When
Christian agrarians began to appear on the weblog scene, none had a more
immediate or more lasting impact than Herrick Kimball, the Deliberate
Agrarian. Out of the gate he blessed us with long, thoughtful posts on
agrarianism, modernism, industrial food, boys working together, picking strawberries
in the early morning, making hay, growing garlic, plucking chickens, feeling
bee energy, the perils of debt, contentment, the family economy, and much
more. Herrick's writing is not only clear and informative, but often evocative
as it lingers lovingly on this or that joyful aspect of rural living.
Herrick has done us the favor of gathering together many of the best essays from his weblog into a new book, Writings of a Deliberate Agrarian. For a close-up look at the thinking that leads Herrick to create homemade chicken pluckers and chicken scalders and wonderful garlic powder, this collection of essays is just the thing. Part memoir, part declaration, this book puts a face and voice to Christian agrarianism, casting a vision of the good life that will edify and inspire the reader. The journey to the good life comes with responsibilities and duties, but it comes with joys as well, many of them undeserved. Herrick Kimball writes honestly and directly about these things, and we think you will be blessed by what he has written.
(To order both the plucker and scalder books, choose The Whizbang Plucker/Scalder Combo. To order the plucker, scalder, garden cart, and apple grinder/press book, choose All Four Whizbang Gizmos. To order all of Herrick's books, choose The Herrick Kimball Collection.)
It wasn't much of a surprise to learn that before starting his weblog Herrick Kimball had already gained a certain amount of celebrity as the inventor of the Whizbang Chicken Plucker, a homemade device which quickly and effortlessly plucks the feathers from a chicken and which can be built for far less than the cost of a commercial model. The Whizbang Plucker has become very popular among the growning number of folks who are raising and processing their own poultry; there is even a Yahoo! Groups mailing list where 1300+ participants discuss the Whizbang Plucker, the new Whizbang Chicken Scalder, and other particulars pertinent to poultry processing.
One thing we like a lot about both the Whizbang Chicken Plucker and Whizbang Chicken Scalder books is their clarity. Each stage of the construction process is described straightforwardly, with lots of large, detailed line drawings to make things clear. The prose is unadorned, the tone is friendly and inviting. Even if you don't intend to build the gizmos described in these books, you'll enjoy them as fine examples of how to write a how-to book.
Herrick's book of plans for the Whizbang Garden Cart may be his best yet, since it is a gentle and thorough guide to building a simple yet extremely useful gardening device. We think that it will be an excellent first project for budding agrarians who would like to do more to provide directly for their needs but are as yet short on handyman skills; building a Whizbang cart is a good way to develop them. And if you have access to apples and a hankering for cider, consider his latest plans for making an Whizbang Apple Grinder & Cider Press.