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Aug 18, 2011

Judy rated it:

So there I was, eating haute cuisine in a mobile home. He cooked for me as seduction, a courtship, so that I'd never again be impressed with a man who simply took me out to dinner. And I fell in love with him over a deer's liver.

Kristin Kimball lived, breathed and played in NYC until the fateful day she visited an organic farm with the intent of writing a magazine article. Dressed like a city girl she got drafted to help out until the farm's owner could spare time to talk to her. That More...

13 comments like (8 people liked it)

May 21, 2011

Sarah rated it:

This book fits into the whole foods, local grown, thinking ecologically about how we eat genre that is popular these days. Coming from Nebraska, it was nice to read a book that talks about farming as a nontrivial, nonmenial career. I suppose some might argue that Kimball glorifies it all a bit more than she should, but I'm not convinced. She talks about sleeping in a rat infested house and goes into pretty explicit detail about animal slaughter and birth. I tend to enjoy the whole local gro More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Mar 14, 2011

Daniel rated it:

As I was reading what I knew would be the last few sentences of this book and then forced to, reluctantly, put it down I took solace in the idea and fact that as I was reading here today Kristin and husband Mark and their team on the farm were actually out working, doing many of the things I read about in her book. So, maybe there will be a sequel, the next 7 or so years.
Somehow in a very deep way this effort from Kristin Kimball touched me, connected the dots in me and for me in w More...

4 comments like (6 people liked it)

Jan 04, 2011

Megan rated it:

This was a fun read. It is about a 30ish woman who was a journalist in New York. She went out on an assignment about organic farming, meets a farmer and soon is living with said farmer. This book is the story of how they set up their farm, the work and their lives. I now want a couple of draft horses and some chickens.

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Nov 28, 2011

Christie rated it:

A dirty life indeed: pig entrails, a pit bull attacking and mauling a beloved Jersey cow, animal slaughter described in vivid detail and a rat infested home are just a few examples of the life Kristin Kimball chooses on an impulse, then grows into slowly, deeply. She chucks her Manhattan lifestyle and job for the backbreaking work of a 500 acre, organic farm, not knowing quite what she is getting into but better off for that, as it turns out. I laughed out loud at her descriptions of her wedding More...

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Nov 12, 2011

Wendy rated it:

I'd like to give it 3.5 stars, but since it won't let me, I'll have to go with 3. She gives a full and amazing description of the work involved in starting their farm. Any romantic notions of the life of organic farming, or working with teams of horses rather than tractors are absolutely put into perspective. You can feel the sheer exhaustion, but at the same time, feel the love and dedication they had (and still have) to making it work.

What I would love to have seen much more of More...

1 comment like

Nov 07, 2011

Maureen rated it:

It's hard to decide if this is a love story about farming or the author's husband. Both came as a complete surprise to the author. Kristin writes with great humor and exquisite detail about how a "rustic" style farm operates, without chemicals and with reliance on horses and hand labor over tractors and engine-powered machines. The farm life descriptions are fascinating, I really enjoyed learning along with her and Mark as they tried, failed, and succeeded at the various tasks (e.g More...

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Oct 31, 2011

Melody rated it:

The interesting thing about this book was Kimball's point of view, which is never more than 5 feet distant from the muck. This is not some soft-focus, romantic tale (though if that's what you are looking for, see my recent review of The Pioneer Woman: Black Heels to Tractor Wheels -- A Love Story) but rather a book wherein you find yourself up close with the author, smelling the contents of a gored bull's wound for intestinal spillage, and when she finds it, knowing there's about to be a gunshot More...

1 comment like

Oct 14, 2011

Penny rated it:

This is the second book I've read about a woman who makes a dramatic course change in her life (the previous one was Black heels and tractor wheels by Ree Drumond). I sure hope this isn't a premonition of some sort.

However, if it is, both of the women ended up quite happy with their new lives, so it wouldn't be all bad.

In this book Kristin is a freelance travel writer living in New York city. As part of a writing assignment she meets Mark, who is running an organic farm More...

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Aug 13, 2011

Heather rated it:

This was given to me by my friend,Sarah. She just knew I would love this story and she was so completely correct. I could barely put this book down once I got started, which surprised me, because I didn't expect to love it *that* much. The Dirty Life fell right in line with my interest in sustainable agriculture and farming as it followed Kristin and her husband through the beginning of their romance to their ultimate destiny as husband and wife farmers in the Northeast.

Along the way More...

