That’s A Plenty Farm Press

These are the essential questions of That’s A Plenty Farm, established in 2007:

• How much is enough?
• What does it mean to have a secure future?
• What would it entail to become contributors to the system, giving back more than we take?
• How can we, on our three acres, work to heal the planet?

To answer these questions, my husband and I, and our children, and their children, have been exploring sustainability in our physical lives: learning to build soil, grow nutritious crops, use water responsibly, live smaller and less wastefully, reduce our use of plastics and fossil fuels, cultivate habitat for pollinators and birds and a zillion other creatures who want to live with us on the farm.

Then in 2017, my mother became ill, and my sisters and I gathered to help her. We learned from her example, in real time, how to help our own families manage an emergency. We realized that, collectively, we and our circles of friends and extended family were developing a cumulative body of first-hand experience in dealing with a broad range of calamities—natural disasters and medical emergencies and identity theft among them. Sustainability and resilience took on a broader meaning.

“Your family is very unusual,” the nurses tending to Mom told us, “the way you cooperate and keep such a positive attitude.” I credit our resilience to our mother’s preparation. And I realized that others might find some calm from this model: I had a book to write.

And so That’s A Plenty Farm Press was launched, to share some ideas about sustainable living in all of its forms. We begin by offering a practical guidebook:

Available now, The Ready Book—a step-by-step guide to organizing your family information—is our first publication, available on Amazon as both an eBook and paperback.