Stronger Than Dirt : How One Urban Couple Grew a Business, a Family, and a New Way of Life from the Ground Up

by SCHAYE, KIMLOSEE, CHRIS

• ISBN13: 9780609809754
• ISBN10: 060980975X
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Trade Paper
• Copyright: 2003-04-01
• Publisher: Three Rivers Press

Summary

The most farming Kim Schaye and Chris Losee had ever done was a roof garden on top of their Brooklyn townhouse. They got a great gazpacho out of it, but as Kim said, "It's a giant leap from scoring a bowl of soup to earning a living."

But not an impossible leap, as we discover in Stronger Than Dirt, Kim and Chris's delightfuL account, told in alternating "he said, she said" fashion, of their rash (perhaps) but rewarding (certainly) attempt to make a go of it growing things in the Hudson Valley soil Enduring the dropped jaws of friends and family and the snickering of locals with good humor, Kim and Chris battle mulch, bugs, dirt, snow, and deer, as well as their own inexperience, but eventually launch Silverpetals Farm. Now, seven years and one successful business later, they wouldn't trade their new life for anything.

For gardeners of every description, and for anyone who ever wondered what it would be like to pursue a dream, Stronger Than Dirt is joyous reading.

Table of Contents

Prologue	1	(2)
the magical bouquet	3	(16)
the perfect farm?	19	(12)
man versus wood	31	(19)
farm in a box	50	(27)
gardening at night	77	(16)
mulch this!	93	(18)
down & dirty	111	(20)
what now, my bug?	131	(18)
``gonna sell them weeds?''	149	(18)
show me the money	167	(20)
the salamanders' dance	187	(28)
i'm your pusherman	215	(20)
sex & bugs & rocks & holes	235	(22)
unlucky break	257	(18)
one small step	275	(14)
no turning back	289	(12)
Epilogue	301	(2)
Postscript	303