Soil and Spirit
Cultivation and Kinship in the Web of Life
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Soil and Spirit
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Narrated by:
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Scott Chaskey
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Written by:
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Scott Chaskey
About this listen
As a farmer with decades spent working in fields, Scott Chaskey has been shaped by daily attention to the earth. A leader in the international Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) movement, he has combined a longstanding commitment to food sovereignty and organic farming with a belief that humble attention to microbial life and diversity of species provides invaluable lessons for building healthy human communities.
Along the way, even while planning rotations of fields, ordering seeds, tending to crops and their ecosystems, Chaskey was writing. And in this lively collection of essays, he explores the evolution of his perspective—as a farmer and as a poet. Tracing the first stage in his development back to a homestead in Maine, on the ancestral lands of the Abenaki, he recalls learning to cultivate plants and nourish reciprocal relationships among species, even as he was reading Yeats and beginning to write poems. He describes cycling across Ireland, a surprise meeting with Seamus Heaney, and, later, farming in Cornwall’s ancient landscape of granite, bramble, and windswept trees. He travels to China for an international conference on Community Supported Agriculture, reading ancient wilderness poetry along the way, and then on to the pueblo of Santa Clara in New Mexico, where he joins a group of Indigenous women harvesting amaranth seeds. Closer to home on the Southfork of Long Island, he describes planting redwood saplings and writing verse under the canopy of an American beech.
“Enlivened by decades of work in open fields washed by the salt spray of the Atlantic”—words that describe his prose as well as his vision of connectedness—Scott Chaskey has given us a book for our time. A seed of hope and regeneration.
©2023 Scott Chaskey (P)2024 Milkweed EditionsWhat the critics say
“Scott Chaskey embraces a deep respect for the land, the plants and animals that depend on healthy soil, and the knowledge of indigenous peoples. In his travels across borders, he finds common ground by celebrating the farmers and peasants who work the soil around the world. Chaskey’s personal understanding of laboring the land is reflected in the book. In this collection of essays, he recognizes the challenges that we face and counters them with an abundance of knowledge. Many seek to repair the harm our species has caused. His message is filled with love and hope, backed by a lifetime of knowledge, and interspersed with a bit of poetry. Its rich layers rival the first forkful of silt loam in Spring or a relieving lungful of air in a forest. In just over 200 pages, this is one of the most inspirational books that I have ever read.”—Todd Miller, Arcadia Books, Spring Green, WI
“As one of America’s greatest agrarian poets and essayists, Scott Chaskey deserves recognition as a national treasure. He both expands our horizons and deepens our contemplative capacities with the astonishing connections he makes between soil, soul, and sustenance in these challenging and eloquent essays. Soil and Spirit will be read and reread for many years to come.”—Gary Nabhan, author of Jesus for Farmers and Fishers: Justice for All Those Marginalized by Our Food System
“So much is happening under my nose, but I missed some of the essence until Scott came along. Following his teaching, instead of a villa with pool and tennis court, I, too, started a farm. Scott is a teacher, a mentor, a guide. He made me understand Nature through the irreplaceable wisdom of agriculture that humans have practiced for thousands of years, shaping our civilization. This book is on one level a guide to farming, and a spiritual guide to the deep emotions Nature raises in us all.”—Isabella Rossellini, author and award-winning actress