At that time, Kristin was working as a writer in New York City.

The prologue gives you a glimpse of Kristin’s life on the farm, but the story really started seven years prior. Whatever the reason, his was a story that I could not put down from the get-go. Maybe because I am a foodie, maybe because I love watching my husband cook, maybe because my daughter is a farmer and I appreciate the hard work involved in producing food, or maybe simply because this is a heartfelt story that is beautifully written. From selecting the diner ingredients, the sizzling of the pans, a drizzle of red wine reduction, to the beautiful colors of the plate placed before her, Kristin had me hooked. They way she describes her husband cooking is a rather seductive scene. In this story you are welcomed right away into Kristin’s life sitting right alongside her as she watches her husband Mark whip up dinner for the two of them. The Dirty Life: On Farming, Food, and Love by Kristin Kimball: A Book Review This is a true story told in memoir fashion that is full of heart, hope, and the satisfaction of a day’s hard work. In The Dirty Life, Kristin discovers the wrenching pleasures of physical work, learns that good food is at the center of a good life, falls deeply in love, and finally finds the engagement and commitment she craved in the form of a man, a small town, and a beautiful piece of land.I just finished reading the most enjoyable book – one that I so loved reading that I am recommending it to many, many of my friends.

Every Friday evening, all year round, over a hundred people travel to Essex Farm to pick up their weekly share of the 'whole diet'-beef, pork, chicken, milk, eggs, maple syrup, grains, flours, dried beans, herbs, fruits, and forty different vegetables-produced by the farm. Kristin and Mark's plan to grow everything needed to feed a community was an ambitious idea, and a bit romantic. The Dirty Life is the captivating chronicle of the couple's first year on Essex Farm, from the cold North Country winter through their harvest-season wedding in the loft of the barn. On an impulse, she shed her city self and started a new farm with him on five hundred acres near Lake Champlain. When Kristin Kimball left New York City to interview a dynamic young farmer named Mark, her world changed. From a 'graceful, luminous writer with an eye for detail' ( Minneapolis Star Tribune), this riveting memoir explores a year on a sustainable farm.

The Dirty Life by Kristin Kimball