Locally Laid

How We Built a Plucky, Industry-Changing Egg Farm - from Scratch

By: Lucie B. Amundsen

Narrated by: Kate Reading

How a Midwestern family with no agriculture experience went from a few backyard chickens to a full-fledged farm - and discovered why local chicks are better.

When Lucie Amundsen had a rare night out with her husband, she never imagined what he'd tell her over dinner - that his dream was to quit his office job (with benefits!) and start a commercial-scale pasture-raised egg farm. His entire agricultural experience consisted of raising five backyard hens, none of whom had yet laid a single egg.

To create this pastured poultry ranch, the couple scrambles to acquire nearly 2,000 chickens - all named Lola. These hens, purchased commercially, arrive bereft of basic chicken-like instincts, such as the evening urge to roost. The newbie farmers also deal with their own shortcomings, making for a failed inspection and intense struggles to keep livestock alive (much less laying) during a brutal winter. But with a heavy dose of humor, they learn to negotiate the highly stressed no-man's-land known as middle agriculture. Amundsen sees firsthand how these midsized farms, situated between small-scale operations and mammoth factory farms, are vital to rebuilding America's local food system.

With an unexpected passion for this dubious enterprise, Amundsen shares a messy, wry, and entirely educational story of the unforeseen payoffs (and frequent pitfalls) of one couple's ag adventure - and many, many hours spent wrangling chickens.

©2016 Lucie B. Amundsen (P)2016 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Critic reviews

"Narrator Kate Reading is excellent at capturing Amundsen's emotions as she deals with financial hardships, physical fatigue, and endless farm-related issues while discovering the joy in trying to create positive change. During the more technical passages, Reading slows the pace and reads with crisp enunciation, making the material easy to understand." ( AudioFile)

Great Story, Inspiring

Looking for an inspirational and informative book on the local food movement and the struggle of producers? Look no further. Great writing, great narration. You won't be disappointed. I laughed out loud many times and have a greater appreciation for what it takes to do the right thing when it comes to buying local.

Great and Honest Story

As a husband always seeking to do more and better, with a wife often exacerbated by me, I can relate to the story. More than two that though, it is a great telling of the challenges of entrepreneurship, farming, family, and way to share with the world more information about sustainable agriculture and farming. Keep it up!

Great listen!

A truly captivating story of a couple’s journey to start an egg-laying enterprise. Delightfully discouraging to this wannabe farmer yet simultaneously emboldening. This was a refreshing listen as a change of pace from the purely informative books on farming. While elucidating the woes of starting an agricultural business, the creatively told story was engaging beginning to end. I wouldn’t mind listening to it again!

Great book!

This book was funny, emotional and very informative. A real depiction of a family starting a middle agricultural business and farm.

The perils of small business

If I didn't know Lucie Amundsen was a writer of short nonfiction, I would have guessed by about the third chapter of Locally Laid. Her writing style just works in the sort of phrasing that one expects in a magazine like Minnesota Monthly. Don't let this keep you from this book, though. It's a lesson in dreams, very hard miserable work, and family dynamics.

Some questions are left unanswered. I very much suspect that the Amundsens had access to more money than they had planned to spend, as it's clear that costs greatly exceeded expectations, and income was lower than expected. This is true of pretty much every business in the early days, but Amundsen doesn't explain how they bridged the financial gap.

She does explain exactly how much work--cold, endless miserable work--her husband endured that first winter. The Amundsens were fortunate to have family that pitched in; those who raise livestock will tell you that there are no vacations, nor trips to the convention in Atlanta. Their business concept benefitted greatly from Lucie's skills in advertising and promotion, and in her husband's sales abilities and capacity for work. Even their daughter stepped up, creating a chicken infirmary to nurse the birds sickened and injured in transit.

The narrator is almost too precise in her diction. LIsteners might appreciate a bit more relaxed reading style, especially when the author is relating anecdotes. The precision did annoy at times, but Amundsen tells a good story, and I enjoyed this book.

Great story and good info.

This is a funny and fresh look at the real issues faced by entrepreneurs in the world of small to middle agriculture. It's a pretty quick listen and has alot of factual tidbits for those interested.

Entertaining

Both entertaining and a great read. A real life experience of the family starting a pasture raised egg business.

This book will crack you up!

Pun intended :) I was surprised by how funny the author is, and how she could make me laugh just by describing life running a chicken farm. As a consumer of pasture-raised eggs, I learned a lot about what goes into producing an egg like this-- lots of hard work! I sure do appreciate the farmers that raised the chickens for my eggs now.

Well written!

If you’re a farmer don’t expect to learn anything about farming but expect to enjoy the ride with a very plucky lady.

Real life adventure into regenerative agriculture

The current big agriculture model to feed the world is NOT working as will not work. For humans to succeed on this planet we need models of regenerative local agriculture such as Locally Laid. Good food is more expensive than government subsidized Big Ag food like products, and should be. This is an enchanting story of trial and tribulation of running an agricultural business. Any one who has jumped in with both feet to risk it all will recognize themselves. Loved it.