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Harvesting History: While Farming the Flats
Blending the themes of family, farming, and filmmaking, Harvesting History follows Muriel Murch's journey from Los Angeles to West Marin, where she and her husband, filmmaker Walter Murch, settle on a farm. Here, their life intertwines with a changing community, organic farming, and the Bay Area’s burgeoning independent film scene, including interactions with key figures from the independent film movement, including George Lucas and Francis Ford Coppola, close friends and collaborators of Walter.
Murch reflects on the cycles of nature, community resilience, and a simpler, sustainable way of life, contrasting it with the fast pace of Hollywood and urban development. The book is a poetic tribute to both the land and the bonds formed through shared values of preservation and creativity.
About the Author
Muriel A. Murch was born and grew up England. In 1965 she married Walter Murch in New York City and they motorcycled to Los Angeles, California, relocating to the Bay Area in 1969 where Murch began working as a nurse-midwife in the rural medical practice in Point Reyes Station serving Marin and Sonoma Counties. Initially part of KPFA-FM’s Drama and Literature Department, Murch brought her radio experience to KWMR, helping develop a platform for local voices and cultural programs. Highlights include interviews with prominent figures like Sir David Attenborough, whom she hosted at both KPFA and West Marin Community Radio, bringing his work on The Private Life of Plants to local audiences. She continues to biweekly produce A Letter From A Broad for KWMR.org and her website murielmurch.com. She lives with her husband in Northern California and London.
Praise from Kirkus Reviews
Murch offers a memoir celebrating family and a unique community in rural Marin County, California.
Muriel (Aggie) and Walter Murch married in 1965, beginning an adventure encompassing family, filmmaking, and farming. After their wedding, they relocated from the East Coast to Los Angeles. Aggie became a nurse at the University of Southern California hospital; after their first child was born, she coached others in the nascent field of natural childbirth as a childbirth educator. Walter had a fellowship at USC’s film school, which he attended with George Lucas and Francis Ford Coppola. In 1969, “A small band of us, Francis and his wife Ellie, George and his wife Marcia, Walter and I, headed north, making homes where we could.” Outgrowing their houseboat in Sausalito with the imminent birth of a second child, they purchased the Peters Dairy farmhouse (rechristened Blackberry Farm) and four acres in Bolinas in 1972. The addition of two more girls “brought the seemly manageable family of two children to the definitely joyously chaotic farm full of four—plus friends.” As Walter’s career flourished, working as an editor and sound designer on films including The Godfather and Apocalypse Now, Aggie reveled in having space for her children to roam, discovering and reviving the fruit trees and gardens, and caring for horses, sheep and chickens. The children grew up and moved away, occasionally returning briefly, “landing like butterflies, resting, sipping nectar from the home farm, and leaving again.” Although she and Walter now spend more time in her native England, “The farm remains the harbor, and I am anchored within the farm.” Murch has written a multilayered story of life in Bolinas. Her descriptions of heirloom apple trees, roses of unknown provenance, and other plants reveal a very personal connection to the land and people who lived there before. Community changes are explored through the history of local schools, farming techniques, and population shifts.
Murch reflects on the cycles of nature, community resilience, and a simpler, sustainable way of life, contrasting it with the fast pace of Hollywood and urban development. The book is a poetic tribute to both the land and the bonds formed through shared values of preservation and creativity.
About the Author
Muriel A. Murch was born and grew up England. In 1965 she married Walter Murch in New York City and they motorcycled to Los Angeles, California, relocating to the Bay Area in 1969 where Murch began working as a nurse-midwife in the rural medical practice in Point Reyes Station serving Marin and Sonoma Counties. Initially part of KPFA-FM’s Drama and Literature Department, Murch brought her radio experience to KWMR, helping develop a platform for local voices and cultural programs. Highlights include interviews with prominent figures like Sir David Attenborough, whom she hosted at both KPFA and West Marin Community Radio, bringing his work on The Private Life of Plants to local audiences. She continues to biweekly produce A Letter From A Broad for KWMR.org and her website murielmurch.com. She lives with her husband in Northern California and London.
