Introduction -- January. The home (Personal inventories -- Hair shirts -- Bathrobes -- Clay ashtrays) -- The garden (Walking the yard -- Making maps -- Side-dish gardening -- Moderation) -- The kitchen (Creating your stores -- True costs -- Harvest times -- Meet the farmers -- The value of home cooking) -- February. The home (The family system) -- The garden (Making your plan -- Harriet's hit list) -- The kitchen (Calculating and creating storage space) -- March. The home (Creating a budget : from kids to boomers) -- The garden (On sowing the seeds of potatoes, peas, and prudence) -- The kitchen (The preserving game plan -- County extension -- The gleaner's ethic) -- April. The home (Spring cleaning) -- The garden (Sowing carrots -- Beets and greens -- Keeping out Kitty -- Building raised beds) -- The kitchen (Building your outdoor kitchen -- The story of raw milk -- Making butter and buttermilk) -- May. The home (Teach your children well) -- The garden (Rain -- Meals at the table -- Onions -- Beans -- Eating dirt -- The love of herbs) -- The kitchen (The story of meat, from pasture to table) -- June. The home (The happy world of the generalist) -- The garden (The guilt of the gardener -- Transplanting tomato starts -- The wild kingdom -- Slugs be damned) -- The kitchen (Berries -- Patience -- Genetic manifestation -- Wild things -- The alchemy of jam-making)

July. The home (A home of Mom's making) -- The garden (The truth behind gardening guides -- The importance of mulch -- Thinking like a plant) -- The kitchen (A quick cup of coffee -- Mama Darden -- Blueberries -- Napping) -- August. The home (The new barn building) -- The garden (Sowing carrots, again -- Troubleshooting cucumbers -- Taking stock of the harvest) -- The kitchen (The pears of epiphany -- My temperamental peaches -- Walking the rows -- The godfather of ferments -- Loving me some plums) -- September. The home (Taking in the stranger) -- The garden (Pulling up potatoes -- Planting cover crops -- The winter garden) -- The kitchen (Canning tomatoes -- Drying fruit -- Tuna -- The new benevolent overseers -- The university of grandmothers) -- October. The home (Miles) -- The garden (Sowing garlic and shallots -- Cleaning up the garden -- Lurching toward darkness) -- The kitchen (Green tomatoes -- The root cellar -- Apples -- Romancing the squeezo) -- November. The home (Repair) -- The garden (Raking leaves -- Prissiness -- The final reckoning) -- The kitchen (Walnuts -- Pantry cooking -- Pork -- Holiday hoo-ha) -- December. The home (Copenhagen -- The power of "out there") -- The garden (Best-laid plans -- Fancy talk -- Potato mind) -- The kitchen (Peas -- Luck -- Fruitcake -- The future).