To say man is of the earth and that his well-being, even his very survival, depends on an occasional return to it is not enough. It is important to try to find out why this is true. Some people, those most distantly removed from farm living, accomplish the necessary return by going to parks, visiting [...]

If we lived in an ideal world, it wouldn’t require written laws and rules. But there are those who attain land and animals and do not sense their own laws within them. In Ohio, this turned into tragedy.

Sometimes life is full of amazing little surprises, though it takes a bit of looking to find the best ones. For those of you who have read my column for many years, you might recall that my family endured a house fire in the winter of 2000.

It will soon be two years ago that my husband was injured in a car accident when a woman ran a stop sign and turned his full-size truck completely around in the road, fracturing a vertebrae in his mid-back.

Each day we wander the Vermont woods for an hour or two. I love the leave-taking, the sound of the goats’ bells. Herding is a way of doing something while doing nothing; it asks only for one’s presence, awake, watching animals and earth. Wind rakes the trees. Clouds float shadows through the grass. – By [...]

After my recent Farm and Dairy column in which I dreamed of joining Diane, Peggy, Kathy and Janet as the fifth singing Lennon Sister, I received more comments and compliments than I’ve had in a very long time.

I was in the early grades when we started studying the states, and I was offended that the brightly colored symbols on the state of Ohio carried crops and general livestock, but dairy wasn’t given top billing. Since we lived our lives around milking times every day of the year, I somehow thought that defined [...]

At the ripe old age of 8, I decided I wanted to be one of the Lennon sisters.

By JUDITH SUTHERLAND Farm and Dairy columnist When the sunshine warms the golden curls of the golden boy, there is a halo of blessing that burns brightly for those who share the journey. There is nothing quite like the joy of having a sweet little 1-year-old on your lap, rocking him to sleep after a [...]

“He was a success because he studied the business with great care and was able to give a logical reason for everything he did. It was his profound belief that every farmer should improve his land and leave it in better condition than when he found it.” — Rachel Peden, writing of an ancestor in [...]