Soil and Spirit: Cultivation and Kinship in the Web of Life

by Scott Chaskey

As a farmer with decades spent working in fields, Scott Chaskey has been shaped by daily attention to the earth. A leader in the international Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) movement, he has combined a longstanding commitment to food sovereignty and organic farming with a belief that humble attention to microbial life and diversity of species provides invaluable lessons for building healthy human communities. 

Along the way, between “planning the rotations of fields, ordering seeds and supplies, and watching the weather,” Chaskey was “always writing, poetic stanzas or pages to piece together a book.” And in this lively collection of essays, he explores the evolution of his perspective--as a farmer and as a poet. Tracing the first stage in his development back to a homestead in Maine, on the ancestral lands of the Abenaki, he recalls learning to cultivate plants and nourish reciprocal relationships among species, even as he was reading Yeats and beginning to write poems. He describes cycling across Ireland, stopping to taste blackberries and linger in the heather before meeting Seamus Heaney, and farming in Cornwall’s ancient landscape of granite, bramble, and twisted trees. Later in life, he travels to China for an international conference on Community Supported Agriculture, reading ancient wilderness poetry along the way, and then on to the pueblo of Santa Clara in New Mexico, where he joins a group of Indigenous women harvesting amaranth seeds. Closer to home on the Southfork of Long Island, he describes planting redwood saplings and writing verse in the shade of an ancient beech tree. 

“Enlivened by decades of work in open fields washed by the salt spray of the Atlantic”—words that describe his prose as well as his vision of connectedness—Scott Chaskey has given us a book for our time. A seed of hope and regeneration in a time of widespread despair.

Genres: Nature, Nonfiction, Memoir, Gardening, Environment, Food, Agriculture

304 pages, Hardcover

Published May 9, 2023

Reviews

[Hannah · Rating 2 out of 5]

1.5 i guess. this book felt like it dragged on forever, i almost DNFed it. i was disappointed because the idea of this book seemed great and wanted to enjoy it, but it just wasn’t for me! i read it because i had it for free on libro.fm and it fit the “local publisher” spot on my summer reading bingo. i thought this would be a much more science-y book but it was much more poetic. the author repeatedly said that “we need to pay more attention” and that people don’t know or care enough about the connections between people and land - which is true in many ways, but felt like a REALLY BOLD claim to make when the entire book was basically a lit review of books and poems other people have written on the subject. how can you say nobody cares, and then spend the whole book talking about what other people have been writing and saying on this for years?? all of this was combined with memoir of the authors own experiences with land, farming, travel, and stories from his time studying and writing poetry with fancy poetry people and writers, which felt self-congratulatory at times tbh. i think the audiobook version was worse than a paper version would have been, because. it was often impossible to tell when he was reading an original poem or idea, or when he was quoting an excerpt from else’s writing, until the end when he would share the source - in a regular book the formatting would clue the reader into this and make it much easier to follow the flow of ideas, other people’s writings, personal stories/essays, etc. but! i did learn some cool facts about different species of trees.

[Sabina · Rating 3 out of 5]

not so much for me. i think to love this book you need to really love both poetry and rambling thought. it is very personal and anecdotal, not so much objective or informative, which wasn't obvious to me going into it.
things i did like: the way this book lifts up the many organizations and people around the world working to bring awareness to/conserve plants and animals, seeds, and natural spaces. i'll have to do a second read through JUST to catch all the names of those organizations i may want to follow in the future. also, chaskey clearly has a deeply rooted and unshakable reverence for the natural world and a wonderful ability to see and love every living thing he encounters, no matter how tiny - i relate to this very much.
things i didn't like: i'm not the biggest fan of books that are BURSTING with quotes from other authors and thinkers on every page. i'm not the biggest fan of writing that rambles and jumps around from subject to subject, different peoples and parts of the world, and literally though hundreds of years in time just to get to the point at the very end of the chapter, it's a bit head spinning!

[Luke · Rating 4 out of 5]

Connection to the garden, to earth, to rock, a broad set of essays entangling poetry, place, transplanted species, indigenous women's voices, community agriculture, global dialog. Only a few of the author's own poem fragments moved me, but his selection of literature and context and experience works to shape a dependent view of the world.

[Kate · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars. I started listening to this while taking a trip to the Chicago Botanic Gardens and listened to it as I strolled around for 2 hours, so that seems fitting.

I wasn't sure what to expect with this book, but it wasn't at all what I expected. It's not really a non-fiction book to learn about plants, but it's not necessarily not that, either. He gets a little scientific at times, but it would be challenging to really digest because of the prose....which I think is the point. It is beautifully written as he writes about the various connections humans have with nature.