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Jun 08, 2011

Natalie rated it:

The story of a writer from NYC who visits a young farmer, falls in love and joins him on their journey to create a new type of CSA together. It is a quick, fun read that pulls you into their adventures. I could not put it down!

The one thing that I did not like was the fact that the couple was co-habitating during their engagement. I make mention of this mostly because the wedding is the climactic point in the book and the stress and tension between them as they struggle against th More...

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Jun 05, 2011

Janet rated it:

This was a delightful, honest account of one woman's adventure going from the life of a Manhattan writer to a full-time farmer on a farm that is not only self-sustaining but provides enough animal products, grain, and vegetables to support more than one hundred other people.

Kimball's story begins when she travels from New York to Pennsylvania to interview a man who runs a community farm that provides subscribers with eggs, vegetables, pork, and chicken. To her surprise, she finds herse More...

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May 19, 2011

Kate rated it:

After the first few pages of this book, I was sure it was going to be a detailed description of various meals the author had eaten. I wouldn't have minded as she is a kickass writer. But the book is more than that. It's how a Harvard-educated New York city writer falls in love with a Swarthmore-educated no-nonsense farmer, and how they build a life together, creating an over-the-top organic farm in upstate New York. And, as the title suggests, it's a dirty life--full of pigs, pig entrails, co More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

May 12, 2011

Joy H. marked it as to-read

_The Dirty Life: On Farming, Food, and Love_ by Kristin Kimball (Published October 12th 2010 by Scribner)
Added 5/12/11.
Our local public library has just announced a "Community-Wide Reading Experience" featuring this book. The purpose of the event is to connect people through reading. The event will run from May 19, 2011 to October 6, 2011. The event is being run in conjunction with the library's Folklife Center program called “Foodways: Documenting the Local".

More...

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May 01, 2011

JM rated it:

As soon as I picked it up, I couldn't put it down. That's not like me.

This is the book you want to read before you decide to chuck it all and buy a little piece of land and grow the dream. This is real. This is what happens when you aren't living a pretty little movie. This is what happens when you aren't rich, aren't experienced, and don't have everything coming easy at you.

After reading this, I felt like if I looked down at my hands, they'd be raw, red, rough, and my finge More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Apr 25, 2011

711Isabel B rated it:

I read THE DIRTY LIFE, by Kristin Kimball, and I found it really interesting.

The memoir tells about the life of Kristin Kimball and her husband, Mark, an organic farmer with big dreams. He wants to start a CSA style farm, although producing not only vegetables for the members, but the whole diet - eggs, meat, milk, vegetables, etc. He convinces Kristin to marry him, then moves her out of the city, eventually to a 500 acre farm, where they begin work. The work is incredibly hard, as t More...

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Apr 21, 2011

Caroline rated it:

I often wake up frightfully early and rather than turn on the light to read a book, I grab my Ipad and read the Kindle books. I don't need a light for it. So, I got this book because I started gardening and I read an exerpt of this book and I wanted to see where the story went. It's nonfiction and it's about the writer, Kristin, A girl. currently living in NYC lower east village and she meets a farmer from PA. She is interviewing him about his farm and they make an unusual connection. He is More...

2 comments like

Apr 10, 2011

Happyreader rated it:

What starts off as kind of a frothy agricultural romance turns into a “God, looking after farm animals is back-breaking work.” It’s been a month since I read this book and what sticks with me are all the animal tales of toil. Who knew, for instance, that if animals leave their fenced-in pasture area that it’s a potentially deadly situation. I now fully appreciate why my father, with the exception of a brief stint with six steers, never incorporated animals into our family farm. Animal husban More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Mar 28, 2011

Lori rated it:

The author clearly shies away from the "love" part of the title, as she does in her real life, but I'll forgive her for that. The book is more about her transition from city girl to farmer, and I enjoyed reading it. I don't think I learned too many new things, except that it's okay to compost your dead horse. Kimball is a decent writer, but I'd like to see her develop a sense of suspense. We all knew she'd get married in the end, even when she took off for Hawaii on a travel writing as More...

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Mar 07, 2011

Janine rated it:

As a city girl now soon to be farmer, I was drawn to this book. You can see the authenticity of the author's love for her choice to become a farmer by the way she is able to make something like farming that is so hard, dangerous, frustrating and risky sound so glamourous. I was looking for the answer: "What draws a city girl, world traveler to the dirty life of farming?" I felt like each memory she shares provides the reader with the author is really saying about work, love, commitment More...

