. Having given up their careers, becoming farmers seemed the logical choice.

There are hints that Liz would rather homestead, and live off the land, living as she says 'like a hermit'. Tim gently pushes on into the farming life--specifically, raising livestock. They are literally starting from scratch, which is a monumental accomplishment for two people with no rural background. Tim's business background does seem to come into play, as he demonstrates in a chapter devoted to the complications of farm finances.

The book reads like a blog, not necessarily in chronological order, with each chapter focused on a different challenge the Youngs faced during their journey into farming. Each chapter ends with an actual blog entry, written during the journey, which was a nice touch; those peeks into the blog really touched on the emotions and frustrations the Youngs were feeling in a very personal way.

I was most surprised by the frank honestly about the 'dark side'. Many gardening/farming books try to paint a true picture of the challenges and the joys of working to create a sustainable system. The Youngs illustrate a darker picture than most books I've read. Due to their resolve to NEVER intervene (no meds, vets, etc.) they face the deaths of hundreds of animals, mostly to disease and lack of the animals' maternal instincts. These were animals whose instincts had been changed by industrial agriculture; they had evolved away from their ability to survive without lots of external input. The Youngs make the tough (and in my eyes, heroic) choice to restore the strong traits of the animals so that they would be able to thrive in a natural, not industrial, environment. This would require 'letting nature take its course', and breeding the animals who made it through with flying colors. Keeping this vision for the future of the species, and not necessarily the individual animals, is gut wrenching for both Tim and Liz, and you can feel the anguish in their words as they find animal after animal, dead. Sometimes they had to forgo a type of chicken or pig, after losing an entire population, because the natural traits had been too far weeded out by industrial operations. They sought breeds that were closest to their 'natural' origins. Eventually, after much pain and self-doubt, lots of second guessing, they begin to see generations of stronger, disease resistant, and maternal animals.

Along with the dark days, the Youngs write plenty about the wonderful days. They are truly happy to have left the corporate life behind, and become more self-sustained every year. Theirs is an inspirational story, and Tim even writes a whole chapter about chasing dreams and making them become a reality, which I found inspiring. He mixes up his writing style now and then (switches to third person for a whole chapter to write a pointed 'fable' about a farmer's dedication to keeping his farm real and natural).

Why do the Youngs raise livestock? As an almost-vegetarian, I wanted to know what the pull was. He admits they could have chosen anything to grow, and in many ways crops of veggies would be easier. His explanations comprise much of the book, and his reasons are admirable. The Youngs demonstrate the most responsible way to raise meat, and admit that part of the balance is to eat less of it.

This is a great read and will open your eyes to some disturbing things (yes, I know, how many more disturbing things must we learn about our current food systems? The unpleasant surprises never seem to cease). The Youngs are honest and frank, yet able to touch into some deep emotion as they share their experiences.

[Lane · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is one of the better stories of how an urban person rediscovers the agricultural life. I would have rated it higher but for the large number of misstatements and wrong information about agriculture in general. His bias against "factory" farming is not supporting of his position of improving the environment and food supply. I have cousins who are farming the farm our great-grandfather started 156 years ago. The farm has not disappeared due to the horrors of today's agriculture.
Among the worst misrepresentations is the discussion of raw milk. The pasteurization laws were passed in the 1920's and in Georgia (his home) the law requiring all milk to be pasteurized was passed in 1943. Definitely not 1987 as he states. Mr. Young should review germ theory and why the pasteurization laws were passed. The consumer can have a freedom to choose his food but will he take responsibility for that choice when some thing goes wrong or will the consumer blame the farmer.
He also had an ideal opportunity to discuss the economics of their decision to farm but instead belittled people who would ask that question and then used very poor general data to prove his point. "How much did it cost you to start up and how did you survive the first years of transition to your desired system economically?" and " How much do your classes and tours contribute to your survival versus the farm products that you produce?" seems to be valid questions that could have been addressed.
With the BIG question today of "how are we going to feed the world?", he does not address how his system will answer this question.

[Francis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Holy cow...no pun intended! I'm in the midst of reading this book a second time. The beginning chapters tell how this urban couple picked up and moved from the city (Atlanta) to the middle of nowhere and began farming, without ANY experience. Not content to just grow lettuce, they took on every imaginable livestock species...cows, pigs, chickens (meat and laying), ducks, geese, sheep, rabbits...you name it and returned them all to their natural environments. That's when everything got interesting.

The animals, having been raised in factory settings for so long, didn't respond well to being returned to the land. This created all kinds of rock/hard place decisions for the new farmers. Don't want to give away the story, but I was overwhelmed by some of the choices they faced and have a new, deeper respect for this kind of farming. Honestly, I don't see that I could do it, but I'm glad there are people who can.

Very thought provoking and fun to read!

[Leslie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting book and while this is one of my favorite subjects, I didn't like that more than half the book was old blog posts - made me wonder why I bothered to buy the book?

[Nathan Foy · Rating 5 out of 5]

A candid, fun look at two city-dwellers with no farming skills beginning their own farm that works in accordance with nature.

