The first copies are shipping out from the warehouse tomorrow, to those who pre-ordered on Amazon. I got my copy expressed to me a few days ago and had a moment with it, alone, before everyone else came walking through the door and wanted to see their faces in it. Reader, this is a solid book. It’s paperback but it has so much content that it feels like hardback. The charts and lists are extensive and the resources go on for pages. Throughout it all, Harley Soltes worked his magic from behind the camera to bring it to life. Joshua’s producer profile’s are intimate, sincere and compelling. It’s all in here: grinding, baking, growing, sourcing, butchering, sausagemaking, cheesemaking, canning, fermenting, drying, cellaring, eating seasonally, and much, much more.
The amazing thing to me is that it hasn’t even been a year yet since we signed the book contract and yet here I sit with a book in my hand. Most authors have a year or two to write and then there is proofing time and production time. The talented staff at Skipstone managed to guide us through the entire process in less than a year. And we of course wrote like the wind. Somehow Harley managed to get enough creative photos that a reader would not realize our book about gardening was photographed entirely during the fall and winter. It all came together, somehow. And now it can come to you.
So although I’ve been fiendishly networking and promoting behind the scenes and will begin to do book signings (this Saturday at noon I’ll be at Oxbow Farm with some copies) I’m really looking forward to putting that behind me, completing the garden for fall, and getting back to blogging.
You may have noticed a new template which I’ve been working on into the wee hours, with some help from Melissa Plotsky. There are a lot of kinks, and distorted pictures but I’m working through them bit by bit. Thanks for your patience! A while back I announced that Joshua, my co-author, would be doing more posts and joining me on the blog. This new format will help me recirculate older content that is still relevant and help you find things easier.
In the meantime I guess I just want to say, thanks for your patience, and for sticking with me while I tried not to pop for a year. Things will be a little different around here now that I live in the country and Joshua is helping out but together I think we’ve got a little something for everyone. And Joshua is good at reminding me that there are many ways to do things so from time to time you’ll see us blogging about the same thing with two different techniques, such as our Dueling Tomatoes in the book, or our different composting methods. Remember, the only right way to do any of this is the way that works for you.
xo,
Annette