At times it was a little over the top (in one essay, he refers to birds as "the nest builders" and the "winged ones" repeatedly and with his narration, it felt more poetry than essay...it felt a little too forced at times and almost made me roll my eyes, but also I'm kind of a cynic who doesn't really get most poetry, so take this with a grain of salt).

I can't say that I necessarily learned anything, because again the prose was more about storytelling and the descriptions and big picture message rather than the details, or at least that's how my brain processed it. I would be interested to revisit it sometime, perhaps in written form or while not walking around and trying to take in nature simultaneously, to see if it makes it more clear to me.

But, I enjoyed it.

Thanks Libro.fm and the publisher for the ALC!

[Lis McLoughlin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Different Pathways to a Common Cause: Finding the Roots of our Right Relationship with Food
A review by Lis McLoughlin of:
Soil and Spirit (Scott Chaskey, Milkweed Editions, 2023)
and
Earth to Tables Legacies (Barndt, Baker, and Gelis, Rowman & Littlefield, 2023)

There are some journeys that are easier to take in the company of good friends. The journey to a better relationship with food is one of them.

Two books, offering two very different types of exploration, and ending in the same place. In both, the journey takes precedence, but the goal—to increase right relationship to food and soil—is the same.

Scott Chaskey's new book Soil and Spirit: Cultivation and Kinship in the Web of Life is for the kind of reader who enjoys a walk in the woods with a good friend. We'd be lucky to have such a friend as the author—someone both widely read, and experienced in working with his hands on the land. Chaskey is a poet who in this work of prose leads the reader smoothly and with great integrity along his decades-long continuing journey in and with Nature. He is a founder of the CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) movement whose love and deep knowledge of plants and soils informs the way he moves through the world. In these pages Chaskey walks with you through fields and texts, introducing you to his friends and colleagues: innovative individuals from all over the world and all walks of life, who revere and work with the land. I thoroughly enjoyed going off-trail to explore Chaskey's personal stories of trees, fields, seeds, and people He Has Known; always brought back by the cogent threads of his astonishing breadth and depth of knowledge of all things plants.

In contrast, Earth to Tables Legacies is a long, rowdy, rambling, group hike. Through vibrant color photos, linked multimedia presentations, and a multitude of other resources for teachers and curious readers, the authors (called "storytellers"), and the editors take great pains to explain who they are, where they come from, and why they do what they do. Here, too, the journey takes precedence, this time as a whirlwind tour of multiple cultures all told in different voices, and sometimes different languages. On this trip we're invited to learn how highly dedicated and skilled individuals are un-earthing (or maybe re-earthing) their heritage to help bring back authentic relationships between people and food and its source, the Earth.

I find myself thinking of cycles writing this. Not just cycles of seasons, but also of years. Both books explicate how this work is done— of reconnecting to the Earth, to the gifts she gives us in the form of nourishment, and why it is essential. They do so for different audiences.

Earth to Tables is full of life, spirit, experimentation¬–as the editors suggest, one giant conversation made up of many, intent on pushing our paradigm away from the neo-liberal interpretation of land as a resource and food as a commodity. It has the fire and urgency of a youthful burst of energy; a celebration of the spark of innovation while caught up in its midst. It will be excellent for college students and others whose attention spans are closer to hummingbirds than to owls. Yet it is not shallow—rather, it's a rich panoply, stories of the depth of the roots of the Indigenous cultures at the base of this movement, and how they are tangled at this moment in gloriously complex dance. The book tells of our present, rooted in past but moving forward in innovative ways with attention to complexities and tensions, but also, with joy. I believe every reader will find something in this book (for me, it was the reminder that "It's Always about Land") that is salient and compels them to read—or better, to do—more.

Yet I confess, at this time in my life, Soil and Spirit calls to me. It too is full of life, spirit, experimentation, and wonderful conversations; it just accomplishes this more quietly and with one voice as your guide. The overall effect is more intimate. Think of a marathon seen from above, the whole long line of it including the leading edge where Chaskey continues to cut trails, using his great and ever-increasing store of knowledge to help us find our way. Chaskey has earned his place out front, he's in it for the long haul. Soil and Spirit helps us as individuals to learn to think of plants and soil as living beings we can talk and listen to, to understand that our food is part—must remain part— of the natural web. Chaskey's work continues, and I find his lines, which speak with a resonant, contemplative maturity, deeply inspiring.

I want every student to read and catch the inspirational spark in Earth to Table Legacies, and then I want them to sink into the deep wisdom of Soil and Spirit to find out how to innovatively and joyfully keep up the good work, long term.

[Jena Best · Rating 3 out of 5]

*Thank you to Libro.fm and Milkweed Editions for the free ALC in exchange for an honest review*

I decided to pick up this short audio copy, both because the topic sounded interesting and because it is one of the selections for the Botany Book Club 2025 at the Greater Des Moines Botanical Gardens. However - I feel more disappointed than I expected. I went into this hoping for a scientific examination of plants from the perspective of a member of the Indigenous community. Don't get me wrong, this was well written and the author reads the audiobook as well, and the narration is perfectly fine. It was just... much more poetic and not tethered in time or place than I thought it would be. My favorite portion was the discussion of the Eden Project, which honestly could have been the majority of the book in my opinion.