[Pamela · Rating 4 out of 5]

City man and wife turn country farmers, is the premise of the book, Accidental Farmers. Tim Young bought 72 land-locked acres in Georgia after a weekend horse back riding in the country for his wife's birthday. Gone were the days of expensive clothing, fancy dinners out, theater and travel. They jumped in with both feet buying pigs, cows, chickens, etc. with absolutely no knowledge except for what they had read in books. They were firm believers in natural raising and living of their animals, basically weeding out the sick and breeding the strong. A business grew, selling free range meats, eggs, cheeses, etc. to consumers looking for a healthy alternative to factory farmed animals. BUT, from what I gathered reading their book, his wife wasn't necessarily on board. She wanted to homestead, grow food and animals for their own use and not worry so much about becoming a business. This is exactly what they are doing now, many years after he wrote this book, but they also teach others how to farm and start a business in the country. I was up and down with liking this book. It started out as an entertaining, interesting read, then became kind of factual, then he switched to third person, then he reverted back to first person, all in all, I am glad I read it. It gave me plenty to think about on the way they did things. 4 out of 5

[Steve · Rating 5 out of 5]

I didn’t think I would like these “city folk to farmer” tales. But I have read a few of them now and really enjoy them. The difference that stuck out to me most is this book has a lot of philosophy.

All of these books I have read have something in common. They found their way to the sustainable food movement through Joel Salatin (a great author and speaker you should check out). But this book had something different. The Young’s looked at Joel’s style of farming and decided there were parts they didn’t like.

The Young’s tell their story in a way that you laugh and cry through out the book, and want to go back and read it again.

[Sarah · Rating 1 out of 5]

The whole thing about letting nature run it's course and not giving his farm animals vaccines or antibiotics when they're sick really irritated me. On the one hand, I get what he's going for with trying to keep things as natural as possible, and survival of the fittest, but it comes across as flippant and cruel. That's fine if you the person don't want to take medicine or get vaccines, but don't put that on helpless animals. The turkey's eyes popping out from a sickness that the writer knew they had but didn't do anything to stop was cruel.

[DeEllen Wood · Rating 5 out of 5]

Easy read, tells the truth about how hard farming really is.

I recommended this book to anyone thinking of abandoning their day job in search of greener pastures. Idyllic scenes and harsh realities, nothing is sugar coated.

[G Haley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Had some qualms with the author (self published) but beyond that, he brings up some truly important concepts about the farming and meat industries. Good read because it has encouraged me to start having those conversations more.

[Iris · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book sounded really interesting. I tried to read it a couple of months ago , gave up. Started it again this week, gave up again. Just not for me.

[Lance Mitchell · Rating 5 out of 5]

this is a very inspiring and motivating

[Barbara · Rating 3 out of 5]

I quit this book, too much preaching

[Wynee Lou · Rating 5 out of 5]

again, another tired trope but this telling is so good. and a little more extreme in execution.

[Shelley Arthur · Rating 5 out of 5]

this is a great book

[Jessica · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wish I could have rated this book with 2.5 stars - there were some parts that I did like, but overall it was just OK. Tim Young describes he and his wife's journey from typical suburbanites with high stress lives to rural farmers. They initially started their journey by learning more about the industrial food system and how terrible it is for everyone involved - the animals, the people working with the animals, and the consumers. Because they had fairly high paying jobs they were able to purchase farmland with savings and eventually built a house there and started purchasing animals to raise for food. They are VERY honest about the hardships of farming - especially pasture-based organic meat farming. One thing that I found interesting was the struggles they had with popular industrial farming breeds who had been genetically modified to the point where they don't have any "natural instincts" anymore. "Whether it's a chicken, pig, turkey or cow, we have all, by virtue of encouraging cheap food at any cost, participated in reshaping the genetic makeup of all farm animals to the point where virtually no species can thrive in a natural setting." (p.166-7)

The reason I didn't rate this book higher was the writing style. It just wasn't written very well and there was one chapter on cheese making where Young wrote the entire chapter in 3rd person referring to himself as "the farmer" which just grated on me and it wasn't done anywhere else in the book! Overall, I just didn't enjoy the writing much, but the content wasn't bad. They definitely show how hard farming is, but that it is worth it all in the end (in their opinion).

At the end of each chapter was an excerpt from former blog posts. In one Young is talking about a conversation he had with an industrial chicken farmer. Here is a quote I really like:

"And this is when I realized who the enemy was. It's certainly not this farmer. He was a nice man who genuinely seemed to like his job and the chickens. I didn't sense any cruelty in him, or any awareness of cruelty. No, he was just making a living by supplying what the market - his customer - asked for. Cheap, fast, food. His customers are, of course, all of us. We who go to supermarkets or restaurants, grab what's on sale without asking, knowing, or worst of all, wanting to know where our meat came from, how it was treated or what it was fed. As long as that continues, feedlots, broiler houses, pigs in confinement and battery cages will continue." (p.15)

[Katie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed listening to this book mainly because I love farming stories. It is interesting to hear how different people decide to move away from typical American life and join homesteading movement. This couple were apparently very naive and just went for it, figuring it out as they went. I know other stories of successful farmers who have done the same, but it seems a little unfair for them to act as anyone can just do it at a drop of a hat. Just spending a little more time doing some research and learning would have saved them a lot of work and heartache.

