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Trauma Farm: A Rebel History of Rural Life
Beginning naked in the darkness Brian Brett takes us on a journey through a summer’s day that also tells the story of his affectionately named Trauma Farm—exploring the garden, orchards, fields, the mysteries of live-stock and poultry, and the social intricacies of rural communities.
Both a memoir and a natural history of the small mixed farm, this eighteen-year-long day travels forward and backward in time, taking us all the way from Babylon to globalization and demonstrating the importance of both tall tales and rigorous science as Brett contemplates the perfection of the egg and the nature of soil or offers a scathing critique of agribusiness and the modern slaughterhouse. Whether discussing the uses and misuses of gates, examining the energy of seeds, or bantering with his family and neighbors, Brett remains aware of the miracles of life, birth, and death and the ecological paradoxes that confront the rural world every day.
Threaded with a deep knowledge of biology and botany, Trauma Farm is an erudite, poetic, passionate, and frequently hilarious portrait of rural life and a rich and thought-provoking meditation on the modern world.
Both a memoir and a natural history of the small mixed farm, this eighteen-year-long day travels forward and backward in time, taking us all the way from Babylon to globalization and demonstrating the importance of both tall tales and rigorous science as Brett contemplates the perfection of the egg and the nature of soil or offers a scathing critique of agribusiness and the modern slaughterhouse. Whether discussing the uses and misuses of gates, examining the energy of seeds, or bantering with his family and neighbors, Brett remains aware of the miracles of life, birth, and death and the ecological paradoxes that confront the rural world every day.
Threaded with a deep knowledge of biology and botany, Trauma Farm is an erudite, poetic, passionate, and frequently hilarious portrait of rural life and a rich and thought-provoking meditation on the modern world.
384 pages, Paperback
First published September 29, 2009
33 people are currently reading
927 people want to read
About the author
Brian Brett
18 books14 followersBrian Brett, former chair of the Writers’ Union of Canada and a journalist for four decades, is best known as a poet, memoir writer, and fictionist. He is the author of twelve books including the poetry collection, “The Colour Of Bones In A Stream,” and the novel, “Coyote: A Mystery.” His memoir, “Uproar’s Your Only Music,” was a Globe and Mail’s Book Of The Year selection by Ronald Wright: “The most exciting Canadian book I’ve read all year. ” His best-seller, “Trauma Farm: A Rebel History of Rural Life,” won numerous prizes, including the Writers’ Trust annual award for best Canadian non-fiction book. His new poems: “To Your Scattered Bodies Go” won the CBC poetry prize in 2011. A collection of poems and prose poems about an endangered watershed in the near-arctic, “The Wind River Variations” has just been released. He is currently completing the third of a trilogy of memoirs, “Tuco And The Scattershot World: A Life With Birds.”
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 80 reviews
March 17, 2014
A beautifully written book about the joys and sorrows of running a small farm with the occasional reflection on how governmental bureaucracy and decisions are sadly making small farm ownership an impossibility. So enjoy the poetry of the writing and support your local farmers' market.
November 28, 2018
I had various emotions while reading this book about farming in a small island community in Canada. Frustration over how all the government regulations make it impossible for the small farmer to compete and favor the corporate farmer that raises livestock in cramped factory farms where the animals never see the light of day. Horror at how the animals are treated in the factory farms(even though I live in farm country too and pretty much knew it already, I am one of those in the book that dont want to know what my meat looked like before it came to the store). Happiness for his own animals and pets and how wonderfully they were treated by him and how quite a few of them were almost like family. Sadness when those animals had to depart from this world. And a lot of sadness and frustration when a lot of this book tells how humans are basically destroying the earth with their methods of farming and factories. This guy is truly a steward of the land and that is something that is rapidly becoming one of the endangered species that he talks so much about in the book.
February 16, 2018
4 1/2 but closer to a 5 than a 4 so I'm rounding it up.
This book first caught my eye when I spotted it over at Under My Apple Tree . I love these true life farm stories. It takes me back to those days when I wanted to live in the land of “The Little House On the Prairie” instead of the sometimes scary city where I grew up.
