Rural Free A Farmwife's Almanac of Country Living [Paperback]

Rural Free, first published in 1961, beautifully conveys the joys of family life on an Indiana farm. Marked by the slow pace and rich variety of seasonal change, Rachel Pedens narrative offers an authentic month-by-month chronicle of her familys daily adventures. Today, as the slow-food movement gathers support and more urban dwellers return to the land to plant roots again in honest soil, Pedens stories of country life and her lessons on sustainability, frugality, and wastefulness gain a special resonance. Rural Free will be a source of inspiration for all who rejoice in rural virtues and the spiritual freedom of country life.

There is beautylots of itdown on the farm and a Hoosier farm wife has captured most of it in her first book, Rural Free. . . . The author shares her love of nature and farm living in a fascinating way with those who already experience this exciting way of life down on the farm as well as those caught in the mad whirl of city living. . . . It's delightful.To all who care about nature and the changing seasons, reading it will be a satisfying experience.Rachel Peden is a farmer's wife with an eloquent pen and a superb awareness and understanding of nature. Her observations are laced with inspired philosophies expressed in poetic prose. This is more than an almanacit's a signpost to richer living.Now back in print from IU Press, Rural Free's values resonate once again with a new generation that's searching for ways to re-establish a sense of community within local and natural environments. It's also a well-written pleasure to read.February/March 2010

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Mrs. Peden's observation is amazingly keen, and her ability to sketch with a few strokes, the color and line of a scene or an occasion is, remarkable. . . This farm wife has written a beautiful and inspiring book.Nature springs from these pages. Rachel gently remindslc%