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Mar 06, 2011

Rhonda rated it:

This book was interesting to me in a couple ways...it was about the farming life, and also about a woman who gave up her city life to live in the farm...
And I mean the rough life on the farm.

Author Kristin Kimball was a writer in New York City assigned to write an article on a young farmer...she feels attracted to his unique way of life, they date each other and eventually she gives up her lease and moves in...
This is not your typical farm of today...Mark did not believ More...

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Mar 04, 2011

Michelle rated it:

Kristin Kimball is a woman in command of her words. You should read this book, not just because the subject matter is interesting, but because Kimball's prose is a pleasure to read. While not quite approaching the novelishness of such memoirs as Running with Scissors (in which the fictionesque tone actually casts doubt as to how much is true to life, especially in dialogue), Kimball's memoir is a rich piece of storytelling, achieving drama, humor, and even suspense - something uncommon to memoir More...

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Nov 02, 2010

Denise rated it:

Kristin Kimball was living the high, city life, partying late into the night, wearing the latest fashions. A journalist in her mid thirties, she was yearning for something different, something that felt more like home. When she is sent to write an article on a young man running a local farm she finds what she is looking for in both the man and his dreams of a home on a farm. Soon the two of them are ensconced on a 500 acre farm trying to realize Mark's vision of a farm that would provide familie More...

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Sep 07, 2010

Jackie rated it:

Kristin was very much a city girl until a writing assignment
brought her to Mark's small plot of land where he was growing food to feed many, many families. It was love at first sight, at least for the farming. Falling for Mark didn't take too much more time after that. They get together and find a farm that a generous man who fell for the both of them let them have for free for a year. It was no prize, at least to the eye, but they dive in and manage to have it up and running within a y More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Aug 11, 2011

Sarah rated it:

I am on a farming/memoir kick and this one was great! like This Life In your Hands, The Dirty Life chronicled the start up of a farm that would sustain life and possibly bring in income but that's where the similarity ends. The Dirty Life is not a tragedy and still kept it real. Kristin Kimball is a journalist who's kinda doing her thing in NYC when she gets an assignment to go to farm. She doesn't go too much into the assignment but once she gets there she pretty much falls in love with the fa More...

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Jan 20, 2011

Alexis rated it:

This non-fiction book begins as a young journalist from the city interviews a hot, young, single farmer and falls in love with him. They move to the country, decide to get married and start up their own CSA.

Question number one- I'm an agricultural journalist. WHY HASN'T THIS HAPPENED TO ME????

(Perhaps it is because I interview farmers all the time, but generally they aren't young, single or hot. Admittedly, some of the older farmers who like me often make a point of ment More...

4 comments like (3 people liked it)

Feb 17, 2012

Terri rated it:

This book gives you an in-depth, up close and personal view of life on a small farm. How it operates, the chores, the exhaustion of doing everything the old fashioned way (draft horses instead of tractors), sacrifices made, trying to fit in a marriage, learning all the ins and outs of taking care of animals, along with learning how to connect and work within the framework of a small community vs. living in an apartment in New York. I'm drawn to these types of books because I too have a love fo More...

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Jul 26, 2011

Shannan rated it:

Full disclosure: I listened to the audio version of this book. I believe it was the author who read the book and so it was like a mother reading a book to her children.

The book describes the author's transition from city life to farming life. She and her husband start a full service CSA where they supply a person's full diet including meat, poultry, dairy, eggs, vegetables. I love this concept and I loved hearing how this couple toiled their way through the beginnings of their farm. More...

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Apr 24, 2011

Jackie rated it:

I enjoyed this memoir and Ms. Kimball's story. It really was quite fascinating that she would give up everything she knew: her career, her home, her city all for love and a farm. During parts of the story I totally wanted to become a vegetable farmer. I quickly got over it and realized that a small garden with a few tomato plants would be all that I could ever manage though.
There was a lot of farming jargon that I did not understand. I was reading it on my Nook, so I did a half-hearted More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Aug 17, 2011

Anne rated it:

The first two chapters about a NYC city girl falling in love and moving to a farm are endearing and funny. Kristin is a very good writer and she had really captured my attention at this point. But the book slowed down for me once the author got to her new life. Kristin was a travel writer prior to this farm gig and uses those skills to describe, in great detail, every experience, every piece of machinery and how it is used and every animal that is bought and slaughtered, etc.. All of th More...

14 comments like (3 people liked it)

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