Helen NearingBesprekingen

orig from 1954

I see what she's getting at, but I don't think I want to adopt the philosophy that if it doesn't taste that good, well then you won't overeat, will you? Funny.

A couple of the first back-to-the-landers write about their experience with the rustic life, moving from New York City to Vermont in the 1930s (and eventually to Maine). They had their principles and tried to live according to them. Among them was a belief in a balanced life. Thus, they only worked about 4 hours a day at homesteading, and spent the rest of their time engaged in other pursuits or relaxation. The book gives you a good sense of New England homesteading, though they hide some of their advantages (I believe Helen Nearing inherited a sizable fortune which made their lifestyle a lot more possible).

Helen and Scott Nearing, pacifist, teetotaling, nonsmoking, caffeine-free, collectivist, and vegetarian, moved from New York City to Vermont's Green Mountains in 1932, already middle-aged, to homestead. These books cover their trials, accomplishments, and philosophies (read: politics) on that first plot and their second homestead in Maine. These books inspired more than a few of the 1970s back-to-the-landers, as I learned from Back From the Land. However, I also learned from that book that Helen and Scott were not quite so financially independent as their books lead one to believe. Their day's division into four hours “bread labor” and four hours leisure (not to mention their purchase of somewhere in the neighborhood of 300 acres of land) was made possible not just by thrift and maple syrup profits, but also by a trust fund that doesn't get a mention in The Good Life.

Nonetheless, you have to admire their achievements. They hand-built a dozen stone buildings in Vermont and another nine in Maine largely by themselves, raised 85% of their food, wrote several books each, obtained all their heating fuel from their land, went on speaking tours, and entertained sometimes a dozen visitors a day in the height of their popularity in the seventies. They mentored Eliot Coleman and sold him the land on which he now works and lives.

I borrowed this book by and about the iconic sustainable lifestyle promoters, Helen and Scott Nearing, because I wanted to further my thinking about death and a good way to die. This book was a disappointment for my purpose, since only the last chapter really dealt with Scott's approach to his fading strength and death at age 100. "he had gone when he wished. His death had illuminated his life...We don't have to go through the horror of a long decay in a nursing home. If we are at home and have made our wishes known, we can stop eating. It is as simple as that" (p. 187)
During my years as a homesteader they were an inspiration, with their commitment to daily manual labor to meet their needs thru gardening, wood heat, building with stone, and making maple syrup. Most of this book is Helen's review of her early life, her relationship with Scott, and Scott's activities.
Many authors quote other writers, but in this book the quotations were intrusive and seemed to be used as a replacement for Helen saying what she felt or observed herself. In addition to Scott's example of conscious letting go of life and moving on, I appreciated his response to an inquiry about his views of God (pp158-9), Helen's view on meditation (p. 164), and Scott's chart comparing an emancipated lifestyle with an exploitive one (p. 143-4). The photos in the center are wonderful.

While the Nearings can get a little preachy about their lifestyle at times, it really didn't detract from enjoyment of "The Good Life: Helen and Scott Nearing's Sixty Years of Self-Sufficient Living." The book basically tells the story of how they started their eco-friendly farms -- first one in Vermont and when that area became too populated, the moved onto Maine. I found the book inspiring enough that I wish I had enough land to start my own rural homestead following their practical advice.

I read Living The Good Life a few years ago. It is a practical book by Helen and Scott Nearing on living simply. They describe how they built their stone home and how they fed themselves off the land. The first edition was in 1954, long before the idea of going back-to-the-land was trendy in the sixties, and before it began to seem necessary in the oil crisis of the seventies. Scott Nearing was previously an economics professor who was blacklisted for his socialist views. The couple undertook a simple lifestyle so they could continue promoting their progressive politics.

Three ideas from the book really stuck with me.

One, the idea of bread labour. The Nearings worked only four hours a day to feed themselves, and spent the other hours in activist and creative pursuits; the simple life does not have to be long days of physical labour.

Two, the mono-diet. The Nearings lived on a diet of simple staples with little variance. At first this struck me as awful — does simple have to mean boring? On reflection, it made much more sense. Our culture demands that our food be new and different daily, and we ignore the cost of dragging foods across the planet so we can have whatever we want whenever we want. This demand is more about a craving of ego than of physical appetite. Indigenous eating reconnects us with our local foods and local economy. Variety is nice, but we may appreciate more subtle nuances when we pay closer attention to our food at hand.

Three, Sunday morning music. Helen was an accomplished musician. Scott asked her why she played the music of others instead of making her own. The music industry of our day is designed for the reproduction and distribution of other people’s music. Music has to have mass appeal, and musicians have to dedicate careers to the production of material. Why not just play music for one another for entertainment? Or read to one another? Do people do this anymore?

http://johnmiedema.ca/2008/09/02/living-the-good-life-by-helen-and-scott-nearing...

I’ve loved Scott and Helen Nearing’s books for years so I was very excited to find a copy of Simple Food for the Good Life by Helen Nearing. Scott and Helen Nearing moved from New York City to a dilapidated farmhouse in Vermont in 1932 at the height of the Great Depression.

According to the book cover… Helen and Scott Nearing are America’s legendary homesteaders. Their way of life is recounted in more than thirty books, including Helen’s Loving and Leaving the Good Life, The Maple Sugar Book, and Wise Words for the Good Life. Helen Nearing died in 1995. The Nearing farmstead in Harborside, Maine (where they moved in 1952) has been preserved for posterity, and is now open to the public as The Good Life Center.

Helen and Scott Nearing were vegetarians so it goes without saying that these recipes contain no meat. The recipes do contain both eggs and dairy products. What I didn’t know was that Helen Nearing was also very interested in raw foods so many of these recipes involve no cooking.

The first six chapters of the book contain no recipes at all and are more an explanation of Helen’s philosophy on life in general and on cooking specifically. The book is dotted with quotations (some short and some long) from a variety of older cookbooks (1800s and early 1900s).

The recipes contained in the book are very simple, healthy recipes. You won’t find recipes calling for boxed ingredients or exotic spices. Recipes sections include breakfasts, soups, salads, vegetables, herbs, casseroles, baked goods, desserts, beverages and even a section on storing and preserving foods.

Many of her recipes are written with the assumption that you have your own canned or fresh garden produce. Instead of stating a sixteen ounce can of corn in her ingredients’ list, she will state two cups corn, fresh cut from the cob. The herbs that she cooks with are fresh and not dried. Her sweeteners include maple syrup and honey instead of white sugar.

If you’re looking for a cookbook that focuses on healthy, easy to cook meals, I highly recommend Simple Food for the Good Life. These recipes are easy enough for a novice cook to make and would also appeal to anyone who is looking for a way to use up garden produce, get a start on using raw foods or just learn more about the Nearing’s way of life. This book should also appeal to anyone interested in the homesteading and preparedness way of life. It's filled with tiny tidbits of knowledge that we all need.

The content of this book - the story of how Helen and Scott Nearing lived self-sufficiently - is very interesting, however I found the author's writing style mostly unemotional and analytical, and at times a bit pompous and irritating. The content is also quite dated now, as the Nearing's were building their house and gardens during the 1930's. Not for everyone.

A more modern day "Into the Woods" than Thoreau, though dated now as well. The Nearings did indeed live a good life - a life that seems more and more impossible to find.

A recipe book based on the simple life of the Nearing household.

A very good account of living a simple ecologically-friendly life in the USA.½

Actually mine is printed in 1954.