Praise from Kirkus Reviews
Murch offers a memoir celebrating family and a unique community in rural Marin County, California.
Muriel (Aggie) and Walter Murch married in 1965, beginning an adventure encompassing family, filmmaking, and farming. After their wedding, they relocated from the East Coast to Los Angeles. Aggie became a nurse at the University of Southern California hospital; after their first child was born, she coached others in the nascent field of natural childbirth as a childbirth educator. Walter had a fellowship at USC’s film school, which he attended with George Lucas and Francis Ford Coppola. In 1969, “A small band of us, Francis and his wife Ellie, George and his wife Marcia, Walter and I, headed north, making homes where we could.” Outgrowing their houseboat in Sausalito with the imminent birth of a second child, they purchased the Peters Dairy farmhouse (rechristened Blackberry Farm) and four acres in Bolinas in 1972. The addition of two more girls “brought the seemly manageable family of two children to the definitely joyously chaotic farm full of four—plus friends.” As Walter’s career flourished, working as an editor and sound designer on films including The Godfather and Apocalypse Now, Aggie reveled in having space for her children to roam, discovering and reviving the fruit trees and gardens, and caring for horses, sheep and chickens. The children grew up and moved away, occasionally returning briefly, “landing like butterflies, resting, sipping nectar from the home farm, and leaving again.” Although she and Walter now spend more time in her native England, “The farm remains the harbor, and I am anchored within the farm.” Murch has written a multilayered story of life in Bolinas. Her descriptions of heirloom apple trees, roses of unknown provenance, and other plants reveal a very personal connection to the land and people who lived there before. Community changes are explored through the history of local schools, farming techniques, and population shifts.
290 pages, Kindle Edition
Published March 7, 2025
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
January 6, 2026
A wholesome memoir of family, filmmaking and farming.
From living in houseboats to buying a dairy farm and additional acres of land; from working as a midwife-nurse/childbirth educator and radio presenter to becoming an organic farming enthusiast, Muriel A. (Aggie) Murch, wife of Academy Award winning film editor and director Walter Murch, chronicles her life journey and adventures shared with her husband, children and friends from Los Angeles to the rural Marin County, interspersed with recipes and family photographs.
My thanks to NetGalley, the publisher Sibylline Press and the author for the digital ARC of the book.
From living in houseboats to buying a dairy farm and additional acres of land; from working as a midwife-nurse/childbirth educator and radio presenter to becoming an organic farming enthusiast, Muriel A. (Aggie) Murch, wife of Academy Award winning film editor and director Walter Murch, chronicles her life journey and adventures shared with her husband, children and friends from Los Angeles to the rural Marin County, interspersed with recipes and family photographs.
My thanks to NetGalley, the publisher Sibylline Press and the author for the digital ARC of the book.
November 3, 2025
I read this book each night before I went to bed and it’s the kind of book that makes you want to quit your corporate job and go buy an organic farm in Marin County.
July 31, 2026
For me, this was kind of a perfect memoir, weaving together elements I love: connection with the earth balanced with connection with the wider world and local community. I was particularly touched by Muriel's gift for observing people as they are without judging, recognizing the ways people cope imperfectly with trauma, how people develop spiritually, and the power of family and compassion to allow someone touched by hardship to continue a meaningful life. So too was I touched by her connection to nature and deep understanding of skills fast vanishing in modern life. She reminds us that the most meaningful lives are often built through quiet acts of care and perseverance.
April 7, 2026
Near the beginning of Harvesting History, a memoir of land and filmmaking and family, it is 1969, and Muriel Aggie Murch, a nurse, and her filmmaker husband Walter have moved north from Los Angeles, where Walter Murch had attended USC film school with a cadre of friends who included George Lucas and Francis Ford Coppola. Coppola has just founded his independent film company, American Zoetrope, in San Francisco. The band of friends have settled where they can find affordable homes around the Bay Area. Walter and Aggie and their young son land in a houseboat in Sausalito, then very much a counterculture community.
