The Winter Read 2024
As the 2023 growing season came to a close, the Garden City Harvest JEDI Committee reached out to the staff and board asking for submissions for our first annual Winter Read.
Reading in Community
The Winter Read is an opportunity for our staff and board (and the greater community!) to read a selected title over the course of the winter. We were inspired by the National Endowment for the Art’s annual Big Read, an event that "broadens our understanding of ourselves and our neighbors through the power of a shared reading experience."
Our hope is that the Winter Read creates an experience of connection through the winter when many members of our team are resting and recuperating after a long season.
Each member of our staff and board were invited to share a title
We encouraged them to consider works that reflect the mission of Garden City Harvest while highlighting issues of justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion. With this list, the JEDI Committee selected a single title to be highlighted as The Winter Read. As a bonus, the remaining suggestions created lengthy selection of favorite books for folks reference through the winter.
OUR SELECTION
Healing Grounds: Climate, Justice, and the Deep Roots of Regenerative Farming by Liz Carlisle
With multiple submissions and many words of praise, Carlisle’s third book struck us as the perfect candidate for our first Winter Read. Addressing the role of agriculture in a changing world, it uplifts the cultural wisdom embedded in the practices that could change our relationship to farming and the earth for the better.
From the publisher:
In Healing Grounds, Liz Carlisle tells the stories of Indigenous, Black, Latinx, and Asian American farmers who are reviving their ancestors’ methods of growing food—techniques long suppressed by the industrial food system. These farmers are restoring native prairies, nurturing beneficial fungi, and enriching soil health. While feeding their communities and revitalizing cultural ties to land, they are steadily stitching ecosystems back together and repairing the natural carbon cycle. This, Carlisle shows, is the true regenerative agriculture – not merely a set of technical tricks for storing CO2 in the ground, but a holistic approach that values diversity in both plants and people.
Liz Carlisle was born and raised here in Missoula before going on to delve into the world of organic and regenerative farming. She has written two additional books in collaboration with Montana farmers- Lentil Underground (2015) and Grain By Grain (2019 with co-author Bob Quinn). She is currently an Assistant Professor in the Environmental Studies Program at U.C. Santa Barbara.
RUNNER UP:
Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants by RObin WALL KImmerer
Another title with multiple submissions, we can’t recommend this book enough!
A few notes from our submitters: (1)This book is life changing, or at least it was for me. The perspective shift I had was beautiful.. and also painful in a way. Indigenous knowledge alongside a new way to think about, observe, and be a part of nature. I just love this book. (2) It is the most appropriate book for anyone associated with Garden City Harvest. I read it some time ago, but still think it is one the most interesting books that I have read.
Our complete Winter Reading List:
This list includes the remaining titles submitted for the Winter Read, along with any notes from the submitter. Containing a wide variety of topics and genres, there is sure to be something for everybody! So, enjoy perusing this list and, please, let us know in the comments if you have a title you’d like us to know about!
How The Other Half Eats: The Untold Story of Food and Inequality in America, Priya Fielding-Singh
Staff Note: I liked this book for its varied perspectives on food choice - and the assumptions that it challenges about the economic, intellectual and emotional disparity around those choices even when food access and nutritional education is not an issue. It is a quick read, with personal stories interspersed with research. It is particularly relevant to those interested in working with individuals and families living in poverty, but informative for everyone.The Home Place: Memoirs of a Colored Man’s Love Affair with Nature, J. Drew Lanham
Staff Note: A memoir set in the South and about soil and land and family and race. It's only a couple hundred pages so not too much to ask people to read :-)All We Can Save: Truth, Courage, and Solutions for the Climate Crisis, Ayana Elizabeth Johnson, Katharine K. Wilkinson
Staff Note: Essays, stories, and reflections from women who are all a part of and affected by the climate crisis. This book cuts deep, it makes me want to drop everything and change the world. It also makes me want to curl up in a ball on my couch and cry forever.Eating to Extinction: The World’s Rarest Foods and Why We Need to Save Them, Dan Saladino
Staff Note: Discovering new foods, plants, and recipes excites me! The idea that we are forever losing biodiversity because of the way we eat is a tragedy. Diversifying our palettes could not only be a way to save different plants and experiences, it could help save the world!The Salish People and the Lewis and Clark Expedition, Confederated Salish & Kootenai Tribes of the Flathead Reservation, Montana. Salish-Pend d'Oreille Culture Committee, Elders Cultural Advisory Council (Confederated Salish & Kootenai Tribes of the Flathead Reservation, MT)
Queen Sugar, Natalie Baszile
Staff Note: a story of a mother and daughter returning to her home, farming, and family. A story of the many dimensions of our roots. Amazing character development, depiction of farming and life in the south. Also a drama series with 6 seasons!
