Rural Free

A Farmwife's Almanac of Country Living

Rachel Peden

Narrated by Caroline Miller

Available from Audible

Book published by Indiana University Press

Rural Free, first published in 1961, beautifully conveys the joys of family life on an Indiana farm. Marked by the slow pace and rich variety of seasonal change, Rachel Peden’s narrative offers an authentic month-by-month chronicle of her family’s daily adventures. Today, as the slow-food movement gathers support and more urban dwellers return to the land to plant roots again in honest soil, Peden’s stories of country life and her lessons on sustainability, frugality, and wastefulness gain a special resonance. Rural Free will be a source of inspiration for all who rejoice in rural virtues and the spiritual freedom of country life.

Rachel Peden (1901–1975) was a newspaper columnist and author of The Land, The People and Speak to the Earth.

REVIEWS:

“To all who care about nature and the changing seasons, reading it will be a satisfying experience.”

—Harper's

“Mrs. Peden's observation is amazingly keen, and her ability to sketch with a few strokes, the color and line of a scene or an occasion is, remarkable... This farm wife has written a beautiful and inspiring book.”

—New York Times Book Review

“Rachel Peden is a farmer's wife with an eloquent pen and a superb awareness and understanding of nature. Her observations are laced with inspired philosophies expressed in poetic prose. This is more than an almanac—it's a signpost to richer living.”

—Los Angeles Times

“How much finer our lives would be if we were as attentive to our surroundings as Rachel Peden was to her family, farm, neighbors, and neighborhood. Her ear was equally attuned to rural speech and the grammar of cows, to the creaking of an old house and the chirring of crickets. She rejoiced in every phase of the turning year, every hatching and harvest, every birdsong and blossom, every kind of weather and useful work. Now we can rejoice in the reprinting of this marvelous book. ”

—Scott Russell Sanders, author of A Conservationist Manifesto

“These stories recount far more than just the drudgery of farm chores. Peden's prose is stunning, causing the reader to stop and read again its beauty.”

—indianalivinggreen.com , 1/8/2010

“Poignant and intriguing, Rural Free is worth considering for those who want to gain a better understanding of how most of America lived throughout its history.”

—Library Bookwatch, December 2009