As expected, I enjoyed this audiobook from the very beginning. It’s a little bit quirky and the author, who is also a poet, has a wondrous talent for description. He was born with a condition he calls “middlesex” (perhaps slang taken from this book that I never finished?). He was told he wouldn’t live to be forty but he proved them wrong because he’s well past that now. He needed hormone therapy and as a child clothing bothered his skin. At least this is what he uses as an excuse when he tells tales of himself wandering his property in only his nudie pants. I believe his childhood and health condition are the reason why even on his bad days he seems to embrace life and enjoy every moment. He is mindful of his surroundings and listening to him might make you long for a life lived closer to the soil. His love for his 10 acre farm and everyone near him really comes through in his memoir and before I knew it, I realized was nearly finished the 11 + hour audio and could’ve easily have listened to 11 hours more.
Though the author calls his farm “Trauma Farm” it’s more of an inside joke. I’m not going to lie, this book is filled with vignettes that might you wince or get teary but it’s not gratuitous and there are plenty of lighter moments to balance out the harder realities of life on a small farm. He recounts the 18 years he and his family have spent on his farm and tells his stories in no particular order. I’m glad I chose to listen to this on audio. I’m not sure it would’ve worked quite as well for me in book form.
My favorite parts were the animal stories, of course, which were so vividly written and often funny as well as heartbreakingly tragic but that’s how it goes when one shares their lives with pets and livestock. He tells of a hen, who after hatching twenty chicks, decides she’s tired of their endless demands and devises a devious plan to thin out her flock. These beasts are far more intelligent than we realize if we’d only pay attention . . .
Along with the animal stories he paints a picture of community, of desperation and exhaustion and goes into justified rants about the mess that big agriculture and government regulations have made of the food system and the difficulties that small farms face to produce good, honest organic food. It sounds like a difficult life but even through the endless days there is a sense of fulfillment that shines through his words.
I’d say if you’re interested in animals, small scale farming and the horrors of big agri-business and resulting madness of the current food system you’ll find this very readable (maybe you’ll even love it) but if you’re not interested in that stuff you might find bits of it a little boring. I have an undying fascination with these things and found it entertaining and informative and I loved the quirkiness and beautiful, poetic writing that brought it all to life.
Narration Notes: Michael Puttonen has a charming and inviting voice and I enjoyed listening to him narrate all 11 + hours of this memoir. He gets a serious tone when narrating the bleaker bits that fits the tone just right.
*The FTC makes me declare that I received a copy of this audiobook from the Publisher via Audio Jukebox in exchange for a review.
This book first caught my eye when I spotted it over at Under My Apple Tree . I love these true life farm stories. It takes me back to those days when I wanted to live in the land of “The Little House On the Prairie” instead of the sometimes scary city where I grew up.
As expected, I enjoyed this audiobook from the very beginning. It’s a little bit quirky and the author, who is also a poet, has a wondrous talent for description. He was born with a condition he calls “middlesex” (perhaps slang taken from this book that I never finished?). He was told he wouldn’t live to be forty but he proved them wrong because he’s well past that now. He needed hormone therapy and as a child clothing bothered his skin. At least this is what he uses as an excuse when he tells tales of himself wandering his property in only his nudie pants. I believe his childhood and health condition are the reason why even on his bad days he seems to embrace life and enjoy every moment. He is mindful of his surroundings and listening to him might make you long for a life lived closer to the soil. His love for his 10 acre farm and everyone near him really comes through in his memoir and before I knew it, I realized was nearly finished the 11 + hour audio and could’ve easily have listened to 11 hours more.
“Each of us holds within us the homeland of our dreams and this is mine.”
Though the author calls his farm “Trauma Farm” it’s more of an inside joke. I’m not going to lie, this book is filled with vignettes that might you wince or get teary but it’s not gratuitous and there are plenty of lighter moments to balance out the harder realities of life on a small farm. He recounts the 18 years he and his family have spent on his farm and tells his stories in no particular order. I’m glad I chose to listen to this on audio. I’m not sure it would’ve worked quite as well for me in book form.