The writing certainly wasn't great. At times the book felt like a rambling country story winding around through various topics before finally coming back to the main point. One chapter is written completely in third person for no discernible reason. There is a lot of repetition of ideas and (at times) sentences throughout the book. Like some other reviewers, I felt that the author was very condescending at times. This made me want to reject his ideas. Although a bit extreme, I think they are worth considering and are a legitimate viewpoint in the field of sustainable agriculture. I just think that he based his opinions more on his beliefs than on actual knowledge of how breeding works. I could be wrong about this, but he gave little indication that he really knew much about farming beyond what he was able to figure out by trying it out. There are a lot of experts out there doing what they want to do, but the author appears not to have tapped into their knowledge.

In the end I am glad I read the book but would only recommend it to someone very interested in sustainability or homesteading topics. This is not a book for a newbie.

[Greydrakkon · Rating 3 out of 5]

I waffled between 3 and four stars but settled on three for a few reasons.

The author is a type A personality that had spent most of his life in business, so he is very much the kind of person who gets the gist of things, llots a general course, asks himself if it's feasable and plows ahead. That outlook affected the writing of the book, in that it could have used a good editor. Not that there were many errors (I only caught three) but in the shifts of time, insertion of blog posts, and overall repetition could have improved the book quite a bit.

In some places there is exacting detail (like the making of cheddar cheese) and in others questions were left unanswered (was an answer for the chickens pecking each other figured out? How was it stopped?) as well as a bit of hypocrisy in the form of lamb being a-ok to eat, but calves weren't even though they would produce an important by-product for cheese making. (not saying that they should be treated like veal calves, but there's quite a spectrum here). I'm just really glad they realized that their efforts to force their own fertility was at complete odds with how they were trying to live. (that it never seemed to cross the author's mind that the world has plenty of humans in it already and overpopulation is dragging the health of this planet down at a terrific rate seems odd to me, it's a hard fact to ignore if you're preservation-minded)

This shouldn't stop you from reading the book, after all there's some good tidbits in there and it could be inspiring to those thinking of making changes, even if they aren't as extreme as the author's. I won't be reading this again, but I'm not sad I got through it.

[Jill · Rating 5 out of 5]

"The Accidental Farmers" is a very entertaining and informative tale of a couple who gave up their careers and high lifestyle to go "back to the earth". As the author wrote,"...our Green Acres story is one of love. Mainly love for each other and a deep desire to have a life where we could spend all of our time together and not be in separate jobs, but also ur passion for animals and nature." They quit their jobs, sold their suburban home, and moved to a remote farm in Georgia, without any prior knowledge about farming or animal husbandry. They soon learned that farming is just too hard and expensive to do as a hobby. They visited other successful organic farms and experimented and studied incessantly to realize their dreams of sustainable living and farming.

The Youngs wanted their animals to have the opportunity at a natural life rather than the penned up, unnatural existence of most large volume producers. Tim Young stated: "we had to learn to farm naturally alongside animals that had to learn to live naturally." They use no pesticides and fertilize only with what the animals provide. They sought to produce as much as they required off the land, but also to make use of everything on the land, including every part of every animal. Along the way, they had many failures, some of them heartbreaking when they lost an entire flock of chickens or had to put down diseased pigs. But eventually they learned how to orchestrate a natural existence of everything that lives on their farm. It's an ongoing challenge, and extremely hard work, and certainly something well worth reading about if you're at all interested in our food supply or in living sustainably.

[Sylvia Walker · Rating 1 out of 5]

If natural farming involves treating animals with the level of cruelty displayed in this book, I suggest we look for another, more humane, model. For example, when a flock of his heritage turkeys became so ill that the swelling of the sides of their faces literally caused their eyes to pop out of their sockets, nothing was done to lighten their suffering, as nothing had been done to prevent the illness in the first place. These birds had been pre-sold for customers' Thanksgiving dinner, so there was no excuse of trying to improve the genetics for breeding. The author relates one instance of neglect and cruelty after another, as he repeats in page after page how much he and his wife love animals. I understand that farmers need to make a living, as we all must, and that vet calls and medicines cost a lot of money, and that sometimes the choice may be to put an animal down. Tim and Liz make the choice to let the animal die a prolonged and agonizing death, as it is "natural." Farming can be a noble occupation, done with skill and care, but it is not natural. Allowing animals to sicken and suffer, because the individual animal does not matter, only the breed (and the farmer's bank account), is wrong and cruel. I couldn't finish this book. It was sickening.

[Amara · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was hoping for a personal memoir. Instead this was a ton of preaching about sustainable meat farming practices. I'm not interested in that.