This Organic Life: Confessions of a Suburban Homesteader

by Joan Dye Gussow

Joan Dye Gussow is an extraordinarily ordinary woman. She lives in a home not unlike the average home in a neighborhood that is, more or less, typically suburban. What sets her apart from the rest of us is that she thinks more deeply - and in more eloquent detail- about food. In sharing her ponderings, she sets a delightful example for those of us who seek the healthiest, most pleasurable lifestyle within an environment determined to propel us in the opposite direct.

Joan is a suburbanite with a green thumb, but also a feisty, defiant spirit with a relentlessly positive outlook.This Organic Life begins with Joan and her husband Alan's trials and tribulations growing vegetables for their own table while coping with careers and a sprawling Victorian house in Congers, New York.

Motivated to go "off -the-grid" of the global food system in their later years, the Gussows find and fall in love with a dilapidated Odd Fellows Hall on the banks of the Hudson River. Joan's often hilarious accounts of the "renovation" of the "dream" (some would say "nightmare") house and the creation of their new gardens are spiced by extracts from her own journal, and over thirty wonderful recipes using fresh, seasonal fruits and vegetables.

There is also an occasion pontification about a food distribution system run amok! At the heart of This Organic Life is the premise that locally grown food eaten in season makes sense economically, ecologically, and gastronomically. Transporting produce to New York from California -- not to mention Central and South America, Australia, or Europe -- consumes more energy in transit than it yields in calories. (It costs 435 fossil fuel calories to fly a 5-calorie strawberry from California to New York.) Add in the deleterious effects of agribusiness, such as the endless cycle of pesticide, herbicide, and chemical fertilizers; the loss of topsoil from erosion of over-tilled croplands; depleted aquifers and soil salinization from over-irrigation; and the arguments in favor of "this organic life" become overwhelmingly convincing.

Genres: Gardening, Food, Nonfiction, Memoir, Sustainability, Environment, Green

273 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2001

About the author

Joan Dye Gussow was an American professor, author, food policy expert, environmentalist and gardener. The New York Times has called her the "matriarch of the eat-locally-think-globally food movement."

Reviews

[Heather · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was given to me after two of my friends devoured it and sang its praises from the rooftops. I was psyched to read it. Locavorism! Sustainability! Gardening! Recipes! That sounds like something I would adore!

I suppose I probably would have adored it if not for two things, only one of which is the fault of this book: 1) I read it right after tearing through the Hunger Games series. I'd wager that no book could fare well with that trilogy immediately preceding it. Where I found those irresistible, I found this one irritating. That brings me to 2) The author's tone grated. At first, I was only mildly bothered, but the more I read the more annoyed I became. I think at one point I even said out loud, "Oh, I'm SURE the grocery store was REALLY THAT CHALLENGING for you. I'm sure this is in no way a histrionic, virtuous account of what must've been just a trip to the goddamn grocery store (to buy -- I can barely type this -- tortilla chips that the author admits she could just as easily have made and DIET FUCKING COKE)." Her use of "scare quotes" became "tedious" and "unnecessary" after a while, too.

I absolutely agree with a number of Gussow's points (I came into this book already on her side, generally), and I freely admit that she's given me a great deal to think about (for instance, why I'm so hyperaware of eating fruit in season but far less aware of seasonality as regards vegetables). My interest in the water subsidies for California farmers, a thing about which I formerly knew nothing, is piqued. I do want to try some of her recipes. And again, I wholeheartedly agree that our food system is broken and is dire need of repair and rethinking. But dear lord, lady, if I hear one more anecdote about how you were megabitchy to the point that your friends are terrified to serve you meals or stock particular toilet paper, or find your disdain and clear sense of superiority so palpable, I'm going to scream. You've put your message in the ugliest, most sanctimonious package.

And before I drive away my friends who loved this book, know that two stars means "it was okay." I couldn't honestly give it the same rating (three stars -- "it was good") I'd given, for instance, My Life in France, which was perfectly charming and had a delightful voice, or various Sherlock Holmes stories, which I come back to again and again, or a variety of memoirs. How can this book be held against David Sedaris and get the same rating? For me, it cannot. When I look at my other two-star ratings, I know I've made the right choice for myself. I'm not mad I read it; in fact, I'm glad I did. But I'm even MORE glad that I'm DONE reading it.

[Stephanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is part memoir, part essay collection with the central topic of growing food and local-based agriculture. It was published in 2001, so written likely in the late 1990’s so it was written as the local food movement was beginning to pick up steam (at least I think so). The initial chapters of the book follow Joan and her husband Alan as they build the house in Piermont, NY where they plan to live the last part of their life. The latter part of the book is a little less cohesive but loosely details her first few years living and gardening in her new space and it also becomes more treatise on the importance of farmers and of eating locally.

Gussow has an engaging writing style and this is mostly a personal story – of what growing her own food means to her. She does deal with some of the larger issues in America’s agricultural system but she primarily touches on this through stories and slips it in here or there without getting too pedantic or instructional. She emphasizes again and again how eating locally/growing one’s own food not only makes ecological sense but is just more delicious and I realized that over the past few years, as I’ve grown some of my own food, I’ve embraced this fact unconsciously. I’ve never been a big fan of tomatoes until the past few years. I thought it was just my tastes changing but it has coincided very closely with me growing my own tomatoes and I really think I’ve started liking them because I now know what a real tomato tastes like! She emphasizes the superiority of this straight-from-the-garden produce with a smattering of really delicious looking recipes.

In the end this book is kind of all over the place and sometimes Gussow can get a little holier than thou. Despite this the book makes a strong point and makes it in a pretty enjoyable manner.

[Kate Singh · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really enjoyed it at first. I wound up skimming the rest. It's about an older couple that buys river font property with an old home that winds up being rotten all the way to the frame. The book is the experience of tearing down and rebuilding a home and the comfort they take in the huge garden, the river they live on, and the stress of a crazy neighbor (we all must have one). I grew tired of the story after a few chapters.

[Susan Connell Biggs · Rating 3 out of 5]

While I really do love books where you get to witness other peoples' lives, this one didn't quite do it for me. There seemed to be a greater focus on the frustrations of trying to build a garden and a house where probably neither belonged than real learning about sustainable gardening. Why, if you are as committed to sustainability, build on a plot of land along a river but below the flood line? Why if you've been living in a house for 30 years that never felt like a good fit, would you not be more diligent in investigating the "dream" house you're about to buy? Thanks for being so candid and honest, but you lose a little credibility by being so naive in your homesteading. Also, Dye Gussow doesn't seem to understand how much she's made us care about her house and her husband, so when they fall out of the story (which isn't really a story at all) in the middle of the book, we're left feeling like the author doesn't know her audience enough to know what matters to us. The best parts of the book are the journal entries; they are beautifully written. And the recipes look intriguing. I haven't tried them, but will make some copies before returning this one to the library. I like Joan. I like her writing. I just think this book needed some focus. I'd much rather read a short article she's written or attend a lecture.

[cellomerl · Rating 3 out of 5]

Effusive, elegantly written, quite funny and a little sad in the author’s reflections on the trials of restoring a troublesome property that seems to have little going for it, and the tragic, too-early loss of her husband.

On the plus side, this author praised local food before it was cool, defended meat eating before it (somehow) needed defending, and weighed in on the harsh reality that sometimes things have to die to make food happen. There are some interesting and fairly simple recipes for garden produce, plus some excellent gardening tips. (Although this isn’t an instructional book, a few photos or diagrams would have been nice.)

I’m with her on much of what she says, including the importance of farmers and the inclination of most people to take food for granted, not understanding where it comes from and being largely disengaged from it. The penultimate chapter about California was fascinating, and reinforced my growing belief that the world would be better off if California and most of the people in it would slide into the Pacific at the next tectonic grumble.

However, being a nutritionist, she drinks the poisoned Kool-Aid on low fat diet, evil dietary cholesterol and the unquestioned canonization of fruits n’ veg. And she really lets you have it on The Environmental Editorial. There’s the inevitable lecture about how we are killing the planet with overpopulation and carbon dioxide (except that she never mentions carbon dioxide directly, and she talks about “warming”, not “climate change” - marking the book as a nineties tome; only the terms of the rhetoric have changed.) Had this book been written twenty years earlier, her lament would have been about acid rain, something so long forgotten that you couldn’t get a politician or enviro-Nazi to answer the phone about nowadays.

[Katy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Although I did enjoy Plenty, and Animal, Vegetable, Miracle which are books with a similar themes, this is the book that really spoke to me about gardening and its importance to the health of our bodies and our planet. I want to be Joan Dye Gussow when I grow up! Given the 2001 publication date, I think this book may have been an inspiration to the previous authors in their endeavors. I like that, for Gussow, this is a way of life for her. Some years she eats all of her produce out of the garden, some years, nature has other ideas. She does the best she can without getting preachy about it. I give this book a big thumbs up and now I am headed outside to work on my garden!