It is the time of Woodstock and the Stonewall Riots, the Viet Nam War, and the very beginnings of organic farming. The Back to the Land movement has just begun to sprout. Aggie, a Brit who came to America after nursing school and met Walter at Johns Hopkins, is teaching Lamaze while Walter writes screenplays and edits whatever films come his way from George and Francis. A few years later, when their daughter is on the way, they buy four acres of a former dairy farm near Bolinas, across the bay from what is now Point Reyes National Seashore.
Those four acres, which the Murches name Blackberry Farm, will root their growing family and their peripatetic life following film productions from The Godfather to The Unbearable Lightness of Being around the world. The land also roots Harvesting History, a charming narrative of local and natural history, family memories, recipes, and film industry and farm lore, which rambles like the old roses that drape Blackberry Farm’s sagging wire fences.
The place comes alive in Aggie Murch’s memoir: the old farmhouse, built by the Portuguese family who parted out and sold off the former dairy after a divorce, the greenhouse, the big two-story barn built with stalls for the family horses below and a film studio and guest quarters above, the fruit trees, old roses, and vegetable gardens.
The story is peopled by neighbors, local characters, film crews and stars and friends from the industry, Aggie’s colleagues from the public radio station she helps found and records programs for, and family and friends from distant places, along with a changing cast of horses, chickens, and all manner of wilder creatures. All are part of the the fifty years of Murch family life in the four acres of land near Bolinas Bay, where the sometimes glamorous world of filmmaking meets the dirt-under-the-fingernails world of cider making, and the food and company are equally delicious.
Muriel A. Murch was born and grew up England. In 1965 she married Walter Murch in New York City and they motorcycled to Los Angeles, California, relocating to the Bay Area in 1969 where Murch began working as a nurse-midwife in the rural medical practice in Point Reyes Station serving Marin and Sonoma Counties. Initially part of KPFA-FM’s Drama and Literature Department, Murch brought her radio experience to KWMR, helping develop a platform for local voices and cultural programs. She continues to produce A Letter From A Broad for KWMR.org and her website murielmurch.com. She lives with her husband in Northern California and London.
This review first appeared on Story Circle Book Reviews.
It is the time of Woodstock and the Stonewall Riots, the Viet Nam War, and the very beginnings of organic farming. The Back to the Land movement has just begun to sprout. Aggie, a Brit who came to America after nursing school and met Walter at Johns Hopkins, is teaching Lamaze while Walter writes screenplays and edits whatever films come his way from George and Francis. A few years later, when their daughter is on the way, they buy four acres of a former dairy farm near Bolinas, across the bay from what is now Point Reyes National Seashore.
Those four acres, which the Murches name Blackberry Farm, will root their growing family and their peripatetic life following film productions from The Godfather to The Unbearable Lightness of Being around the world. The land also roots Harvesting History, a charming narrative of local and natural history, family memories, recipes, and film industry and farm lore, which rambles like the old roses that drape Blackberry Farm’s sagging wire fences.
The place comes alive in Aggie Murch’s memoir: the old farmhouse, built by the Portuguese family who parted out and sold off the former dairy after a divorce, the greenhouse, the big two-story barn built with stalls for the family horses below and a film studio and guest quarters above, the fruit trees, old roses, and vegetable gardens.
The story is peopled by neighbors, local characters, film crews and stars and friends from the industry, Aggie’s colleagues from the public radio station she helps found and records programs for, and family and friends from distant places, along with a changing cast of horses, chickens, and all manner of wilder creatures. All are part of the the fifty years of Murch family life in the four acres of land near Bolinas Bay, where the sometimes glamorous world of filmmaking meets the dirt-under-the-fingernails world of cider making, and the food and company are equally delicious.
