Articles and Essays
I started my career living on a farm, so I wrote for practical magazines like Organic Gardening and Woodburner’s Digest. Then we started a family, so I wrote a lot about family relationships for magazines like Self, Redbook, McCalls, Woman’s Day, Working Mother, Reader’s Digest and Sesame Street Parents. In the 90’s, I was fortunate to a Contributing Editor at Home PC and Family PC, two magazines that published smart, interesting stories about how computers were infiltrating American households. I’ve also written serious essays that were published in the New York Times and Newsweek, but two of my favorite pieces are about being a Mom. Crazy Hair Day captures some of the magic of motherhood, and Waiting for Goats is about a goat named Natasha who taught me much of what I needed to know about motherhood.
Books
The Heirloom Gardener was one of the first books to document the grassroots movement to preserve genetic diversity in fruits and vegetables. Although the book has been out of print for several years, it still enjoys an audience online and I hope to update and reissue it in the future.
“A detailed introduction to and explanation of, heirloom gardening. The author lists those plants which may be considered to be heirlooms and shows how to cultivate them. She gives lengthy lists of resources, libraries, alternative seed companies, individual collectors and seed exchanges. The text is illustrated with sketches from 19th century seed catalogs and includes both a general bibliography and a bibliography of historical sources. A thoroughly comprehensive treatment of the topic and invaluable for the beginner or someone with a general interest.” — Amazon review
Re/Uses was a compilation of ideas about how to reduce, recycle and especially reuse things that might otherwise be thrown away. The book was published in 1983, so some of the ideas are obsolete. Still, the book has a surprisingly loyal online following, perhaps because it’s a creative reminder that tossing something in the trash should never be our first choice!
“I have just gone through your book, “Re/Uses” for the umpteenth time, being inspired all over again to be creative about recycling what I have on hand again, and again, and again…………as there is so much waste. I was first inspired by it years ago when I found it at the library. and when one could use search engines to locate books online I tracked it down, and was lucky enough to get a former library copy – my favorite kind! Every so often I have to go through it and be inspired all over again. Thank you for such a wonderful book!” — Donna Hughes