My favorite parts were the animal stories, of course, which were so vividly written and often funny as well as heartbreakingly tragic but that’s how it goes when one shares their lives with pets and livestock. He tells of a hen, who after hatching twenty chicks, decides she’s tired of their endless demands and devises a devious plan to thin out her flock. These beasts are far more intelligent than we realize if we’d only pay attention . . .
Along with the animal stories he paints a picture of community, of desperation and exhaustion and goes into justified rants about the mess that big agriculture and government regulations have made of the food system and the difficulties that small farms face to produce good, honest organic food. It sounds like a difficult life but even through the endless days there is a sense of fulfillment that shines through his words.
I’d say if you’re interested in animals, small scale farming and the horrors of big agri-business and resulting madness of the current food system you’ll find this very readable (maybe you’ll even love it) but if you’re not interested in that stuff you might find bits of it a little boring. I have an undying fascination with these things and found it entertaining and informative and I loved the quirkiness and beautiful, poetic writing that brought it all to life.
Narration Notes: Michael Puttonen has a charming and inviting voice and I enjoyed listening to him narrate all 11 + hours of this memoir. He gets a serious tone when narrating the bleaker bits that fits the tone just right.
*The FTC makes me declare that I received a copy of this audiobook from the Publisher via Audio Jukebox in exchange for a review.
June 24, 2010
I want to recommend this book to anyone who's ever thought it would be cool to live on a farm and/or who's appalled (sometimes) by the urban life, its mechanized routines, the flavorless processed foods and addictive chemicals we consume here. Trauma Farm is part memoir, part history, part polemic, part poetry. Brett occupies the fairly unique position of being able to be both romantic about the joys of farming and quite cynical and critical about the near-impossibility of surviving while fighting the factory farm, genetically-modified food, industrial processing hegemony that is modern agriculture. He's an organic all-round farmer who raises livestock, a variety of vegetable, fruit, and flower crops, and ponders the complexities of the ecosystem he is not only inhabiting but creating -- all of which he can accomplish in the relatively utopian setting of Salt Spring Island in British Columbia. Even with the turn to "organic" produce and buying local, small farmers are beleaguered--just ask one of your guys at the farmers' market next time you pick up some arugula and goat cheese. While the book offers a bitter indictment of globalization and government over-regulation that are destroying our environment as well as our enjoyment of real food and "natural" living, it also depicts a romantic and nostalgic world few people experience any more. It's both pessimistic and hopeful. I could open up the book on any page and find something beautiful or provocative to quote, but maybe I'll just throw the opening paragraph at you:
A farm is both theory and worms. Once it was the bridge between wilderness and civilization; now it has become a lonely preserve for living with what remains of the natural landscape -- a failing companion to a diminishing number of hunter-gatherer societies, a few parks, and the surviving wilderness. There is a science to farming, but one of its by-products is the terrifying logic of the factory farm. There is also a history of traditional practices, some delicious and others scary. Those traditions, along with the small farms remaining, are being crushed by regulation and globalization.
September 21, 2010
Brian Brett has managed to mix the bad news with the good news - that is, our factory farms, our cruel and unhealthy methods of raising and slaughtering animals, and the 'botanical holocaust' we are perpetrating with genetically engineered produce - with the alternatives to all these, that is, the small farms, the locally grown vegetables, and the people who are "rebelling" against a short-sighted concept of progress.
And the stories of his farm, his trees, animals, the people, of Salt Spring Island itself (not so far from where I live) are all woven in. Not only is Brett informative, he's entertaining and unflinching - farm life is not pretty, there is death, gore, and tragedy; but there is variety and interest and, above all, a sense of involvement, and connection with the natural world and it's rhythms, and an arena for the individual to act according to conscience and not according to social mores. This book gives plenty of food for thought.