We Are Each Other’s Harvest, Natalie Baszile
Staff Note: This book is an opportunity to acknowledge and dig into the fact that the agricultural history of America is rooted in the expertise of African and Black farmers.The Cooking Gene: A Journey Through African American Culinary History in the Old South, Michael W. Twitty
Our Notes: Referenced in Farming While Black. A historical examination on how we categorize “Southern Food” and what led us to this belief.Farming While Black: Soul Fire Farm’s Practical Guide to Liberation on the Land, Leah Penniman
Staff Note: Leah Penniman has long worked to end racism in our food system through her own farm, Soul Fire Farm, and through educational efforts as an author and speaker. This book is geared toward people of color who are interested in starting a farm and growing their own, from how to start a sliding scale CSA program to notes the roots of many of our current sustainable farming practices are derived from African farming practices. Also offers a look into the amazing organization that is Soul Fire Farm.
Deep River: A Novel, Karl Marlantes
Staff Note: My mom and her siblings just read it for their book group and gave rave reviews!..It looks like a good, big, hunking Winter Read.Soil: The Story of a Black Mother’s Garden, Camille Dungy
The Lost Journals of Sacajawea: A Novel, Debra Magpie Earling
Staff Note: Turns our understanding of Sacajawea’s relationship to the Lewis and Clark Expedition on its head. A sensory experience of the beauty of the natural world and the brutality of humans.A Sand County Almanac, Aldo Leopold
Staff Note: Although published in 1949, its still extraordinarily relevant to how we interact with and change the planet and its living beings.Dirt to Soil: One Family’s Journey to Regenerative Agriculture, Gabe Brown
Staff Note: Great book on one rancher/farmer's discovery of regenerative agriculture and just how incredible it is! Was what originally got me interested in regenerative ag in college.Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds, & Shape Our Futures, Merlin Sheldrake
Staff Notes: (1) Listen to the Audiobook! (2) All things fungi! Fascinating and well-written. I learned so many new things reading this.*Crying in H Mart: A Memoir, Michelle Zauner
Staff Note: Memoir of a Korean American girl growing up in Oregon and her connection to her Korean mother through Korean cuisine. Made me hungry reading it, also it's really well-written and beautiful.The Third Plate: Field Notes on the Future of Food, Dan Barber
Staff Note: He's a chef and talks about his journey of discovering what it truly looks like to eat sustainably.Octavia's Brood: Science Fiction Stories from Social Justice Movements, adrienne maree brown & Walidah Imarisha
Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood, Trevor Noah
Staff Note: I highly recommend listening to this on audiobook!!! Available online and at the public library.Underland: A Deep Time Journey, Robert Macfarlane
Staff Note: A really fascinating book about human's relationship to everything underground: cultural, spiritual, practical.Richest Hill (Podcast), Montana Public Radio
Staff Note: This is a podcast, not a book, but could be relevant - details Butte's history of mining and the Superfund project through many different perspectives.The Overstory: A Novel, Richard Powers
Staff Note: It's a beautiful homage to the natural world in a fun tangle of stories. It inspires activism!Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds, adrienne maree brown
Staff Note: Emergent Strategy is all about helping change makers become more radical change makers! I think here at GCH, we do a lot of work trying to create positive change, and I think this book could help push us along as an organization to continue making changes in our community. I have had it on my to-read list for a year, and I think that having some community support around reading it would be great for all of us!Rooted: Life at the Crossroads of Science, Nature, and Spirit, Lyanda Lynn Haupt
Staff Note: It seems very aligned with Garden City Harvest and I’ve been wanting to read it!Breaking Clean, Judy Blunt
Staff Note: Her memoir of growing up in rural MT, and it deals a lot with the hardships of historic farming lifestyles and the disintegration of rural communities. Maybe not super GCH-related, but it’s local and very moving!The South: Jim Crow and It’s Afterlives, Adolph L. Reed
Staff Note: An antidote to the seemingly narrow frame of popular discourse surrounding race and social justice.Racecraft: The Soul of Inequality in American Life, Barbara J. Fields & Karen E. Fields
Staff Note: Also recommended as an antidote to the seemingly narrow frame of popular discourse surrounding race and social justice.