RADICAL HOMEMAKERS

"If you ever considered quitting your job to plant tomatoes, read to a child, pursue creative work, can green beans and heal the planet, this is your book." So reads the jacket of Shannon Hayes' newly released Radical Homemakers: Reclaiming Domesticity from a Consumer Culture. I haven't had a chance to read it yet, but there's a great interview with Hayes, conducted by Lisa Kivirist, in the May/June issue of Hobby Farm Home magazine.

I'm thinking I just might be one of these renegades. I'm neither a bored, unfulfilled housewife in a frilly apron making stupid jello thingies, nor am I a determined feminist, neglecting home and family in order to prove myself in the business world. According to Hayes, I'm part of a "growing, inspirational tribe of women...who share a drive to live simply and frugally, celebrating the joys and blessings of home, family and community." Her book showcases people from a variety of age groups and backgrounds nationwide that share a common goal to sidestep the pressures of our consumer culture and focus on recreating home life, living by deeper standards of relationships, creativity and independent thought.

Hayes herself returned to the rural lifestyle by choice (her family runs Sap Bush Hollow Farm, a grassfed meat operation in the Catskills) after earning her PhD. When she and her husband tallied up the cost of having dual careers outside the home (two cars, childcare, etc.) the numbers just didn't add up, or reflect that which they truly valued. The idea for this book came to her when she kept hearing that local foods, particularly grassfed meat, were a luxury that ordinary people cannot afford (something we fight constantly here at The Bountiful Sprout). However, at the same time, she was noticing more people like herself who were committed to eating local, organic foods and keeping money in the local economy. Since her family was managing to live very comfortably on a very modest income, it occurred to her that the socially conscious, resourceful homemakers might be an unacknowledged national resource and that economic and ecological sustainability could be brought into greater balance if more people came forward with this vocation.

"Today's radical homemaker incorporates both traditional skills and ideas toward home-based self-sufficiency with a desire to contribute to improving our world. No longer viewed as strictly 'women's work,' Hayes interviewed men and women who see homemaking as a team effort between spouses and partners, equally shared between genders. 'The folks I interviewed all, at some point in their lives, redefined what wealth means to them, moving away from the images media and society feed us that more and bigger is better,' Hayes comments."

Have you got what it takes to be a radical? Here are seven domestic skills that play an important role in the successful and satisfied men and women she interviewed:

• Nurturing relationships - radical homemaking is about interdependence, not independence. "You'd just go crazy trying to do everything yourself."
• Working with a life-serving economy - minimizing waste, capitalizing on available resources, becoming net producers of goods rather than net consumers, spending money where it matters most and understanding the concept of "enough."
• Cultivating an ability to self-teach, and raising your children with the ability to self-teach, possibly through home-schooling.
  
• Setting realistic expectations and limits - radical homemakers do not have weed-free gardens, spotless homes and model children.
• Redefining pleasure - true pleasure comes from creative fulfillment, self-expression, self-realization, discovery and growth. It cannot be bought at a mall.
• Rediscovering the taste of real food - eating locally and in harmony with the earth, trading processed foods for home-grown goodness.
• Adopting a fearless attitude - "Radical homemaking is not an appropriate life path for everyone, but we do need more of them, as they can be a great force for social and cultural change."