[Iseult · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was ho-hum until I read the chapter about her drowning a possum, which is disgusting and unnecessary. She had talked of illegally trapping and setting them free in the woods before, and after drowning the poor creature found a wildlife rescuer neighbor who would take the baby skunk she trapped. I don't know why it was suddenly not an option to release the animal into the woods when you might not get fined even if someone did see you. I was weirded out the rest of the book, but I'm not really including that in the three stars. It just wasn't that interesting, especially the house renovations/building part. I knew I wouldn't be interested in that, but I didn't think it would be talked about as much as it was. I say disorganized in part because it was in no way chronological, and so oscillated between them living in their first house and thinking they would just need to renovate the existing house they bought, finding out they needed to demolish it, and living in the new house while it was still being built so I had to stop and figure out the timeline. I don't know why she would write it that way because then she needed to mention several more times about how upset she was about finding out they couldn't renovate the house but had to tear it down (I mean you'd think from the way she described it that she wouldn't have been so surprised.) And why did they choose this house knowing it would flood all the time and gardening would be so much harder? The view of the river, I suppose.
Anyway, I read this book for the organic gardening/semi-self-subsistence/eating local part, and that didn't really start being discussed until toward the middle. In this part as well, there didn't seem to be a specific reason for not going chronologically. Some parts of her writing about eating locally/seasonally made my roll my eyes, like when she melodramatically described shopping at a typical supermarket as so overwhelming with choices, and how would she know what kind of tortilla chips to buy out of several varieties if the tv she doesn't own didn't tell her? She says this after stating in the beginning that her and her husband picked out all the windows, doors, etc for their house, so I doubt she can't make decisions for herself. It's especially funny because she makes gardening sound like a lot of work (I think she continued to produce around the same amount of food after her husband sadly passed away), so you'd think picking tortilla chips for a party would be no big deal (and couldn't she have made them herself anyway?)
I appreciate the author because she seems to have supported healthy eating before the modern movement, and championed local eating before the term "locavore" came into fashion. I'm also glad to know that she can grow all these things because I live near NYC and I read "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle" also about local eating and growing your own food, but since that took place in Virginia, I wasn't sure of the possibilities other than the usual fare at our farmer's market. I think she mentioned she could grow kiwis, so that's interesting. But this book as a whole didn't excite me.

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

The dust jacket copy promises that Gussow presents "a version of The Good Life that is with the grasp of all of us." This is not true. Gussow's efforts to make sure she and her husband eat only the vegetables that they grow and that there is a large variety of said vegetables takes an amount of work that most of would not or could not commit to given our circumstances and nature.

What is true is that Gussow's gardens are amazing, prolific, and surprisingly varied, as are her efforts to preserve the fruits and vegetables she manages to produce. Expanding her diet in winter means experimenting with different growing and storage methods, some of which fly in the face of common sense but work out in the end.

I am inherently too lazy to be a gardener, yet I admire the effort Gussow takes to build a better diet for her and her family, friends, and community. Her memoir of her garden is one that leads naturally to contemplating our own diet and what impact it has on our health and our world.

[Tammy · Rating 4 out of 5]

The most remarkable thing about this book, for me, was picturing my parents' house in Massachusetts while reading about the house that Joan and Alan bought along the Hudson River. I guess because my mother has always had a garden and the house they recently bought is an old farmhouse. Anyway, this is an illuminating book about a woman's quest to grow as much of her own food as she can, and an informative look at our food system. It's also interesting to learn about the adventure/drama of their "new" home and the struggles with living and farming in a flood zone. I had this book on my TBR list, and got the extra impetus to read it thinking I might count it toward the 2018 Read Harder Challenge task to read a book with a female protagonist over the age of 60. I will probably use a fictional book for the task; however, I will say that Joan is a 60+ female who has a lot of interesting things to say, and who is someone I admire. I will hold on to this book in case I ever leave the Southwest and end up with a yard in New England some day...

