Spotted Pigs & Green Tomatoes: A Year in the Life of Our Farm

by Rosie Boycott

After leaving the editorship of the Daily Express , Rosie Boycott wasn't sure what to do next. A terrible car accident forced her to rethink her life, turning her in a direction she would never have previously imagined. Working a small farm in Somerset proves a daunting task, but Rosie and her new husband Charlie are determined, and their immersion in rural living, hilarious and profoundly moving, reaps rewards they never expected. Pigs, ducks and geese are fattened for the butcher; vegetables and cut flowers are grown for a reluctant marketplace; and Rosie and Charlie discover much about the hard graft of running a smallholding. They learn too about weightier issues that affect the local community of Ilminster - particularly the new supermarket that threatens the soul of the local town centre. And Rosie finds recovery in the rhythms of the seasons.

Genres: Nonfiction, Animals

320 pages, Print on Demand (Paperback)

First published January 1, 2007

About the author

Rosie Boycott is a journalist and author.
She was educated at Cheltenham Ladies' College and then went on to study pure maths at Kent University.

In the early seventies she co-founded Spare Rib magazine and Virago Press.

She has worked on The Daily Mail, The Sunday Telegraph, Harpers & Queen and Esquire but is probably best known for her role as editor of The Independent on Sunday, The Independent, and The Express

Reviews

[Ami Lahoff · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rosie Boycott was entertaining at times, but it was obvious that she is a columnist, as many of the chapters of the book would have worked better if shortened. The book felt disjointed and technical at times. I thought it would be more of a romantic memoir of life in the countryside, but more than half of the book was a rant against Big Box groceries and stores.

[Rosalynn · Rating 2 out of 5]

Only half way through and finding already skimming a few sections as the author tends to leave the plot and story behind to interrupt with we pursuit of beating down the large superstore chains. While I agree they are bad and I recognize that battle was a big part of her first year on the farm, that's not why I'm reading the book I want to her more about the pigs, chickens, ducks, and garden. If I wanted to read about her attempt to stop Tesco coming to her village I would have bought "small farm vs tesco".

[JournalsTLY]

This book is loaded - way more than pigs, rosemary and potato farming . It uncovers how a revising traffic flow , making some streets into a one way drive would drive some shops out of business.

Published in 2008 , and I am now reading this when on a camping trip on the Okavango Delta ( hey - the delta is mentioned in the book) - the issues of food miles (distance that food traveled from production to consumption ), the care of soil , the migration of cheap labour and the incessant drive for maximising profits are hot potato issues of our day.

At times, you can feel being transported to the midst of workers who just lost their jobs - feeling the despondence. Other times , could almost toasts the pies and sausages at the farmers market .

A book with many diversions - but that’s the reality of being a thinking farmer ; one that has to vigorously balance the books and feed the pigs.

[Judith Falkner · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another book that became difficult to read because the author included many facts concerning the takeover of our shopping habits by multinational giants and the way our food is processed by them.
I was confused why so many figures were included on the losses incurred by the small holding. Presumably these were to dissuade others from thinking they are actually going to make money whilst they don’t know what they are doing.
Delightful in places, indigestible in others.

[Winny Wood · Rating 3 out of 5]

I did quite like this book but mainly found it interesting as I live near Ilminster. There are some funny bits but it's also a bit dull and obsessed with how much money the farm makes which of course is very important for them but not very interesting for the reader. Written in the early 2000s it now feels a bit dated and the fight between town and Tesco is kind of sad and slightly depressing. The book left me feeling a bit depressed really.

[John Were · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed this well-researched, well-structured, more or less balanced account of a period in the life of Rosie Boycott. Rosie contrasts the large corporate worlds of news and retail with her erstwhile career as a newspaper editor and her current career as a part-time smallholder in the Somerset countryside. The contrast is often a poignant one of helplessness in the face of greater powers mitigated by friendship, support, and the cycle of life as seen when a lot of time is spent at ground level.

At its most obvious, Rosie contrasts the impending arrival of Tesco to the market town of Ilminster and the subsequent effect this will have on the local retailers, with the successful reintroduction of the Large Blue butterfly to the sheep-grazed Somerset pastures. Interwoven with these tensions of large organisations versus the individual are the more intimate strains of Rosie Boycott’s personal life from love of husband and daughter, who sometimes must play second fiddle to a career woman’s ambitions, to the barren period of depression, irrigated with alcohol, after losing her job at the Daily Express.

It seems to me, from reading the reviews other readers have left which talk of frustrated expectations, that the book has been mis-marketed. It is not a straight addition to the growing genre of smallholding literature and it is certainly not a grow-your-own manual. It is more and less than that: it is an honest, and sometimes raw account of a woman in the latter half of her life learning to live again. As such, I recommend it.

[Simon Whaley · Rating 3 out of 5]

It took me a while to get going with this, but after about the first third of the book I was engrossed. This isn't just about running a small holding, although we get a lot of detail about income and expenditure - a useful insight into the precariousness of running such a small holding.

This is also a book about changing perspectives in life. This is about Rosie rebuilding her life after her terrible accident. It's about being part of a small community, after running one of the country's biggest newspapers. It's about trying to establish a small holding and supplying the produce to local outlets, whilst the local community fights the arrival of Tescos.

And this is also a salutary lesson about what can happen when not enough people want to get involved with their local parish council. Here, Boycott suggests that had the parish council members been elected by the local community, rather than co-opted (which is what can happen when there is a lack of people wanting to stand for the parish council) then perhaps the town's decision about the one way system, if not Tescos.

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book didn't get great reviews from several people on Amazon.co.uk, but I really enjoyed reading it. Ok, so it wasn't all about running a smallholding, as it discusses the building of a new Tesco store in Ilminster, and the effect on the town, amongst other things. Overall I found the book entertaining and enjoyable.

[Carol · Rating 3 out of 5]

The title of my book is "Spotted Pigs and Green Tomatoes: A Year in the Life of our Farm" so I'm a bit confused with Goodreads at the moment.

A bit too jumpy-around-y for my non-fiction tastes, but I think some readers will enjoy her story. Since she was a weekend farmer, I didn't feel for her situation as much as I would if this was her main source of income.

[Ginger · Rating 5 out of 5]

If ever you are thinking of starting a farm, grab this book and read it! It is a doc about just that. Set in England. It portrays the do's and don'ts and the pit falls that will surly be there. It is well written and I was hardly ever bored. I learned a lot about things I never knew. Like it when that happens.

[Douglas · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very readable book by a journalist who took up pig farming with her husband using her golden handshake after being sacked as editor of a national newspaper. In deepest Somerset the enemy is the ruthless supermarket firm Tesco. Very entertaining and sensible.

[Gemma · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well written description of setting up a farm in a village with modern day threats of supermarkets etc looming. Made me want to buy a veg growing small business with coffee shop (with books & mags) attached immediately.....

[Victoria Bell · Rating 2 out of 5]

Morwena

[Gerdav · Rating 3 out of 5]

The frankness of the author made this book enjoyable and the switch in focus... from supermarkets ruining the world versus what fat boy ate next. (library book)