[Jennybeast · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was pretty dry and meandering and not very much what I hoped for -- way more philosophical and poetical than memoir or farming centric. However, I really love trees, and this has a lot of tree centered love, so I stuck with it and enjoyed the tree parts. I also appreciate how much love it has for Indigenous peoples and plants. The one thing that drove me crazy is his persistent mispronunciation of Maori. He managed to get most of the Maori words that he referred to correctly, but the actual people? No. Which made me distrust a lot of his other pronunciations. Which is a weird feeling to have when listening to a poet talk about the importance of language and cadence. Eh, the tree bits were excellent.

[Nikki · Rating 3 out of 5]

Repeating a lot of what has already been said...Just not quite what I was expecting based off of the description. A bit too much poetic, meandering prose for someone (like me) who isn't that big on poetry, especially when looking for more detailed story telling around ecological pursuits.

Will hopefully go through and write down the many references to other books, people, and projects to check out. Appreciated the lifting up of indigenous narratives. His love for the natural world is apparent. But...overall, just not a writing style that comes easily to my brain, especially with the chosen topics.

[Tia · Rating 4 out of 5]

The opening chapter was beautifully written and very inspiring. Each chapter weaves together a combination of writing styles:the author's personal story, poetry, philosophical musings, and quotes from notable thinkers. The quotes, in particular, resonated most with me and left me inspired. However, I found most of the other parts of the book hard to follow. So I treated the book as if it were a poem itself, glossing over the confusing parts and concentrating on the emotions it evoked. Despite this approach, I only made it halfway through before deciding not to finish.

[Jeanne Blasberg · Rating 4 out of 5]

I listened to the audio version of this book of essays as I walked our farm in the afternoons. The author's reading voice as well as his poetic prose provided a meditative and spiritual accompaniment to those outings. This essays honor his work as well as the work of many land and seed stewards across the globe. They were also accessible to people who aren't in farming as well and touched this beginning farmer in a way that sparked a sense of knowing and curiousity.

[Riana (RianaInTheStacks)]

DNFed at 32%. Got this as an advanced listening copy from Libro.fm’s ALC program because it sounded like something I might like but wasn’t quite what I was expecting. I wouldn’t say it’s not good, just not of enough interest to me to continue.

[Laurel Becker · Rating 2 out of 5]

What a strange, poetic, live letter to trees. I listened to it, which helped because you could tell the author really cares about nature and our connection to it, but the book itself often fell short of the beauty of that connection and just felt a bit plodding.

[Rose · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a nice little intro to different perspectives on how life is interconnected.

I was provided a free ALC for library employees by Libro.fm.

[Susan Taylor · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thought-provoking. I enjoyed the audio book. Thank you @librofm for the ALC.

[Liv Fragiacomo · Rating 3 out of 5]

dnf, a book that only really talks about other books, really like chapter 5 though

[Joe Kennedy]

I will probably reread this one. I feel like there are some nuggets hiding that will be more apparent a second time around.

[Stephanie Zahrbock]

Milkweed Press author featured at Book Lovers Ball 10/2025

[Todd · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of the most inspiring books about our relationship with nature and cultivation that I have ever read.

[Ed Adams · Rating 5 out of 5]

Scott Chaskey is an irresistible storyteller, and his fascinating narratives revolve around nature, sustainable farming, and poetry from locales in England, America, and China. The author's emphasis on interconnectivity, on the goodness and sacredness of nature, is implicit in his actions and in his stories, though on occasion he speaks directly to our general situation: "The natural world and our participation within it are complex, interconnected, and, I will say, radiant. The persistent need of our species to conquer puts us at odds with the abundance of life that surrounds us, and our refusal to act with reciprocity in mind and heart devolves to a planet in peril. After the age of exploration, we have entered an era of restoration, of the need to know and respect indigenous and diverse life-forms, and the choice to participate, rather than to dominate, is ours to make." Interspersed with specific historical and plant species accounts are autobiographical and literary elements, including fine drawings and strong poems, which are all of a piece. Soil and Spirit is an informative and inspiring book from one prominently on the inside of the sustainable farming movement. The Milkweed Edition that I have, a hardcover copy, is lovingly crafted, and is an aesthetically pleasing experience in itself.

[Deb · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful, lyrical, thought-provoking.
I actually enjoyed the prose more than the poetry.
I knew this book was definitely my cup of tea--it came up as a "Recommended Just For You" from a bookseller I follow on social media just as I was ready to dive into it.