NEW BOOK COVER REVEAL!!! 🌻
Dear friends,
How’s that for an emphatic subject line?! ALL CAPS! Three exclamation points!!! Can you tell I’m excited?
For good reason! Actually, for many good reasons.
First, it’s been deliciously sunny the last few days here in Western Oregon. And I mean, really, truly sunny … and warm! All The Things are blooming, pollinators are flying, and us humans are so very happy to be working and playing outside again with a sense of ease and joy. It feels so good!
Also, I had a birthday last week! My birthday is of course a special day to me, but four years ago it also became an unexpected milestone in our life in other ways too. March 12, 2020 was the day our family started our own pandemic lock-down. I know many other people went through a similar experience that week — perhaps starting a day or two off of ours. At the time I was serving my choir as volunteer president, and my birthday was also the day our choir leadership team decided to suspend in-person choir activities indefinitely. We didn’t know if our organization would survive. It was a rough birthday, to say the least! Unlike many people at the time, I had no delusions that we’d be back to “normal” quickly. I had read enough to realize that we were embarking on a long and uncertain journey.
What a journey it has been! There have been losses and changes. But, four years later, our choir is thriving once again, and I got to attend a rehearsal and sing on my birthday. That was the best birthday gift I could imagine. (Also my husband made me a delicious meal, and my daughter baked me an apple pie!)
But, finally, the exciting news that prompted the ALL CAPS subject: I have big book news to share with you! As promised, I’ll begin with the official cover …
Isn’t it beautiful?
I have so much to share about this book, but because I’m leading with the cover I just want to say a million times how grateful I am to the many talented photographers who shared their skills with this project. It is truly gorgeous as a result! (Also, thanks to Storey for letting me draw spot illustrations throughout, including this cute sunflower on the cover!)
You, my email subscribers, are the first to hear all of this. We’re still prepping for all the big promotional stuff, but I wanted to start sharing the story with you now because many of you have known I’ve been working on this for years now. Literally, YEARS! I first sent my book proposal to Storey Publishing in late 2021. Farm-Raised Kids will come out October 29, 2024 — so almost three years later! If you ever wondered how much work goes into making books, let me tell you — it is a lot!
I was inspired to write this book after writing three articles for Growing for Market Magazine about parenting and farming, pregnancy and farming, and post-partum healing for the farmer (read those for free here). I knew there was so much more to say than I could fit into three articles — hence Farm-Raised Kids!
The book is part celebration/motivation and part nitty-gritty problem solving. I talk about the joys and the challenges of raising kids while farming or homesteading. To do research, I connected with 25 different farm families — I wanted to share as many perspectives and ideas as possible. I intentionally compiled a team of families representing different regions, crops grown, farm scale, family size and dynamic, in order to represent the diversity of farming today. I wanted every person who picks up the book to see parts of their story in its pages. Thank you to all the farmers who generously shared your experience with me so that I can share it with others.
Also, the book opens with a beautiful foreword by Lynn Byczynski, founder of Growing for Market and author of The Flower Farmer and other books.
I have a million other things I want to tell you, and I will tell much more over the next few months, but for now I wanted to give at least this small sneak-peek at my latest Very Big Project!
… and, if you already know you want a copy, it IS live for pre-ordering in many locations:
Bookshop — Ordering from here will support local independent bookstores, and this is an affiliate link so I will get a small extra commission for the sale!
Third Street Books in McMinnville, Oregon — My favorite local book store! If you live local to me, this is a great place to order and I’ll be signing all the pre-ordered copies.
The Book Bin in Salem, Oregon — My other favorite local book store! Also a great choice!
Your local independent bookstore can likely order it for you too!
Amazon — Yep, the big jungle folks also have it!
Spring is here!
As if this news weren’t enough, I also need to at least mention that spring officially arrives today! 🎉 For the occasion, I drew some fresh artwork featuring “What we eat in spring” and have made it available as a poster and print in my shop! This is the first of a series of posters I’m going to design this year, once for each season (possibly two for summer … early summer and late summer are each so rich!). Hang them in your kitchen or dining room and change them out with the season!
Recently on the podcast:
Since my last newsletter, I’ve had two new Growing for Market podcast episodes drop:
Tracy Yang (JARN Co. Flowers) and I talked about why she loves growing flowers, getting started during the pandemic, and the tradition of Hmong farmers in the Seattle area.
Don Tipping (Siskiyou Seeds) and I talked about how he became a farmer, the development of the seed company, why seeds matter, and so much more!
You can listen (and subscribe!) on any podcast app or go to the GFM website to listen or get more info from the show notes for each episode. New episodes are released every Tuesday — my co-host Andrew’s interviews are also fascinating!
I thought I’d close this spring-themed newsletter with a classic illustration from the past! Spring is indeed peak salad season. On our farm we are already enjoying the fresh new green flavors hitting our plate. And there’s much more goodness to come.
With gratitude,
Katie