Locally Laid – a Plucky Memoir

Locally Laid book and eggs

Back in the beginning of August, Content Bookstore had an event with Lucie Amundsen, author of the memoir Locally Laid: How We Built a Plucky, Industry-Changing Egg Farm from Scratch. I was excited to be working at Content that night as I was really curious about the book and wanted to learn more of how Lucie and her husband, Jason, started up an egg farm in northern Minnesota. That said, I planned to attend the reading and NOT buy the book because ever since I started working at Content I seem to have developed a slight book acquisition addiction and I have way more books to read than I have time for.

Well, so much for that, my plans to not purchase Locally Laid went out the window when Lucie got going with her fun and informative presentation. She shared chicken facts with us. She read from her book. She had us laughing out loud at her funny stories. In the end, I couldn’t resist buying a signed copy of Locally Laid so I could start reading!

I finished reading Locally Laid a couple of days ago and thoroughly enjoyed it! Lucie’s book is well-crafted, informative and delightfully funny to boot and I can wholeheartedly say that I’m glad I added Locally Laid to my book collection.

I started writing all sorts of review material for you about Lucie’s fine writing and all that I learned about farming in reading Locally Laid. For instance, it’s worth mentioning that this story is laced with what I will call “chicken humor,” you know, use of words like “plucky” in a sentence in a way that does not feel contrived. I also really liked that I felt a sisterhood sort of connection with Lucie as I read her story – perhaps because as a middle-aged married woman I could relate to many of the humorous anecdotes Lucie shared about marriage and middle-age.

Suffice it to say, I could go on and on with all of the things I loved about Locally Laid. but as I continued to work on my little review, I realized I could keep this sort of short and say this – Locally Laid is story about creating and maintaining good relationships and the give and take that goes on in these relationships to keep everyone – chickens included – content.

  • there’s the relationship Locally Laid has with the land and with their chickens
  • their relationships with other farmers
  • with the people who buy their eggs
  • the relationship Lucie and her husband, Jason, have with each other
  • Lucie and Jason’s relationships their two children
  • and with their extended family
  • with the communities that benefit from the formation of a middle-agriculture farm
  • and the relationships they have with their friends who help them every step of the way.

I enjoyed Locally Laid because it made me laugh, it made me cry, and without being preachy it taught me about middle-agriculture and the importance of buying local. I highly recommend reading Locally Laid (and buying their eggs, too!).

Posted in

Leave a Comment





Myrna blog

Myrna CG Mibus

rss

Subscribe to my latest posts by email.

Please enter your name.
Please enter a valid email address.
Something went wrong. Please check your entries and try again.

SEARCH BY CATEGORY: