Don Henry Ford Jr.

I received my copy of Ruminations from the Garden through the Library Thing Early Reviewer's program a number of years ago. As the author would understand, I feel; life intervened and here I am having just finished reading it and now posting my review. This book presents a conundrum for the book reviewer. On the one hand, I highly commend Mr. Ford's book as a great example of keeping a journal and recording your experiences and feelings on a regular basis. I think that is a very important contribution to society, and invaluable to family members, both present and future generations. I wish everyone did this. In that regard, this book is a perfect example.

The book is laid out with Mr. Ford's thoughts, reflections, and prophecies intertwined with the (sometimes) daily trials and tribulations of planting, maintaining, harvesting and processing of produce of a large vegetable garden of a somewhat experimental nature. It seems he was doing this to test out what it would be like during a not-so-distant future when we could no longer get fuel, and were forced to live off the land in order to survive. Between this, and running two ranches, caring for numerous horses and herds of cattle and a mismatched collection of humans in need that gather around him like a magnet; he is one busy man, indeed. For those who didn't grow up on a farm, it may surprise you to find out that farming is a very intensive 24-7 job, with usually no time off for weekends, vacations or anything else. I grew up on a 5th generation California ranch and am well aware of what it entails.

Personally I found many of Mr. Ford's anecdotes, thoughts on current events and prophecies interesting. At times I emphasized with him. I have to admit there were times when he completely lost me, and if looking at this strictly as a book intended for public consumption; I believe there was far too much, and too disgusting, personal details in it that did not and should not, in my opinion, have been shared with the public. In this, I apparently agree with his wife, Leah; at least according to one of the author's statements. She felt it much of that material should have and could have been left out and the book could have used a lot more editing. I full heartedly agree. At times it devolved into rambling and repitition. Towards the end it seemed to unravel a bit and give in to a full on religious doom-and-gloom rant and prophecies of impending end of the world type scenarios (admittedly due to natural and man-made causes). He lost me completely on the religious jargon; but I absolutely agree with him on the grim state of the planet, the climate, our fuel dependence, corporate greed and the downfalls of capitalism and overpopulation, in particular. I think he nailed most of those things right on the head. And, overall, his prophecies have turned out to be right in the intervening 20 years, only perhaps a little slower than he felt they might. We are, indeed, on the brink of that chaos, dissolution of democracy and the end of that (great?) American experiment. In fact we are now all watching it unwind in real time.… (más)

A rather dire collection of thoughts and ruminations from a Texan farmer. While some of the insights into trying to make a living on a small-scale farm in a large-agriculture world are interesting, I was put-off by the bizarre talk of mental illness just being due to people being more in touch with spirits, and weird thoughts on homosexuality. As others have said, this really just reads like a blog in book form, and I have no desire to read the blog of a slightly-unhinged Texan farmer who is not exactly a wordsmith and regurgitates punditry as though it was his own original, and important,thoughts.… (más)

Almost all writers carry a notebook around with them to record thoughts and ideas as they arise. They usually end up being quite random, a mix of the brilliant and the mundane, day-to-day worries mixed in with the germs of big ideas. To get an idea of what the inside of a writer's notebook looks like, you could take a look at Ruminations from the Garden.

Strangely, it doesn't end up being a bad thing. The narrative meanders around in unexpected directions, taking in corn prices, bestiality, religion, politics, weather, corn prices, cowboys, horse riding, the Lebanon-Israel conflict and pretty much anything else you can think of that was happening around 2006. But it does so in an engaging style and with absolute candour. If you can embrace randomness, then this is an enjoyable read.

It's also true to life. Ford sets out with a clear plan of raising a small organic garden in the scorching heat of a Texas summer. He will clear a plot, plant it out, and tell us how it all works out over the year. He describes his rationale very well. Artificial methods of industrial-scale farming have made it possible to farm huge tracts of land with very few people, but at the cost of massive dependence on oil. Thirty gallons of oil are now needed to raise one acre of corn. The machinery, vehicles, chemicals, irrigation equipment, etc., are all dependent on oil in some way, and the oil is becoming more scarce. Prices are rising, and what happens when it runs out, or becomes so scarce that it's unaffordable? Ford decides to find out, picking up his hoe and going back to old-style manual labour on one acre of his farm.

For a while, he sticks to this plan, and it seems clear what to expect. You start to enjoy the descriptions of repetitive manual labour, the attention to detail, the observations of things that are not possible to see from a tractor, the remembrance of old, almost-forgotten techniques that assume a sudden importance when combine harvesters and industrial pesticides are not to hand.

But then, as with so many great human plans, things go a bit awry. Other things get in the way. Drought strikes. The initial enthusiasm fades. As the book goes on, the garden becomes a less and less regular feature. You wonder what happened to it, sometimes, and then it reappears again choked with weeds, and then it's back to some other anecdote. At first I got a bit frustrated and wished he would just follow through with the garden thing, but then I realised that he was just being honest. He tried to raise this organic garden in 100 degree heat, and it was really hard work, and sometimes he failed and sprayed weedkiller on the crops just because his back was aching and he couldn't face weeding by hand, and sometimes he went back to it and spent all day and night picking tomatoes. That's what people do. We work in bursts, committed one minute and distracted the next. What I wanted, the perfect story of an experiment carried through to its logical conclusion, was unrealistic. In fact, one of the points I think Ford was trying to make is that this kind of farming is incredibly tough, especially in the drought conditions of southern Texas in the throes of climate change. It's a warning us about what to expect in the future, when our current, unsustainable practices are no longer possible.

When I learned to relax and go wherever Ford wanted to take me, I started to enjoy the book a lot more. It's an entertaining read, much like listening to an opinionated, avuncular old relative telling stories at the bar. You don't necessarily agree with all of it or follow the logic, but you enjoy the ride.… (más)

Ruminations from the Garden is full of rants, allusions to Ford's first book, and bizarre life stories that end with equally bizarre morals. I was actually really intrigued when I read the short bio of the author, and thought he would be worth taking a look into. I was hugely disappointed. For someone who's obviously had an eventful life, he turns it into a boring mess that he pieces together with the progress of his experimental garden.

Honestly, I felt lectured the entire time I read it, with very few moments of actual interest. It was a struggle to get through.… (más)