2020 has been unsettling

Did anyone else notice that 2020 has been a little crazy?

Oh, you too?

Good, that means you're awake.

Which leads to "now what?" questions.

America has been unsettling for a long time

Wendell Berry's The Unsettling of America: Culture and Agriculture is a must-read. It was life-changing for me; I read it as a college senior and it kindled in me an anger at the destruction of my community that has never gone away. In a sense, Berry gave me permission to love my homeland and mourn its destruction, vs. chalking it up to the “march of Progress.”

It’s short on how-to advice but long on history and philosophy.

Sadly, while the details have changed since 1977 (Earl Butz is no longer Secretary of Agriculture), the fundamental problems remain the same.

Settling down

A healthy homecooked family meal and a home garden are revolutionary acts. - Charles Hugh Smith

"Back to the land" movements flourish in times of chaos.

"But I don't have any land!" you say?

That's OK. Start where you are, with what you have, and work for more.

Start with the kitchen. Even before you have land to grow food, you should be cooking. And what's the point of growing delicious and nutritious crops if you can't turn them into a meal?

Here are three practical books I always recommend:

The Joy of Cooking - Link is to the 2019 edition, which I haven’t seen. There are many editions of the Joy going back over 75 years. Older is better. The farther back you go, the more practical information about animal processing and food preservation is included. The “About your ingredients” sections and “how-to” descriptions of cooking processes are crucial and encyclopedic.

The Encyclopedia of Country Living - a comprehensive practical guide to “back to the land”, starting with how to find and select land. Since I’m still in the suburbs, this has been mainly a cookbook and source of inspiration, but jives with what I remember of farm life growing up. “Carla’s White Bread” is the first bread I successfully baked at home.

The Ball Blue Book - The classic and gold standard for home canning and freezing.

Let me persuade you

I made an impulse purchase and I don't regret it.

Two weeks ago, I attended a Q&A with Joshua Lisec and David A. Fields on how to improve your writing, specifically to attract high-value clients.

Here is a Twitter thread covering some of what we discussed.

The Q&A was free, but would have been worth it as a paid webinar.

So, I asked Joshua to affiliate with his course The Best Way To Say It. Sight unseen. Not the best way to do it, but sometimes you have to break the rules.

And then I bought it.

I'm only part-way through the course, but no regrets.

Get "The Best Way To Say It" and level up your writing today

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