A Time to Plant

by Kyle T. Kramer

In his moving debut book, America columnist Kyle Kramer recounts the sometimes-gritty story of how he came to experience the joys of real community through a journey of honest reckoning with his own ambitions. For Kramer, this story involves lots of dirt. In the summer of 1999, Kramer, an earnest and high-achieving private school teacher in Atlanta, decided to forego a promising academic career. Instead, he heeded the voices of the unlikely prophets in his life and purchased a block of hardscrabble land in southern Indiana in order to start a small farm. Tending it back to health--one difficult lesson at a time--Kramer founded Genesis Organic Farm, built a self-sustaining and environmentally friendly home, and began to fully embrace the Benedictine traditions of physical labor, prayer, and hospitality. A Time to Plant is a deeply human story of one man's attempt to make simple living a reality as a spiritual discipline for himself, as a model for his children, and for the good of creation.

Genres: Spirituality, Nonfiction, Religion

175 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2011

Reviews

[Katie · Rating 5 out of 5]

In A Time to Plant, Kyle Kramer tells of his journey as a rural homesteader in southern Indiana. The pages are filled with honesty and wisdom as Kramer examines his spirituality and his role in the world.

While working on his Master of Divinity at Emory University, Kramer begins to question whether his plan to become an Episcopal priest is truly his vocation. His love for gardening and his desire to live simply as a steward of the earth lead him to begin a search for land near his childhood home in southern Indiana.

As Kramer began his venture, he often fell into bouts of anger, resentment, and despair. Though he was aware it would not be easy, the hard work required for a simple, sustainable lifestyle left him little time for his family and was far from the idyllic rural life he longed for. He eventually accepts that the time is not right for him to be a full time farmer, and while he remains devoted to his land and home, he also finds fulfillment in his job at St. Meinrad, a nearby Benedictine monastery and seminary.

His tone is neither self-righteous nor judgmental, as Kramer realizes he is far from perfect and his lifestyle choices far from sustainable. The world is one of great ambiguity and our choices are not always simple. He recognizes the gray areas where hope meets despair, idealism clashes with reality, and success collides with failure.

While Kramer expresses little hope that the world will ever be healed through any individual or communal action, he does leave the reader feeling that how we choose to live does matter. Though it often doesn't make sense,he continues to hope because life is "infinitely precious and valuable in some mysterious way [he] cannot fully fathom."

[Laura McAninch · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you like Wendell Berry, Henri Nouwen, and Richard Rohr to name a few, then you will love this book. I was a skeptic, waiting for the author to grasp what I felt I knew ahead of time; but he proved me wrong by grasping it entirely, beautifully, and in a reflection that had me very enlightened. I don't give 5-stars regularly. This is a 5-star.

[Caren · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an introspective, searingly honest memoir of the past decade or so in the life of the author. As a young man, he was working as a private-school teacher while completing his masters of divinity degree at Emory University in Atlanta, with the intention of becoming an Episcopal priest and a theological academic. When he joined an inner-city parish that had a particular mission to serve mentally challenged and handicapped adults, he found his academic interests had faded and he felt humbled by the sincerity of these parishioners and a deep need within himself to live simply on the land in a way that used his hands as well as his head. He thought of dropping out of seminary, but was counseled by one of his mentors, Wendell Berry, to finish his degree since farming is difficult and he may need the academic credentials someday. He gradually began to sense that he no longer cared as deeply about becoming a priest nor an academic. He felt pulled to return to his family who lived in Southern Indiana (in the vicinity of Evansville). He moved back in with his mother and stepfather while searching for a farm to purchase. (Living a very frugal life in Atlanta had allowed him to save up enough money to pay cash for a small farm.) He found his small farm about an hour away from his parents' town and near St. Meinrad, a Benedictine monastery and seminary. With the idealism of youth, he plunged into returning the fields to health and building a barn with a small apartment to live in until he could build a house. The rest of the book tells of his struggles to make his dreams a reality. He soon realized that farming (about which he really knew very little) was not going to pay the bills, so he took a job at the nearby seminary. Through his contacts there, he explored the Catholic faith and began attending RCIA classes, eventually becoming Catholic. A priest friend told him of a young woman who seemed to share his interests, so they began a long-distance correspondence and romance which eventually led to marriage. When his wife became pregnant, they realized they needed more space than the barn apartment in which they'd been living. Thus the author began a marathon couple of years working at the seminary, tending the fields of his organic farm, and building his own house, during which his wife delivered twins. The very thought of all of that effort makes me weary! He is very honest about his driven nature, but also about his earnest effort to work to attain his high ideals. As he has lived and matured, he sees that they are frustratingly beyond reach, yet worthy of continual work. Throughout, he includes the advice and mentoring he received from the religious community and from Wendell Berry. The book was of interest to me because it takes place not too awfully far from my neck of the woods, and because it is , after all, pretty uplifting to read of such high ideals in the younger generation. How can you not be encouraged that such people are out there, quietly living and working to make our world a better place?