And the stories of his farm, his trees, animals, the people, of Salt Spring Island itself (not so far from where I live) are all woven in. Not only is Brett informative, he's entertaining and unflinching - farm life is not pretty, there is death, gore, and tragedy; but there is variety and interest and, above all, a sense of involvement, and connection with the natural world and it's rhythms, and an arena for the individual to act according to conscience and not according to social mores. This book gives plenty of food for thought.
May 29, 2024
If I could give this more than 5 stars I would. This might just be my new favourite book!! I finished it up the night before my wedding and I think I made mention of it to at least two people at my own wedding! It’s that good and that important. I wish this was required high school reading. Dear friends, be prepared for me to never stop discussing this book.
January 13, 2023
This book started out as an enjoyable read. The longer one read, the more repetitive it became. I also live on a small farm in a rural area being engulfed by development and new families with no idea where their food comes from. So I related to many of the things the author wrote about.
His word choices were in many cases lovely. And I agreed with him on many points he made. Just got tired of reading the same sentiment in every other chapter. After a while it was exhausting.
His word choices were in many cases lovely. And I agreed with him on many points he made. Just got tired of reading the same sentiment in every other chapter. After a while it was exhausting.
June 16, 2016
Eleven months after beginning this book, I am finally finished and it was no small effort. Essentially, Brett muses about life on his small farm and shares the trials, the accomplishments, the rewards and the mundane of his farming days. With just a short ferry ride between my island and his, I was looking forward to similarities in our lives. But no. There are definitely some gems of thought hidden in these pages, but you have to wade through his patronizing lectures to find them. Endlessly speaking atop his soap-box in his holier-than-thou tone, he puts down everyone from the ignorant to the educated, from the dreaded citified to his own island neighbours. We are left to imagine what his neighbours think of him, he who, among other things, traipses around naked, shot off his own finger and nearly crushed their occupied car during a tree falling incident. Although he admits to having had to learn about farming the hard way, he looks down on anyone who has ever made a mistake or a poor choice. In his enlightened state, he truly is a loose cannon who admits to having attempted to discipline strangers' children, becoming irate at the local annual fair volunteers and playing spiteful tricks on his guests, trying to scare them senseless. He praises the efforts of farm markets and eating locally but then admits that he does not even frequent his own local farmers' market.
His views on agri-business, factory farming and government bureaucracy are valuable as are his predictions of the fall of mankind due to our over-dependency on technology and paying attention to the wrong kind of information. He wants his reader to recognize that we are losing our connection to the land, if we have not already lost it. My favourite quote:
It is truths like this that prodded me to continue sifting through the rest of his minutiae for many months. With some heavy-handed editing and a ballsy editor, this could have been a 4-star treasure.
His views on agri-business, factory farming and government bureaucracy are valuable as are his predictions of the fall of mankind due to our over-dependency on technology and paying attention to the wrong kind of information. He wants his reader to recognize that we are losing our connection to the land, if we have not already lost it. My favourite quote:
We live in an age of trivia, not information. ... When I consider the sixteenth-century peasant who supposedly knew so little, I think of someone who could smell hay and recognize its food value, identify hundreds of medicinal flowers, berries, and vegetables, and tell you when to plant or harvest and how to preserve; someone who could milk a cow and create or fix almost any tool in the house; someone who lived for the most part in grace with the natural environment ... What can we say to a world where a child on a bus in Vancouver looks out the window and asks his mother, "Is that a crow?"
It is truths like this that prodded me to continue sifting through the rest of his minutiae for many months. With some heavy-handed editing and a ballsy editor, this could have been a 4-star treasure.
October 20, 2009
A fascinating and meditative and poetic look at farming and farming life from one of Canada's underrated writers. I'm going to review this book for my Ink column, so I won't write more about it. I really enjoyed it.
May 12, 2012
Lots of trauma but many funny, funny stories in Trauma Farm. It's a real insight into a life immersed in the natural world of a small farm. Those of us who live in cities should be paying attention to voices like Brian Brett's.
January 31, 2017
Astonishingly beautiful, filled with heartbreak and happiness, poetry and terrible truth.
May 22, 2017
The premise: the author and his wife buy a run-down farm on Salt Spring Island and make an effort at small-time traditional farming.