[Sara · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think if I had read this book before reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver it would have had a bigger impact on me than it did today. While I enjoyed it, and can see why Joan is considered a matriarch of the local food movement, I still had many moments where I questioned certain choices she made. Perhaps it's because I've lately been studying permaculture, but her chapter on dealing with gardening pests seemed almost completely self inflicted. Planting companion plants to bring in beneficial bugs and/or adopting a cat to help take care of rodents could have solved many of her problems. Aside from being nitpicky about techniques though, it was yet another read that reinforces the unsustainability of our current food system and gives inspiration to those of us looking to become more self sufficient.

[Shelly Rarick · Rating 4 out of 5]

While this book is older, the advice it contains still stands up to current thoughts and beliefs on food sustainability. The author, who is more diligent than I could ever be, truly lives what she preaches by living mainly on only the food she is able to grow herself. Considering, that she lives in upstate New York, this in itself seems like a herculean deed. The book does have a heavy research based outline but is filled with enough personal stories and even recipes that it is not hard at all to read at a steady pace.

[Payton · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book took me 8 months to read, partly because the first 6 chapters were a slog. After that it was full of useful information (for a novice gardener in New York’s Hudson valley). This woman went to great lengths to grow the majority of the food she ate and it’s admirable and informative. I particularly enjoyed the last several chapters, but think you have to be committed to learning about gardening in the Hudson valley for me to recommend this.

[Liane · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reading this 20 year old book makes me more committed to buying local produce and/or growing more of my own food. Perhaps she is speaking to the choir when she discusses how we need to be more connected to where and how our food is produced. And pay the true cost for what we consume. Joan Gussow's description of her garden and general lifestyle on the Hudson River is an inspiration!

[Gabreial · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this years ago, and truly enjoyed it. If Joad Dye Gussow can grow figs in NY, there is nothing stopping me from growing a wonderful garden in my zone. I didn't find the book enthralling or hard to put down, but it did keep me interested enough to find out what happened to their home, and frankly how their personal garden thrived in the conditions they were dealt.

[Melody · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book inspired me!!!! In anyway that I can be it small or large, I would like to join in on eating more sustainably and start supporting my local farmers and makers.

I think I would have found it difficult to work on a committee with Ms. Gussow but you can't deny her passion and persistence. I was very happy to discover that she is still going strong at 95!

[Elisabeth Ensor · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was incredibly inspiring and information, there were some parts that got a little tedious to read but overall I was to grow more of my own food and encourage others around me to do the same.
I loved all the seasonal recipes and how eating from the earth just makes sense!!!

[Mir · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quite preachy and elitist but overall I enjoyed reading it. Well, with the exception of the opossum chapter.

I was interested in trying her recipes and put together this PDF with most of them written out to the best of my ability, in case you're also interested:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/4bvzz85zyp5...

**Note that the recipes that I didn't think were easy to convert vegetarian were left out (which was only like 2 of them)

[Tricia Charron · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book so much, that I got the second one, "Growing Older" within a day of reading the first. It was a quick and fun read. Highly recommend for anyone who is thinking of growing vegetables and eating seasonally. This book was fun and inspirational at the same time.

[Anne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Joan was a pioneer in the local food movement and influenced Barbara Kingsolver and Michael Pollan. She was a fiesty lady who was absolutely committed to her ideals. A recommended read for anyone who cares about the Earth or aspires to grow more food.

[Jennifer Warren · Rating 3 out of 5]

Inspiring. Good gardening tips, realistic descriptions of actual gardening, good recopes

[Michele · Rating 1 out of 5]

Could not get into this at all- abandoned on page 22-

[Rough Reads · Rating 4 out of 5]

Inspiring Read :)

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reading this makes me want to get back in the garden, grow my own crops and buy as much as I can from the local Farmers Market. A lovely read.

[Adelia · Rating 2 out of 5]

Didn't finish. It was interesting at first, but it got old and felt repetitive pretty quickly.

[Maria · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book. Loved it!

[Katie Lester · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good food for thought, got me excited for growing season, but often came across as preachy or arrogant. That’s why I docked a star.

[Shyr · Rating 4 out of 5]

It made me think, and that is what every good book should do.

