By Siggy Buckley
Siggy Buckley’s newest book is launching this month, accompanied by a blog tour. It’s an exciting event because this is a book that will turn your preconceptions upside down.
So what was I doing on an Irish farm? I was a German city girl and a high school teacher. My then-husband — let’s call him Mac — was a CPA and accountant with a legal background and also German. We had strong leanings towards the Green party, sympathized with most environmental movements; we were both scared by news of deteriorating environmental conditions all around us at a time when we started a family. We cared about what was in our food, worried about the poison of the day, food additives, E-numbers, growth promoters, and chemicals — you name it, the whole shebang. That’s what a lot of German people did at the time, in the eighties. Like so many others, our awareness about the environment had been given a jumpstart by the nuclear disaster around Chernobyl and we were downwind.
We had gone green as far as we possibly could. We had been members of Greenpeace and environmental activists for years. How much more can you do as an individual to achieve your goal of a healthy lifestyle? Escape to a remote island?”
What it’s about
A wheelbarrow, a cable drum, gardening tools, and a pickaxe are unusual items on a wedding registry. They are what Mac and Siggy, a German professional couple, need to fulfill their dream of organic gardening. When Chernobyl blows up a few years later, they are scared enough to undertake fundamental changes in the lives of their young family to seek a simpler and healthier lifestyle in an unspoiled country.
They buy a farm in Tipperary, Ireland. They give up their jobs, friends and home to raise their children in an unpolluted environment. Although Siggy shares her husband’s environmental convictions, she would prefer a warmer climate, maybe an olive farm in Tuscany.
A period of intense learning and acquiring new skills follows: how to raise chickens, pluck geese, breed cattle and sheep, and how to grow all kinds of vegetables. Soon they find out that farming means a never ending workload. They almost kill themselves ─and each other─ to produce healthy food.
I Once Had a Farm in Ireland not only gives advice for budding organic gardeners but it is also the story of a woman who sacrifices her own ideals for the sake of her family until she discovers her own dreams.
“As the descendant of central Virginia agricultural families, I relate to the candor of Siggy Buckley’s words: ‘For almost ten years, we nearly killed ourselves — and each other! — producing healthy food.’ Buckley’s book I Once Had a Farm in Ireland: Living the Organic Lifestyle is a must-read for any one who considers or views modern day homesteading as idyllic. For, enabling an organic life-style as Siggy found, can be an all consuming life altering experience. —Sylvia Hoehns Wright, eco-advocate, who challenges all to “Move from eco-weak to eco-chic—green life’s garden, one scoop at a time!”
Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars A Truly Magnificent Story, Straight From The Heart May 28, 2015
About the author:
Educated in Germany with a Master’s Degree in English, Siggy Buckley lived in Ireland for over 15 years, first teaching at the University of Limerick as an adjunct professor, while building up an organic farm. She later ran her own businesses in Dublin before coming to the USA in 2003. In 2005, Siggy married an American and pursued her life-long dream of writing.Find Siggy Buckley:
And follow her on Twitter @Hernibs.
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Wow, I won’t lie. I wish I could pick up my children and move to the middle of the mountains and live off the land, someplace super far away from high fructose corn syrup, dyes in our foods, and processed fast food. This book sounds fascinating.
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I have been trying to grow my tomatoes without any pesticide but those darn tomato worms are viscious, hard to see and when you do find them they are scary. I can’t imagine taking on a whole farm and applaud her courage.
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Wow! What an interesting story this woman has! I wish her great success with the launch of her book!
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I’m not cut out for farming since weeds are the greenest things in my garden. Interesting how you must kill yourself to get healthier food. I’m so glad there are energetic organic farmers who will do the job for us.
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I’ve read several stories of people picking up their lives and moving to different countries for simpler lives. It’s always interesting and inspiring. Best wishes to Siggy.
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This is a book I’d read. I love farming and gardening! I’m currently getting ready for chickens and already getting veggies from the garden. Great post and thanks for the recommendation on the book!
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I was raised on a small family farm in northeastern British Columbia, Canada, cold and dark for most of the year with summer two weeks in July, we used to joke, and mosquitoes the size of helicopters. It wasn’t idyllic but I agree is a good place to raise children and teach us the joys of hard work and responsibility. At the moment I think it’s more of an unrealistic dream for city dwellers. Now you can appreciate the farmer and the crops that arrive seemingly effortlessly into our grocery baskets every week!