Family Friendly Farming: A Multi-Generational Home-Based Business Testament

This was such a great book. Like Joel Salatin's other books, the writing style comes off a bit abrasive but I appreciate it because I feel like he's being honest and saying how he really feels, which is refreshing in today's world. While I don't necessarily agree with every single thing he wrote in the book, I still learned a lot from reading it and will absolutely take the lessons from this book with me into my future endeavors. In fact, I couldn't put the book down and read the whole thing in a couple of days. While Salatin talks specifically about farming (because he is, in fact, a farmer), the principles and values discussed in the book can easily be applied to any cottage industry or family business. If you have a dream to create some sort of family business and pass that along to your children and grandchildren, then you absolutely need to read this book.

If you judge a fish on it's ability to climb a tree... Joel salatin is a brilliant farmer and can debate with many well educated people. But he is not the best at writing books. So don't judge the book by lack of editing. Judge the book on the information that it is written about.I am forever grateful for the Salatin family in all that they have done and are doing! I am also grateful that Mr. Joel has written down about the family farm. Family businesses NEED to come back. Businesses need to morph and grow and change. Not everyone will stay with the family business but the wealth of knowledge passed down from generation to generation is a legacy our modern society has given up. It's a blessing! And small farms are needed everywhere in our country!

I like how this book breaks into the paradigms we are tied to. It also had useful advice for raising disciplined, emotionally sound children that have drive. We could all learn something from this book.

Please be aware that this book is primarily about good parenting - the focus of the book is ensuring that farm kids enjoy their childhood, feel proud of their country lifestyle, and desire to carry on the family farm business in subsequent generations. If you are a farm family with young children or grandchildren, this may be an extremely helpful and valuable tutorial. It's all about the kids.I was looking for guidance on HOW to properly manage my newly purchased small family farm/forest so that it will be a thriving, enticing property for my son to inherit - how often to move the cows, when to breed the goat, how many chickens per acre to regenerate the pasture - and this book contained virtually no such information. It was heavy on the this-way-is-so-much-better-than-the-industrial-food-factory message... if you're buying this book, you probably already agree with that philosophy and don't need to read a couple hundred pages of that.I enjoyed the read, I (mother of 4 grown children) think the author's child-rearing methods are appropriate and effective, it just wasn't what I expected and needed.

Fantastic and thoughtful look at the next generation of family life and food production, combined. I wish I'd read this book years ago!

This is a superb book on looking how we can live in community with others and build strong multi-generational vision for our families. Joel Salatin is funny, but to the point of problems with today's culture and modern hamster wheel lifestyle. This book will help you see how you can live in strong relationships with your children and other families. It will help you see how you can train your children to be hard workers, and enjoy the work. It will guide you to a more fulfilling life that you can share with future generations. The book is not a difficult read, but is full of many great ideas, and tips. It's a must read if you want to pursue an agrarian life, and even if you don't want to pursue an agrarian life.

I wish I had read this 30 years ago when I just started raising my kids.

This guy is a legend. I wish his books were cheaper. I would buy more of them. I bet he makes more on book sales than on farming.

Brilliant!!!!

I really enjoyed this book. Joel Salatin is a very entertaining writer, with a friendly conversational style. He has a well developed sense of humor too. That being said, he also has a lot of very thoughtful things to say about why involving your family in the farming life right from the get-go is such a benefit to all. We raised our kids on the farm, and luckily we did most of the things he advises in the book, but I wish I'd read this book 30 years ago because there are a few things I would have improved on. We are very lucky too that one of our five kids has moved back to the farm and she and her husband are building their home here, and we just welcomed a little grand daughter into our family friendly farm!!!!

It's an amazing must have for families that are out of the box thinkers. I love how he encourages to pay your children and give them a reason to stay on the farm. It pairs well with some of his other books about chickens and beef etc. I think he is a modern day unsung hero we would do well to learn a lot from. Maybe not everything applies to each individual, but there's certainly a wealth of info here you may not find from many other authors.

Because of Joel Salatin's excellent sense of humour, this book is a lot of fun to read yet very informative too! We have learned so much about family and farming and it's full of entrepreneur ideas and examples. I highly recommend this book!