[Shannon · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a great book. I randomly ordered this book as it was a "you may also enjoy" title and I am so happy I did. As a gardener in the same area as Joan Dye Gussow, I related to much of what she talked about. I also had a lot of "ah ha" moments in regards to eating local and growing your own food. It just all make sense and I am so happy I have a little urban homestead here in NJ. I can't wait to read other's written by her and dive into some of the book's she referenced. For anyone that truly cares about where their food comes from, this is a great read for you! #shanmullphoto #mayernikkitchen

[jess · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've been making an effort to reach back farther than Michael Pollan and the new "locavore" movement when I'm thinking about our food sources, nutrition, food production, and that brings me to people like Joan Gussow. Speaking of, Michael Pollan writes: the national conversation unfolding around the subject of food and farming really began in the 1970s, with the work of writers like Wendell Berry, Frances Moore Lappé, Barry Commoner and Joan Gussow. All four of these writers are supreme dot-connectors, deeply skeptical of reductive science and far ahead not only in their grasp of the science of ecology but in their ability to think ecologically.

The book is part nutrition guide, but it is subtle. It's just there because Joan's a nutritionist and probably can't help it. There are recipes buried in the chapters, focused on the precise moment in the garden and suspended in a lovely web of Joan's life experiences. This book is part gardening know-how, which is almost entirely anecdotal, wise and heartfelt. There is a lot of great information about eating locally year round from a lady who has done it for many years. How to store carrots is easy to learn. But how to cook parsnips so you will love them in the long dark days of winter when parsnips are about the only thing left to eat, that requires a special kind genius. This book is part political agenda - and everything she says makes the most perfect sense. Sarah Palin needs to stop using the phrase "common sense conservative" entirely because Joan Gussow has cornered the market on rational conservation. Treat every drop of water like it matters - because it does. Treat everything you put in the earth like it's going to come back to you - because it will.

Joan Dye Gussow moved to small town exurb NY, within an uneasy commuting distance from NYC. After decades in a house she never really loved, she & her husband bought an old house in a nearby town with the intention of repairing the house and establishing a garden that would see them into their golden years. This story starts with the discovery of that house, and then follows Joan through all the contractors, river rats, architects, fellow gardeners and friends. The house has to be demolished and rebuilt, but the garden flourishes. Gardening is contagious, and Joan & her husband find themselves mentoring a community garden in the lot next door. Her husband is diagnosed with an aggressive cancer, and leaves her just at the time when they were supposed to spend their final decades together. It's a stark reminder that every day should be a celebration of the work you do together and the love you share. I read the part about his death on an airplane somewhere over the middle of the country somewhere in the middle of the night in an unknown time zone and I wept the whole body weeping only a premenstrual newlywed can manage. The hum of the jet engines thankfully drowned out my tears. This Organic Life moves through the years, the geography, the seasons of the garden and the seasons of life like it is all one, beautifully intertwined story. Because, of course, it is.

[Jessica · Rating 4 out of 5]

I hadn't heard of This Organic Life before receiving it as a Christmas gift from my sister, but it proved to be a delightful work of garden-inspired thoughts on diet, life, and responsibility. I've already read a number of books in this genre (notably Deep in the Green and Home Ground) but this one took a much more overtly environmental stance than the others, which tend to focus more on the joy of gardening while only brushing against the cultural and societal significance of producing one's own food.

Dr. Gussow's main argument is that we are killing our planet by choosing to consume foods shipped halfway across the world and completely out of season, instead of producing our own food and supporting local farmers. She is most convincing and convicting, and the synchronicity of picking up this book right around the same time I discovered King's Hill Farm helped me decide to sign up for their community-supported agriculture program. We'll be eating lots of locally grown produce now, for cheaper than we'd pay to buy it (imported from all parts of the world) at the grocery store.

The only part of the book I found disappointing was her section on meat-eating, which she seems to justify entirely based on the fact that death is part of life, as if the fact that she has to kill the occasional groundhog or rabbit to keep them from ruining her crop supply means that it logically follows that eating animals (and not the ones she's killed, either, which she disposes of, but cattle and chickens raised by other people) is necessary. She doesn't even acknowledge the possibility that one can be vegetarian for environmental and ethical reasons and still agree that killing, when done responsibly and respectfully, is okay and maybe even required at times. Her section on why she eats meat is very short and dismissive, and I felt it really wasn't in keeping with the rest of the book, which is extremely well thought-out and sensitive. It seems as if she would rather skip over the topic entirely but knew people would expect her to explain her choice one way or the other.

As I said, though, that's really the book's only flaw. The rest of the text is a very compelling argument for growing one's own food and eating seasonally, as well as a joyful celebration of the act of gardening. It's the combination of the two - purpose and delight - that makes This Organic Life work so well.

Oh, and it's full of recipes, too.