Böcker utgivna av S&S Homestead Press

"For me... the past holds the key to who I am, which is why I am writing this book at the end of my life. As an immigrant who in 1956 arrived as a nineteen-year old, looking for educational opportunities denied to me in post-war Germany, the history of my homeland, my mother tongue (and its embedded humor), the grandparents, parents, brothers and sisters I left behind, the social customs, foods, music, and culture - embodied my own past which I had to renegotiate in my new country in a long and painful process of assimilation.This book gives a biographical account of my own past and that of my family, both before I emigrated to the United States, and since then. In telling my story, I want to recall experiences and memories that have shaped my life and continue to do so in the present. Some of these experiences are remembered as traumatic, others as blessings." - Henning Sehmsdorf

A magnum opus, Fifty Years of Biodynamic Farming: Essays From the Field is Henning Sehmsdorf 's tribute and testament to biodynamic living and farming. In writing and editing this collection of thirty-two essays, Sehmsdorf has created an enduring work that will be an invaluable tool for students and practitioners of holistic and self-sufficient food growing. Dozens of topics are organized into seven chapters, and their consideration is comprehensive. From personal histories with biodynamics to nutritionally-whole foods, herbal medicine, solar-powered micro-irrigation to the spirituality of the farm, Sehmsdorf and his colleagues reveal and discuss farming as a practice both sacred and personal. The authors take on gluten intolerance, ecological livestock raising and the case for responsible animal care, bee colony collapse and concepts such as Goethe's theories around color and plant morphology. Favorite essays include Sehmsdorf 's life and farm partner Elizabeth Simpson's "The Viable Family Farm," and Sehmsdorf 's own "Home Food Security" and "Farming for Health," all stunning in their scope. Or, the conceptually brilliant "Emergy (Embodied Energy) Analysis of S&S Homestead Farm" by Andrew Haden (with Sehmsdorf). In his concluding essay, "The Spirituality of the Soil: The Idea of Teleology from Aristotle to Rudolf Steiner," Sehmsdorf 's unifying apprehension of cosmos and life as indwelling, transformative, and spiritual is manifest. It's what has powered his fifty-year farm plan, and what keeps Sehmsdorf researching, discovering, and creating today. Together with Simpson, Sehmsdorf has built a life of deep connection, with commitment to service and education. Fifty Years of Biodynamic Farming is a unique study, and exceptionally useful for any student or practitioner of organics or biodynamics, or life, really, as it is nothing short of a treasure trove of lessons from lives truly lived with great curiosity, meaning, and beauty. (Gigi Berardi, Author FoodWISE, biodynamic cheesemaker, Shaw Island, WA; Director, Resilient Farm Project; Professor, Urban and Environmental Planning & Policy, Huxley College of the Environment, Western Washington University).

As the world faces the conundrum of simultaneous hunger and food waste, pandemics, climate change, depletion of natural resources, species extinction, water, soil, and air pollution, and chronic illnesses, we see that individuals can make an enormous difference by the way they live, eat, and treat the world around them. Eating local and seasonally-produced food is probably the most important step because it is a step all of us can take.Launched at Transition Lopez Island's recent virtual conference, "Continuing the Journey," the book is available in print at the Lopez Bookshop, Sunnyfield Farmstand, the Lopez Library, and Blossom Grocery. In Eastsound, it can be found at Darvill's Bookstore and the Orcas Food Co-op, in Friday Harbor at Griffin Bay Books, and in Bellingham at Village Books in Fairhaven. It can also be ordered online at transi8onlopezisland.org. Out of their commitment to a sustainable future, the authors are offering free downloadable copies (also found on the website). Accompanying instructional videos based on recipes from the book are available on YouTube. Visit transitionlopezisland.org for a list of local retailers or to order the book directly online. Out of their commitment to a sustainable future, the authors are also offering free downloadable copies on the same website. Accompanying instructional videos based on recipes from the book are available on YouTube.

Myth and Tradition in Norwegian Literature and Folklife: Essays explores how in the rural areas of Norway, where modern industry made few inroads until WWI, old understandings of self and nature continued to construe reality in ways no longer available to urbanized societies steeped in science, technology, and commerce. Using methods of myth criticism first developed in the 1970s, the essays show how Norse myth and Norway folk tradition shaped the cultural revival in Norway after the country made itself independent of Denmark in 1814, and how they continue to inform Norwegian cultural life and literature today. Topics include Eddic mythology, folk narratives and belief, as well as the use of Norse, Classical, Hindu, and Christian myth in contemporary drama, fiction, and poetry from Björnstjerne Björnson, Henrik Ibsen, Knut Hamsun, Tarjei Vesaas, Peder Cappelen, Johannes V. Jensen, Halldis Moren Vesaas, and in the personal narratives told by Norwegian-American fishermen in the Pacific Northwest in the 20th century.

In the summer of 2018, the authors took a three-month trip to Norway, Germany, and Austria to reconnect with family and their cultural heritage, and to live the question of travel in the Age of Climate Change.

Based on extensive fieldwork, the book explores the celebration of the Norwegian American heritage in the Pacific Northwest to provide a sense of community, a cultural home missing in much of contemporary, commercially and technologically driven, urban life.