Radical Homemakers - Copyright 2010

I have in my hot little hands a book called Radical Homemakers, Reclaiming Domesticity from a Consumer Culture.  It's copyright 2010, a year that isn't even a month old.  It's by Shannon Hayes, the lady that wrote a book called The Grassfed Gourmet, a book I haven't read, but probably will, soon. From the website grassfedcooking.com:

My goal was to record the voices of people across the country who are consciously working to heal the planet and create a cultural evolution through a simple, yet profound transition. Rather than focusing their energies on consumer-driven lifestyles, they are making their homes, families and communities the center of their lives.  Initially, the intent of these interviews was to explore the range of domestic skills these homemakers have re-kindled (many of which have been lost in our culture for nearly three generations).  But as we sat at their kitchen tables, another body of information emerged:  the nature of true wealth.  

These “radical homemakers,” as I have come to call them, no longer measure their assets by the mere accrual of dollars.  Instead, they measure their fortunes by their garden plots, their ability to darn a sock, preserve their harvests, cultivate enduring relationships, and to celebrate the joy of creating something useful and nourishing, rather than relying on an empty consumer culture for provisions and shallow amusements.  This quantification of wealth is universal to these homemakers, whether they live in city apartments or bungalows, suburban neighborhoods, rural villages or remote homesteads. 

Darning a sock.  I knew there was a skill I hadn't gotten to in my quest to become the perfect homemaker!  Seriously - I saw her speak today, before I'd even heard of her or any of her books.  By the end of the talk, I was standing in line to be one of the first to buy the book.  I so want to read the stories of people just like me, who are working to make true wealth come from the land and the hard labor of our hands and our hearts.  I'll write more tomorrow, but I can say right now that this stuff is hitting close to home.  Extremely close.