Gene Logsdon's Blog

The Last Farmer

An Interview in 2001 with Marvelous Marv Grabacre From Gene Logsdon {Thanks to Pamela Smith, an Editor with The Progressive Farmer, we are posting an article by Gene that was published  in the May/June 1984 issue of The New Farm that you may find is still relevant today…} Now that we have entered the 21st […]

Gardening In The Nude (or New Use For Rhubarb)

From Gene Logsdon {Repost: Photo is NOT Carol Logsdon} One of the greatest mysteries of life for me is society’s ambivalence about the naked human body. People line up by the hundreds every day to get a look at Michelangelo’s anatomically-correct statue of David. But if a real live David were to stand naked beside […]

Our Hidden Wound

  Gene Logsdon (1992) I’m a hayseed, I’m a hayseed, and my ears are full of pigweed. How they flop in stormy weather— gosh oh hemlock, tough as leather… —From a children’s rhyme heard in the Midwest in the 1930s and forties. Most of us grew up in a society where farmer was often merely […]

The Economy of Eden

    Gene Logsdon Sun Magazine January 1996 [Rummaging around in some boxes in the garage I came across this quintessential essay by Gene I had copied from The Sun magazine, more than 10 years before we started working together on this blog. -ds] “I have learned how to grow healthy crops,,” wrote Sir Albert […]

The Contrary Farmer

  Gene Logsdon From Our Archives May 2007 A farmer of deep ecological sensitivity is to the plow jockey on his 200-horsepower tractor what a French chef is to the legions of hamburger handlers at fast food chains. The chef’s work is infused with artistic, scientific, and spiritual satisfactions; the hamburger handler’s is infused only […]

Wood Is More Precious Than Gold

  Gene Logsdon From Our Archives January 2008 The price of gold is going crazy as investors look for a shelter from a dipsy-doodling stock market. It reminds me of one of my grandfather’s stories. During the bad financial times of the early 1920s in Germany, the peasants (ancestors of ours) traded their potatoes for […]

GENE LOGSDON: Wood Is More Precious Than Gold

  Gene Logsdon From Our Archives January 2008 The price of gold is going crazy as investors look for a shelter from a dipsy-doodling stock market. It reminds me of one of my grandfather’s stories. During the bad financial times of the early 1920s in Germany, the peasants (ancestors of ours) traded their potatoes for […]

Snow Pastures

  From Our Archives January 2008 GENE LOGSDON For many years I have had an impossible dream for which I give credit to both my now deceased friend, Bob Evans, who made a fortune with a chain of restaurants, and to the American Plains buffalo. What could Bob have in common with the buffalo? Both […]

Gene Logsdon’s Lovable Fable, The Man Who Created Paradise, Just Out in Paperback…

  The Man Who Created Paradise was originally published in a hardcover-only edition back in 2001. Ohio University Press continued to field requests when the book was no longer available, but it was a difficult reprint thanks to the square format and the halftone photos. At long last, we’re proud to bring Gene’s inspirational fable back […]

What Kind of Tree Do Acorns Grow On?

      From Our Archives – October 2007 GENE LOGSDON (1931 – 2016) The Contrary Farmer A teacher friend called recently with a strange message. “I just found out that a lot of people don’t know what tree acorns grow on.” He (I will call him John because that’s his name) first became aware […]