Muriel A. Murch was born and grew up England. In 1965 she married Walter Murch in New York City and they motorcycled to Los Angeles, California, relocating to the Bay Area in 1969 where Murch began working as a nurse-midwife in the rural medical practice in Point Reyes Station serving Marin and Sonoma Counties. Initially part of KPFA-FM’s Drama and Literature Department, Murch brought her radio experience to KWMR, helping develop a platform for local voices and cultural programs. She continues to produce A Letter From A Broad for KWMR.org and her website murielmurch.com. She lives with her husband in Northern California and London.
This review first appeared on Story Circle Book Reviews.
August 5, 2026
Harvesting History: While Farming the Flats is the book for anyone who loves film, farming, and great recipes—all delivered with the storytelling of that favorite auntie you always wanted to know more about. Muriel—"Aggie" to those who know her—weaves together a remarkable life: a young English nurse who came to America, married filmmaker Walter Murch, and landed on four acres in Bolinas they named Blackberry Farm. While Walter's work took him into the world of The Godfather, Apocalypse Now, and The Black Stallion, Aggie was reviving old fruit trees, tending horses and sheep, and raising a joyously chaotic family full of children and friends.
What makes this book magical is how those two worlds—Hollywood and the henhouse—sit so naturally side by side. Aggie is a wonderful seamstress, and the way her life is woven into a warm quilt for us all to enjoy is nothing short of magical. Each chapter feels like sitting at her farmhouse kitchen table, where the stories unfurl like the old roses draped across Blackberry Farm's fences—recipes you'll actually want to cook, film-making anecdotes, and an everlasting respect for the land, the light, and the rain.
It's warm, rich, and full of heart—the kind of book you finish and immediately want to share.
What makes this book magical is how those two worlds—Hollywood and the henhouse—sit so naturally side by side. Aggie is a wonderful seamstress, and the way her life is woven into a warm quilt for us all to enjoy is nothing short of magical. Each chapter feels like sitting at her farmhouse kitchen table, where the stories unfurl like the old roses draped across Blackberry Farm's fences—recipes you'll actually want to cook, film-making anecdotes, and an everlasting respect for the land, the light, and the rain.
It's warm, rich, and full of heart—the kind of book you finish and immediately want to share.
February 1, 2026
Muriel Murch is a beautiful writer.
Her words conjure up the many images, emotions, and sensations that swirl around the stories she shares of her life with her husband, noted filmmaker/sound designer, Walter Murch, and the myriad, interesting, even celebrated people who move in and around their lives. Part chronicle, part memoir, part travelogue, this former nurse/midwife from England has a touching way of pulling readers into her life and times, treating us to detailed recipes, gorgeous descriptions of her Blackberry Farm and the many activities and tasks demanded by such a place, as well as the fascinating world of her husband’s life working with filmmakers like Francis Ford Coppola and George Lucas. Her descriptions of the many juxtapositions between their farm and film lives, and ultimately a family of four children, are utterly fascinating, filled with rich details and charming candor. There are even pages of photographs at the book’s end to help bring it all to vivid life!
Highly recommended and beautifully written, this is a book to immerse yourself in with a notebook nearby to jot down those recipes!
Her words conjure up the many images, emotions, and sensations that swirl around the stories she shares of her life with her husband, noted filmmaker/sound designer, Walter Murch, and the myriad, interesting, even celebrated people who move in and around their lives. Part chronicle, part memoir, part travelogue, this former nurse/midwife from England has a touching way of pulling readers into her life and times, treating us to detailed recipes, gorgeous descriptions of her Blackberry Farm and the many activities and tasks demanded by such a place, as well as the fascinating world of her husband’s life working with filmmakers like Francis Ford Coppola and George Lucas. Her descriptions of the many juxtapositions between their farm and film lives, and ultimately a family of four children, are utterly fascinating, filled with rich details and charming candor. There are even pages of photographs at the book’s end to help bring it all to vivid life!
Highly recommended and beautifully written, this is a book to immerse yourself in with a notebook nearby to jot down those recipes!
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews