1931 – 2016
Gene Logsdon lived in Upper Sandusky, Ohio with his wife, Carol. He was an American man of letters, cultural and economic critic, and farmer. He was a prolific author of essays, novels, and nonfiction books about agrarian issues, ideals, and techniques. He wrote many books and hundreds of articles for numerous publications including New Farm, Mother Jones, Orion, Utne Reader, Organic Gardening, Draft Horse Journal and the Wall Street Journal.
See also Gene and His Books here.
Weekly Posts (9 Years)
The fact that people of gentle humor and wisdom comment on my blog posts has been the most pleasant and illuminating experience of my life. Bless all of you. ~Gene
~~
[Farewell, Dear Gene…]
[Gene’s last radio interview]
[Compilation of Gene’s radio interviews]
~~
Reposts Beginning August 2016…
• Just What We Need: Faster Tractors
• Corn Is For Eating… Or Drinking
• Learning Reality The Ram Way
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• Gardening In The Nude (or New Use For Rhubarb)
• Raw Deals Over Raw Milk
• Lawn Farming, The Next Big Thing
• Farming Is A Special Calling
• Anthropomorphism, A Big Word Getting Bigger
• Your Favorite Farm Or Garden Job?
• Farm Success Brings Farm Failure
• Farming Controversies Are So Complcated
• Milk Is Going The Wine Route
• Factual Science And Maybe Science
• Scratch An American, Find A Farmer
• Shall The Meek Inherit The Earth After All?
• New Age Farming Is Not About “Going Back” To The Land
• Organic Farming News Almost Too Good
• Part-timers Do Most of the Farming
• Does Art Sense Social Change Before Science Does?
• Small Scale Farming Really Isn’t Small
• The Kingdom of Corn
• Sex Is Such A Botheration
• The Sanctuary of the Barn
• Contemplation On A Dead Chicken
• No Such Thing as “The American Farmer”
• It’s All About Money, Even When It Isn’t
• Watching the Gardens Go To Sleep
• Toward A New Farming Image
• Looking At Climate Change Like A Farmer
• Happy Thanksgiving from Gene and Carol Logsdon
• How Can You Keep Them Down In Paree’, After They’ve Seen The Farm?
• One Lonely Little Red Clover Plant
• Good Farming Means More Than Good Food
• How About a Manure Magazine?
• The Good, the Bad, and…the Zucchini
• Who Really Owns The Farmland?
• Manure: The Gift That Keeps On Giving
• Dancing With the Weeds
• Missing From Syria’s News: The Ag Angle
• Firing The Landlord
• The Sustainable Farm — New Monastery?
• Cover Crop Frenzy
• Two Peachy Economies
• Basket-less In the Garden
• Nature’s Rush To Brush
• Deep Trouble Down In The Ground
• To Survive In Farming, Try Taoism
• Foodroom Gardening: No Rows, No Woes
• Backyard Hay Too
• Wild About Wild Black Raspberry Pie
• I Live In A FarmUNtopia
• Farming Starts In Cities
• Financial Discretion Equals Happy Farming
• First Strawberries
• Farming: A Not-For-Profit Enterprise?
• Dead-End Work
• Soil Science Spelled It Out A Whole Century Ago
• Speed Farming
• “Stop Mowing and Start Growing”
• The News Is Blind To Farming
• What Truly Is Progress In Farming
• Watching The Basketballs Float By
• Bravo The Bloody Local Butcher Shop
• The Happiest Farmers
• Corn Lover Delights
• Village Farming
• Same Land, Same Crops For 2000 Years
• “Dear Gene and Carol”…Friends and Family Honor The Logsdons
• Shipping Hay Overseas
• Starting An Old Tractor
• GM Stands For Genetic Muddle
• Will Genetic Modification Save The Chestnut Tree?
• Could King Corn Be Our Downfall?
• Out A Winter Window
• Strawing Strawberry Beds
• How Henny Penny Came To Rule the Roost
• Front Porch Garden
• Searching For A Floodgate That Really Works
• Signs Of Change In Food Farming
• What’s Behind The Pet Craze
• Shocking Stories
• When Herbicides Fail
• Gene Logsdon Appears in GMO OMG video and Interviewed on NPR…
• How Much Does Soil Influence Taste?
• Keeping Prejudice Alive
• Another Kind of Baby Food
• Marking Time On The Farm
• Food Fads Affect Farming
• Faith and fears in Wendell Berry’s Kentucky
• The Absence of Noise
• Commenting On Your Comments
• Stay Home
• Auction Anguish
• Trivia That May Not Be So Trivial
• Wanted: A Farmer
• Pssst…. Wanna Invest In a 900,000 Acre Farm?
• How Many People Equals Too Many People?
• Pseudo Cisterns To The Rescue
• Love and Hate In the Chicken Coop
• Farmers Learned Long Ago How To Handle The Weather
• The Democratization of Agriculture
• Old (Farm) Wives’ Tales
• Invasion of the Paranoids
• White Clover Might Be God In My Bible
• Have You Seen A Skinny Farmer Lately?
• Sunbathing On The Tractor
• Hanging Out The Wash
• Cornstalks Floating Down The Highway
• Food Farming As Artistic Endeavor
• Bird Manners
• Pink Pistol Packin’ Mommas
• Will Society Spurn Animal Factories?
• Working Too Hard At Farming To Succeed
• Sitting Your Way To Success
• Easter Lambs
• Hemp Is Coming Back As A Farm Crop
• Home Places
• Human Society Is Losing Touch With Wild Nature
• Why Will Livestock Eat “Bad” Hay?
• More Evidence of Nature’s Resilience
• A Conversation with Gene Logsdon
• Hot Opportunities For Innovative Farmers
• Nothing New About Robot Tractors
• Is the Day of Socialized Mail Delivery About Over?
• Amazing Prices For Organic Crops
• Travelholics Anonymous
• Drone Groans
• The Creekside Stalker
• Keeping It Simple Not An Option
• Gene Everlasting
• “Holy Shit” Becomes A College Textbook
• Playing God With The Weather
• He Is Just So Happy
• Tiny Details About Farm Life
• Land Grabs, Now and Forever
• Arguing About Raw Milk
• More Trees Than A Hundred Years Ago
• The Cow Stable: Health Spa of the Future
• Overdosing On Bread
• Small Mysteries Never Solved
• The Decentralization of Nearly Everything
• “The Need For New Herbicides Has Never Been So Critical”
• A Shortage of Straw? Oh Pshaw
• Our Mysterious Pear Tree
• Wendell Berry on Bill Moyers
• Do We Belong Here?
• Good Invasive/Bad Invasive
• Overlooked Opportunities In Forest Farming
• And How Is The Corn Doing In Your Area?
• Do School Lunches Taste Like Vomit?
• Have Yourself A $300,000 Lab Burger
• The Green Monster In Our Backyard
• Corn Growing Everywhere
• Organic GMOs?
• Still Negative About No-Till
• Backlash On Backyard Chickens
• Defining Freshness
• The Virtues of Virgin Soil
• Humble Beginnings Humbug
• Uprooting Independent Garden Farmers
• Too Much Food?
• Hay Doodles
• An Old Tightwad’s Thoughts On Planting Old Seeds
• Too Many People
• Using Food As Medicine
• Lawns Of Purple and Gold
• Once A Farm Boy, Always…
• Can Wee Little Businesses Save the Nation?
• Sacred Springs
• Unexpected Good Results Make Me Look Smart
• Another Shoe Drops In The Global Warming Debate
• Big Farms Going Belly Up Again?
• Horse Filet Mignon. Yum.
• Here’s Mud In Your Sty
• Burning Brush Piles
• Shit Makes Good Medicine
• The Fallibility of Numbers
• We Need More “Perspeck”
• Pigweed Is Bringing Us To Our Knees
• Yes, What Is Art Anyway?
• The Artists In My Barn
• January Thaw
• My Woodpile Is Bigger Than Your Woodpile
• Water Costs As Much As Gas
• Cobbled Up Gates and Fences
• Pounding Beef
• Another Advantage Of Backyard Hens
• Look Out, The World Is About To End Again
• What Is Space Anyway?
• Planting Rather Than Mining
• Falling Leaves
• Human Bodies For Fertilizer?
• Lima Beans Into November
• Better School Lunches Should Taste Better Too
• A Wind And Solar Powered Corncrib
• The Wild Side of Local Food
• Hens Are Changing The Meaning of “Profit”
• A Small Thing But Maybe Not
• Fires In the Fields
• Using The Old Farm To Sell The New
• Veiled Prejudice Against Farmers
• Weeds That Like A Sip of Roundup Now and Then
• The Weather May Not Be the Problem
• Tire-Eating Cornstalks
• Feeding The Buzzards
• Curious Observations About The Drought
• The Return of the Enclosed Garden
• Gambling With Our Food
• The Wild Empire Strikes Back
• Even Earthworms Are Bad Now
• The Hoe Is Better
• A Farmer Who Actually Farms
• Today’s Farmer: Nine Hours Daily On A Computer
• Can Garden Farming Be Too Successful?
• Do Potatoes Have Free Will?
• What Is The Secret Of Parsnips?
• Money Doesn’t Grow On Trees and Trees Don’t Grow On Money
• Why Such A Lack of Common Sense About Dogs?
• Chickweed May Not Be The Worst Weed, But…
• Writing “A Sanctuary of Trees”
• It Pays To Stay Home
• Erratic Effects of Spring Frost
• Living At The Whim Of The Weather
• Nature’s Promises Kept Again
• Watching Hens Eat
• The Great, Invisible Brain Wave In The Sky
• Scars Keep The Record Of Our Lives
• Solo In The Silo
• Yet Another Look At Winter Grazing
• Secret Crying Places
• A Country For Old Men
• Cold Weather Conundrum
• At Last, The Plowgirl Has Arrived
• Talking To Animals
• Can A Godless Farmer Be A Good Steward of the Soil?
• Hail, The Mighty Pocketknife
• Maybe Old Tractors Do Die
• No Till Farming Not So Great After All
• Any “Tidings of Great Joy” This Sad Christmas?
• My Search For The Imperfect Christmas Tree
• Old Tractors Never Die
• The Ramparts People
• Sanctuary
• Harvesting Crops in the Mud and Snow
• Economic Awakening: Corn Can’t Grow Like Money Grows
• Occupy Absentee-Owned Farms
• Free eBook Gift from Gene Logsdon
• The Myth of the Self-Made Yeoman
• Pretend Jobs
• The Biggest Ear of Corn This Year?
• Pope Mary and the New Wave of Food Hubs
• The Achilles Heel In Pasture Farming Is It’s Best Foot Forward
• A Barn Full of Bats
• “Planning To Plow Deeper Than 16 Inches?”
• Small Farms Create More Jobs
• Why I Farm — A City Version: Barbara Ayers
• No Two Garden Years Alike
• City Forest Farming
• Bill Gates Wants To Solve The Poop Problem
• August Glut
• Why I Farm: Jeff Pence
• Licking Inflation The Homestead Way
• Why I Want To Farm: Chris Geddings
• Corn Pros and Cons
• Why I Farm: Paul Kempf
• Barnyard Irony
• Why I Farm: Dennis Hitzeman
• Why I Don’t Farm Yet: John Depew
• Skywatchers
• Why I Homestead: Jenn Campus
• Why I Farm: John Finlayson
• Why Do Humans Congregate In Big Cities?
• Why I Farm: Chiara Dowell
• Why I Farm: Beth Greenwood
• Basketball Patches and Plastic Jug Blossoms
• How and Why I Farm
• Why I Farm: Betty Taylor
• Yo! Farmer Dude!
• Bigger Farms, Bigger Headaches
• What can I do with my Small Farm?
• Praise Be Baling Wire and Binder Twine
• Goats: An overlooked pasture-raised animal
• Stay Home And Make Some Real Money
• Wendell Berry: The Work of Local Culture
• The Champion Loser
• A Field Guide To Farmers
• Alan Kapuler — Peace Seeds: Man of Science, Ideas, and Humanity
• Calling Home The Sheep
• Real On-Line Democratic Farming
• When The Gumboots Come Marching In
• The Gentle Approach to Animals Saves Time and Money
• Gene Logsdon Radio Interview
• Are Food Prices Too High Or Not High Enough?
