Reclaiming the Commons : Community Farms and Forests in a New England Town

by Brian Donahue; Foreword by Wes Jackson

• ISBN13: 9780300076738
• ISBN10: 0300076738
• Format: Trade Book
• Copyright: 1999-08-11
• Publisher: Yale University Press

Summary

Brian Donahue, an environmental historian, in 1980 was a founder of Land's Sake, a community farm in Weston, Mass. Working with the town's Conservation Commission, Land's Sake cultivates a 25-acre organic fruit, flower, and vegetable farm, makes apple cider and maple syrup, maintains a 65-mile trail system, harvests firewood and timber from 1,500 acres of town forest, and has kept draft horses and sheep. Donahue recounts the joys and sorrows of farming the suburbs, and concludes with a call for all places to protect common land and establish community farms -- especially in the suburbs, where most Americans live and where, like it or not, environmentalists may make their most lasting mark on the world.

Table of Contents

Foreword	ix
Web Jackson
Preface	xiii
Introduction: Wilderness and Suburbia	i
Green Power and Land's Sake	ii
Market Gardening	55	(50)
Livestock and Grass	105	(58)
Tree Crops	163	(54)
The Town Forest	217	(62)
Reclaiming the Commons	279	(32)
Appendix: An Approach to Local Engagement	311	(6)
Notes	317	(8)
Index	325