[Patty · Rating 3 out of 5]

Over the years, I have read a lot of books about farming, food and self-sufficiency. If you look at those 15-16 books, you would think I was about to become a gardener if not head back to the land to see if I can make it on my own. Nothing is further from the truth. I want to eat well and I am more than happy to support my local CSA. But I am too old to garden and I didn't like it all that much when we did have a garden. I want to eat the bread that the little red hen makes, but I don't want to work for it.

I do appreciate that we need to have better food systems and so that is part of what makes Kramer's book interesting. I am glad that he is reclaiming some of the land that has been abused by industrial farming. It is also fascinating to see that Kramer's faith is part of what took him back to the land. Most of the other books I have read have not included anything about the spirituality of farming and restoring the land.

I kept thinking about how young Kramer is. He has been running his farm for ten years, he is rearing small children as well as farming and doing a full time job as a spiritual director. I hope that his faith, optimism and vocation can keep him at these tasks. All that Kramer is doing is good work and his writing shows how necessary such work is to our planet.

I recommend this book to anyone looking for spiritual connections to their vocations, even if they aren't doing the same tasks as Kramer.

[Tom · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thought A Time to Plant was an excellent book. It is a nonfiction story about a former teacher and writer who chooses to become a farmer and live a simple lifestyle in southern Indiana. The teacher-writer-farmer seems intelligent, insightful, resourceful and reflective. His description of his search for life's meaning reminded me of Dorothy's search on the yellow brick road, Don Quixote taking on windmills or you and me searching for meaning in this life and beyond. His journey is unique yet typical in its ups and downs. It is a story of dreams, struggles, hardship and disappointment, acceptance, successes and fulfillment. Themes include movement from the rural to the universal, from the ordinary to the extraordinary, from the individual to the other to the family to the neighborhood, to the nation to the universe, from mystery to the spiritual and transcendental.
I hope my review has not made this book sound so esoteric as to sound boring. I think it can be read on two levels. I tried to go with a deeper meaning. Recommend to all.

[Amy Paget · Rating 3 out of 5]

It’s always a pleasure to read ‘close to home’ and Kyle T. Kramer’s A Time to Plant, is just that…an Indiana story. A Time to Plant follows Kramer’s evolution from a theologian rooted in academia to an organic farmer in southern Indiana. His book comes highly touted by Phyllis Tickle, Luke Timothy Johnson, and Scott Russell Sanders, respected contemporary theologians. It’s not just a ‘city boy moves to the country’ tale. The book follows Kramer as he wrestles with stewardship of the land and building community in rural southern Indiana. We see him find a tentative balance -- marrying, becoming a father and working at St. Meinrad’s Abbey. The book’s subtitle – Life lessons in work, prayer, and dirt accurately describes the contents. Great reflective reading for spring, summer or fall. Listen to a podcast with Kramer here http://thenickandjoshpodcast.com/.

[Stacie · Rating 2 out of 5]

A must read for me because the author's farm is near where I grew up in Indiana. Gotta support the hometown team, after all. Can't help but wonder if I knew him in some capacity because he was only one year older than me, though we didn't go to the same school. Still being in a small-ish town means separation is not usually even six degrees.

As if that weren't enough of a sell for me, he teaches at an abbey that my family would drive by on our (seemingly) near-monthly trips to my grandparents in Ohio. That abbey always captured my imagination, so what's a girl gonna do but read this book? Oh, and it's about farming, which is in my blood in a roundabout way. And also about another favorite topic of mine: Catholicism. I cannot lose with this one. At least I hope not.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was a powerfully honest account of Kramer's attempt to live with intention and purpose as he moved home and began an organic farm created mostly of his own hard work and vision. I enjoyed Kramer's commitment and dedication to a vision of the world and his challenge to himself to live up to that standard. That being said, I also really appreciated his honest acknowledgement of his vulnerabilities, struggles, and failures. I identified with many of his beliefs about community, spirituality and hope, and reading this book made me want to write him a letter and visit his farm. Perhaps I will.

[Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Borrowing" from the back of the book....

"This book and the story it tells may seem in some sense quiet, mostly
confined to a small parcel of land. But it strikes me as a fine and hopeful
adventure, one that should give heart to all kinds of people as they try
to figure out where they're called to be." ~Bill McKibben(author of Deep Economy)~

I enjoyed reading Kyle's story as Im on my own journey, spiritual and otherwise!!

[Dustin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed reading the insights and getting a peek into my fellow Hoosier's journey and how his faith in God was core to many of the transitions in that journey and I suspect will continue to guide him and his family.

[Theresa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Katie's review is so good, what more can I say? I agree with her reflections on the book.