The story: Brian Brett tells the story of 18 years of small-farm experience as an "18-year day". That is, all of his anecdotes and stories are laid out as if in the story of "a day in the life...". The concept is original and suits the sharing of farming anecdotes to a tee.
The content: Brett's anecdotes are both entertaining and interesting. He and his wife have clearly embraced the small farm lifestyle and stand firmly against big multi-national agribusiness from both an ethical and pragmatic perspective. The chapters contain in varying quantities how-to advice, opinion, researched historical perspective, contrast with agribusiness, and at times hilarious anecdotes. Brett is also a writer by trade and he includes some samples of poetry (not necessarily his) to underscore his points where he feels it is appropriate. He incorporates his dreamer's pastoral view of the role of a small farmer, which alternates between fitting/charming and unrealistic/annoying if only because his setting on Salt Spring Island is a bit unique in this country, and the vast majority of small farmers face challenges (most notably: real winter) with which he does not have to contend.
The book is certainly interesting, and I would recommend it to anyone considering rural life and small time/hobby farming.
The story: Brian Brett tells the story of 18 years of small-farm experience as an "18-year day". That is, all of his anecdotes and stories are laid out as if in the story of "a day in the life...". The concept is original and suits the sharing of farming anecdotes to a tee.
The content: Brett's anecdotes are both entertaining and interesting. He and his wife have clearly embraced the small farm lifestyle and stand firmly against big multi-national agribusiness from both an ethical and pragmatic perspective. The chapters contain in varying quantities how-to advice, opinion, researched historical perspective, contrast with agribusiness, and at times hilarious anecdotes. Brett is also a writer by trade and he includes some samples of poetry (not necessarily his) to underscore his points where he feels it is appropriate. He incorporates his dreamer's pastoral view of the role of a small farmer, which alternates between fitting/charming and unrealistic/annoying if only because his setting on Salt Spring Island is a bit unique in this country, and the vast majority of small farmers face challenges (most notably: real winter) with which he does not have to contend.
The book is certainly interesting, and I would recommend it to anyone considering rural life and small time/hobby farming.
February 11, 2024
Not sure how I came across this book. I tho’t it was a new title as hadn't heard about it,
Many sections enjoyable bc happy times, but others realistically depressing, especially the facts of most farm animals' fates. Brett has very definite opinions about the way the world and small farms are headed --or already hopeless.
This was especially interesting to me as I was lucky to have grown up on a small farm, but both parents worked so money not an issue, at least not that my brother and i were aware of. We were both in a dairy 4-H club, showing our cows at the yearly county fair, "earning" prize money. We were much happier than kids i knew who raised animals for the market --can't imagine how sad and hard after working with an animal for months.
I found some great photos of the trauma farm at this link: http://www.brianbrett.ca/trauma_farm/
It's a lovely, large home, which i didn't envision and also I was surprised to see how much snow around there.
I went back n forth a lot in opinion of this, but definitely worthwhile IMO. Think men could relate too --eg my friend's husband on a small farm.
Many sections enjoyable bc happy times, but others realistically depressing, especially the facts of most farm animals' fates. Brett has very definite opinions about the way the world and small farms are headed --or already hopeless.
This was especially interesting to me as I was lucky to have grown up on a small farm, but both parents worked so money not an issue, at least not that my brother and i were aware of. We were both in a dairy 4-H club, showing our cows at the yearly county fair, "earning" prize money. We were much happier than kids i knew who raised animals for the market --can't imagine how sad and hard after working with an animal for months.
I found some great photos of the trauma farm at this link: http://www.brianbrett.ca/trauma_farm/
It's a lovely, large home, which i didn't envision and also I was surprised to see how much snow around there.
I went back n forth a lot in opinion of this, but definitely worthwhile IMO. Think men could relate too --eg my friend's husband on a small farm.
October 4, 2020
A charming walk through the sometimes beautiful, sometimes bloody world of a small farm. Brett delivers gorgeous prose that is only slightly marred by lamentations about farming regulation and raging against big agro for making his life harder. I'm not one to begrudge an author for having a political position, but there are a lot more words devoted to disparaging bureaucrats than there are to anything resembling a solution.