• Farmers Ditch Tractors for….Oxen?
• Wendell Berry on Mankind’s Ecological Imprint
• A Wallet Full of Scrambled Eggs
• Archeology Not Agriculture Teaches Good Farming
• Tired of Tires
• What’s Your Game Plan As Corn Prices Skyrocket?
• Holy Food — A sermon based on Gene Logsdon’s book ‘Pope Mary & The Church of Almighty Good Food’
• Pasture Plants That Poison
• Getting The President To Laugh
• Oaken Resilience
• Trying To Make Sense Out Of The Last Supper
• Hitching Farm Implements To An Older Tractor
• Roundup Ready Alfalfa — Monsanto’s Big Goof?
• Tasty Meat Comes From The Kitchen, Not the Field
• Heating With Wood Is An Eco-Crime?
• Ecological Farm Conference Sold Out Again
• Interview with Gene Logsdon
• Wood By the Cord Yields Lots Of Discord
• Readers Write About Their Love Of Tree Groves
• An Affinity For Tree Groves
• Human Manure Shops Are A Hot Business In North Korea
• Everything Has A Dark Side
• Oh What A Beautiful Morning
• Acquiring Knowledge By Accident
• It Does My Heart Good
• Convincing Nice People That Deer Numbers Are Too High
• Who Can Go The Longest Without Feeding Hay?
• Lost On A Farm
• Aliens From Inner Space
• Corn Crazy
• Abandoned
• The Best and Worst Smells On A Farm
• The Lonely Hickories
• A Pumpkin In The Apple Tree
• Our Math Is Not Nature’s Math
• Picking Blackberries Without Bleeding To Death
• Too Many Farm Markets?
• Selling A Book That Has No Name
• Buried Treasure
• The Egg Hunter
• Transplanting Tree Seedlings
• Good Agriculture Fosters Good Art, And Vice-Versa
• Throwing Away Billions of Dollars In Pet Manure
• Good Hoes/Bad Hoes
• Coping With Vomitoxin In Wheat
• Happy Homestead Happenstances
• Despite Gloom, Things Are Looking Up For Garden Farming
• Fireflies In July
• Pancakes From Perennial Wheatgrass Grain
• Crazy Ideas For Crazy Garden Farmers
• Acres and Pains
• “No Till” Is A Big White Lie
• Fast Growing Plants
• Real Farmers Have To Be Real Smart
• Irony In Garden Farming
• The Straight Row Mentality
• Something I Bet Hardly Anyone Else Knows
• Learning Reality The Ram Way
• The New Drovers
• Farming Is Cultural As Well As Agricultural
• Hauling Farm Animals
• The Twenty Seven Cent Melon Seed
• Pitching Manure
• Sowing Clover, Sowing Hope
• Flyswatters: Don’t Try Homesteading Without One
• Tiny Homestead Discoveries Inspire Big Wild Ideas
• Looks Like The New Agrarian Age Has Arrived
• The Race Goes Not Always To The Fastest
• “No One With Land Should Be Without A Job”
• Harvest Art
• Kill People But Not Dogs and Cats
• An Offbeat Way To Make Good Hay
• We’ve Been Going “Back To The Land” For A Long Time
• Our House Frog Liked Beethoven
• My Clunker Pickup Is Too Old To Junk
• Good Farming Was More Advanced A Hundred Years Ago
• The Two Sides of an Organic vs. Chemical Story
• A Startling Lesson in Pasture Farming
• Sometimes Its Hard To Tell the Vegetables From the Flowers
• More Choices at Garden Farm Markets
• Gardeners and Farmers Less Fearful of Death?
• The Gentle Art of Non-Gardening
• Burning Off The Asparagus Bed
• Down with Raised Beds
• Time To Start Growing Your Own Bread
• Manure More Precious Than Gold
• Chore Time
• The Aim Is Joy
• Pole Beans Need Better Public Relations
• Harlan Hubbard – Painter, Writer, Agrarian Homesteader
• “Grazing” The Trees On Your Garden Farm
• An Ecologically Sane Farm
• Our Love-Hate Relationship With The Red Cedar Tree
• The Pond at the Center of the Universe
• The Percheron On The World’s Most Famous Farm
• Did The Amish Get It Right After All?
• Knowing One’s Place
• The Fire Fiddler
• The Barn Raising
• Mulch Can Cover A Multitude Of Sins As Well As Weeds
• My Wilderness
• Unexpected Benefits From Pasture Farming
• Stoking Up The Woodstove: Winter’s First Ritual
• Hunting For Your Dream Place
• Our Hidden Wound
• What’s Organic Farmland Worth? Or Is It A Pearl Without Price?
• A Nutting Expedition
• Organic Money
• The Irony of Giant Ragweed
• The Man Who Created Paradise
• Cheapskate Haystacks
• Garden Farming: The Best Investment
• Thinking Eco-logically and the Food Web of a Bluebird
• Taming The Wild Black Raspberry
• An Ode To Horse Manure And Other By-Products Called Waste
• A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Farms, Or Maybe A Million
• Pasture: The Foundation of Garden Farm Success
• More Than One Reason Why Bluegrass Is Blue
• A Farm Is A Large Garden (or A Garden Is A Small Farm)
• Listening To The Trees
• Getting The Corn Planted This Year
• What Organic Homesteading Is All About
• Peach Trees Light Up The Old Hen House – And Vice Versa
• Our Ewes Are Having Lots Of Lambs, But Is More Better?
• A Fairly Simple Way To Save Millions In Energy
• First Spring Things
• Yes, I Care For Animals And Then I Eat Them
• Bouncing In The Wool Sack
• How Organic Corn Triumphed Over Chemical Corn – A Story Of Farming Life
• A Farmer Goes To A Rock Concert
• A Death In The Family
• The Acorn Tree Syndrome Strikes Again
• Organic Art?
• Wood Is More Precious Than Gold
• Snow Pastures
• What Kind of Tree Do Acorns Grow On?
• Sweet Corn From the Garden – In December
• Easy Way To Start A Grove Of Trees (with Black Walnut Jam Cake Recipe)
• The Lovely, Life-Saving Virtue of Laziness
• One Man’s Fertilizer Is Another Man’s Bomb Or Illegal Drug
• A Grove Of Trees To Live In
• A French Picnic (But Not Quite In Manet’s Style)
• An Organic Hero
• Big Tractor, Green Hypocrisy
• In the Fields of Home: What’s the Best Farm Fence?
• In the Fields of Home: Through Flood and Drought
• The Making of Some Very Rare Organic Wine, Not To Mention Organic Liqueur
• Thoughts On Economic “Inevitability”
• The Great Organic Potato Race (With Johnny Carson Potato Chip Video)
• The Adventures of Uno the Chick
• Gems from the Lives of Contrary Farmers
• Oh Deer, What Can the Matter Be?
• Pssst. Got Bootleg Milk?
• Uhhh, explain that carbon credit deal again please…
• Gardening In The Nude (or New Use For Rhubarb)
• Do we need a new definition of Organic?
• Haymaking Revolution
• Just What We Need: Faster Tractors
• Corn Is For Eating… Or Drinking
• A Quiet Revolution Coming to a Farm Near You
• The Contrary Farmer
Beginning May 2007 ↑
– Practical Skills Series –
(Excerpts with Updates)
Food Preparation…
• Feeding, Catching, and Butchering Chickens
Garden Skills…
• Building Horse Manure Hotbeds
Things to Build…
• Anatomy of a Homestead Landscape
Maintaining and Repairing…
• Backyard Clotheslines and Washboard Secrets
Making and Making Do…
• Making Wooden Kitchen Spoons and Similar Utensils
Around the Barn…
• A Chicken Coop for a Small Flock
Livestock…
In The Fields…
• The Minimum Tools for Small-Time Garden Farming
• Getting The Most Out Of A Tractor
The Contrary Farmer 
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