Mary Wildfire lives on the Hickory Ridge Land Trust in West Virginia with her husband Don. She endeavors to grow more and more of their food, while continuing her quest to figure out how to save the world. Currently she’s writing novels set in the near future, because she thinks the depiction of a positive future is dangerously neglected.
National Security
One thing is clear—when politicians invoke the phrase “national security,” they are never talking about security for the people who live in this country.
February 19, 2026
Finding Lights in a Dark Age: Sharing Land, Work and Craft: Review
Who needs to read this book? Mostly, anyone who sees the dark age coming and is worried about it but interested in discussion about how we might have a hand in guiding the trajectory, in our own locales so that the future is, as Nate Hagens likes to say, “better than the default.”
November 11, 2025
Six Inches of Soil: Review
Overall, the message of this book is that transitioning from the chemical-intensive approach to farming that has come to be called “conventional” to ways of doing things that try to sequester carbon in soil and regenerate the health of the soil, while making a living, can be done and is being done by these people who have this in common: they care.
July 5, 2024
A World Run by Machines
Allowing corporations decisive power over our governments was a huge mistake– like the sorcerer’s apprentice thinking his dandy automated broom was such a great idea till he realized he should have put an “off” switch on the thing.
May 14, 2024
Review: Kayaking with Lambs
Kayaking with Lambs is an easy book to read, but a hard one to review, because it doesn’t really have a trajectory; it doesn’t build to a conclusion.
October 10, 2023
Saying No to a Farm-Free Future by Chris Smaje
Who needs to read Saying No to a Farm-Free Future? Anyone thinking that the ecomodernist prescription might be a good idea; and anyone arguing with ecomodernists and looking for data to back up their feeling that “food” factories in megacities is not the best path.
July 3, 2023
























