Helen Nearing left city life with her husband, Scott, nearly sixty years ago to move first to Vermont and then to their farm in Harborside, Maine. The Nearings' food and living philosophies have provided the guidelines for many who seek a simpler way of life. Helen is the author of Wise Words for the Good Life: A Homesteader's Personal Collection , Loving and Leaving the Good Life , Simple Food for the Good Life , and co-author (with Scott Nearing) of The Maple Sugar Book.
Grace Gershuny, in addition to her position on the staff of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Organic Program, has worked for many years as an educator, organizer, and market gardener. She is nationally known in the alternative agriculture movement, is the author of Start With the Soil, and Compost, Vermicompost and Compost Tea: Feeding the Soil on the Organic Farm as well as co-author of The Rodale Book of Composting and The Soul of Soil . She is on the faculties of the Institute for Social Ecology and Goddard College, and lives in Barnet, Vermont.