September 30, 2021
This is a beautiful book. Funny, informative, but mostly poetic. In the vein of Annie Dillards “Pilgrim at Tinker creek” Brett muses on the magic, awe, love of life itself; especially life lived in nature and in harmony (which is at times absurd, sad, and gory) with flowers, vegetables, livestock, pets, soil and community. We all see glimmers of that life, but Brett sees oceans of it and is able to put it in the most lyrical way.
November 18, 2025
A book hasn’t made me choke up sobbing like this since I read A Little Life. A rich tapestry of the absurdity of life, of farming, and of human impact from an 18-year-long day on a farm on Salt Spring Island. After visiting the island three times this summer, I felt like I was having coffee on the porch and listening to this story.
“I am only another maggot laughing inside the ecstasy of my community”
“I am only another maggot laughing inside the ecstasy of my community”
June 3, 2019
I enjoyed reading about daily life on a small farm. He (understandably) goes off on rants about factory farming (some of the facts he shares are terrifying!) and the myriad of hurdles and administrative red tape that small farmers have to contend with. It truly is a very different world from a few generations ago and the future is indeed very scary. I loved his poems and imagery as well.
August 20, 2019
I don't know what I was expecting , but this wasn't it. I learned so much reading this. His stories are true "islanders" story's and I envisioned them being.told by islanders I know. I was so inspired to tackle my garden, plan for next year and introduce simple meals from simple good door for my family.
June 19, 2020
Gorgeous, poetic, moving. And, a supportive reference when nurturing backyard farming, even small scale. Brian's empathic sharing, and he and Sharon's real-nature experiences are inspiring and reassuring. Love this book. And, absolutely do not need to be raising livestock (or dead stock) to enjoy it.
November 6, 2020
3.5 stars -- this book was beautifully poetic in its prose, and i did love the tangental way the story navigated through "one 18 year long day". however, there were moments where i found myself frustrated with the pacing of the book, and at times i didn't completely agree with the points being made. however, it was fun to read a book from a place i'm so familiar with.
August 15, 2023
This book was found at a church book sale and I bought it because of the red barn and the rooster on the cover and because it takes place on Salt Spring Island, very close to where I live in Victoria. The book was meant [for me] to be filler between the murder and mayhem books I usually read. Even though there is the good news/bad news which happens with life in general, and especially with farming specifically, there are some genuinely laugh-out-loud moments and an abundance of good information in here. I surprised myself and thoroughly enjoyed the book.
April 19, 2019
This was much more than the story of one farmer's experience. It also included information you'd expect from a Michael Pollan book. It was delightful and educational. If you liked Kristin Kimball's A Dirty Life, you'll also like this one.
September 1, 2024
Beautifully and poetically written, this memoir is to be savored one chapter at a time. Living on a small farm way out in Manitoba, I could relate to so many of the things he writes about. Written with humor and wit, a thoroughly enjoyable read.
November 2, 2017
I thoroughly enjoyed this beautiful book. Lovely essays on life, food, gardening, and the adventures of living on a hobby farm.
September 4, 2018
Kind of a kooky writer, but a good one. Wonderful descriptions of his experience running this hobby farm and criticizing the strict corporate regulation around farming today.
March 7, 2020
Wonderful book! Brian Brett gives one lots of farming/nature/nurture information to ponder over. This is one that I will listen to again.
August 18, 2020
Essays on farm life by British columbian poet. Full of knowledge and himself but with a fine self-deprecating humor. I will reread this one.
August 28, 2020
For me this was an exceptional memoir!
August 18, 2021
The few good stories weren’t worth the agony. Do yourself a favor and go to visit a farm rather than suffer thru this nonsense.
April 14, 2023
Sympathique réflexion de la vie sur une petite ferme dans.le contexte actuel de la mondialisation. Réflexions sur la connection à la nature et à ce qui nous entoure.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 80 reviews