Caldwell Nicole - Farm + Lands back to the land: a guide to modern outdoor life

Dedicated to all the craftsmen, local farmers, conservationists, and incredible people we met in the making of this book. You are an inspiration and a catalyst for those who will go on to protect and steward this earth for many generations to come.

Copyright 2019 by Frederick Pikovsky.

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All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the publisher.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data available.

ISBN 978-1-4521-7333-7 (hc)
IBSN 978-1-4521-7342-9 (epub, mobi)

Design by Sara Schneider and Frederick Pikovsky. Written contributions from Meghan Caracci. Illustrations by Lucy Engelman.

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INTRODUCTION:
A RETURN TO THE LAND

Before I founded FARM + LAND, Id spent eight years grinding away in New York City, hustling to build an ambitious start-up company. From the moment I woke up to the time I went to sleep, you could find me pacing around office buildings and boardrooms on my cell phone or sitting in front of my laptop for hours on end. I was obsessed with work and thrived on the frantic pace of the city; it kept me going and normalized the chaos.

But eventually, I burned out. I grew dissatisfied with sitting in front of my laptop all day. I began to spend more time looking through romantic images of beautifully crafted cabins, farm-table dinners inside rustic barns, and campfires in the woods. I was drawn to the idea of a slower pace of life, and envied those who took the time to craft meals from their own garden and gather with friends around a firepit beneath starry skies.

As I grew more detached from my work and intrigued by a change in lifestyle, I decided it was time to escape the daily routine and head out on a summer-long backpacking adventure in the hopes it could provide me with a fresh perspective. It was on that trip that I had my epiphany, as I found myself hiking through mind-blowing scenery in the Jungfrau region of the Swiss Alps, surrounded by massive mountain peaks and rolling grassy hills with herds of cows roaming freely in the bracing fresh air. I watched as the cows munched on fields of organic greens and sipped water from mountain springs. These cows, with their smug-looking faces. It was like they were saying, Yep, we got this all figured out. And for a moment, I was genuinely envious of their lifestyle. It was simple, yet incredibly fulfilling and sensible to be living among the beauty and abundance of the natural resources around us.

I continued my hike, approaching a wild vegetable garden in the meadow. I felt daring and plucked a sprig of green onion from the soil. I was struck with excitement as I chewed on the spicy greens, as if I were the first person to ever discover that onions were a thing that grew out of the dirt.

That was the precise moment I realized how disconnected I had become from the very basicsthe essentials of what it means to be part of the natural world and how fulfilling it is to engage our primal senses in the outdoors. This personal discovery was a reflection of a broader phenomenon in our society. Many of us are so caught up in the frenetic pace of modern life that we havent even noticed what weve been missing.

In the late 1960s, urban and suburban life in America was fueled by a movement back to the land. It was a time of rapid growth in industrialization, consumerism, and political tensions, from the civil rights movement to the Vietnam War. In an act of rebelliousness, many counterculturists (hippies) decided to disconnect from society and reconnect with a simpler life in nature. Eager to get back to a more intentional way of living, back-to-the-landers bought up plots of land all over the country, armed with the Whole Earth Catalogs instructions and resources for a DIY lifestyle off the grid.

Eventually, the realities of relying on their own crops and local resources for survival, combined with the difficulties of maintaining shelter from the elements, became more of a challenge than most were prepared for. Many abandoned the lifestyle and headed back to the comforts of town and city life.

Now, a half-century later, a contemporary version of getting back to the land is stirring up. With the ingredients of polarizing politics, environmental distress, and technology inducing an exponentially faster pace of life, the stage has been set for a movement back to the landone that is inspiring more people to consciously slow down and realize that to do better for ourselves globally, we must start locally. Unlike the back-to-the-land movement of the 1960s, this generation has the worlds wealth of knowledge available at our fingertips, the growing ability to work remotely, and creature comforts that make it altogether possible to live and work from just about anywhere on the planet. Todays movement is already taking on many different shapesreviving, replanting, repopulatingmaking a lifestyle back on the land more accessible, practical, and sustainable for our generation and many to come.

Youll discover a range of experiences and approaches in these pagesfrom a family that abandoned urban life to raise their children in a canvas tent to a group of friends that transformed a rundown piece of property into a fly-fishing destination.

Over the past two years, Ive traveled around the United States, from mountainside to countryside to desert lands, meeting incredibly inspiring people who have chosen to find their own path back to nature. Ive slept in cabins deep in the mountains, bathing in rivers and hanging out with cabin builders dedicated to crafting incredible structures in the wilderness. Ive stayed in barns with local farmers, learning about sustainable agricultural practices. Ive slept in funky off-the-grid desert homes, in casitas with chefs committed to foraging their own ingredients for intimate supper club dinners, and with city dwellers who have found a balance of city life during the week while constructing a weekend escape paradise to enjoy with their tribe of friends.

Along the way, I met Nicole Caldwell, an incredibly passionate journalist who left New York City to take over a farm her uncle left behind in upstate New York. Together, we have curated a collection of inspirational stories, perspectives, and knowledge on what I call a FARM + LAND lifestyle.

We hope this book serves as a catalyst for more people to discover their place in the outdoors, to reconnect with the land and everything it has to offer. We take you on a journey deep into the mountains, countryside, and desert to reveal the ways people are getting back to naturefrom modern cabins to rustic farmhouses and cozy handcrafted yurtsmastering the methods, tools, and skills necessary to build shelter, grow food, and thrive in the great outdoors.