Review: Dirty Chick: Adventures of an Unlikely Farmer by Antonia Murphy

 

It would be difficult to find two people more unlikely to take easily to the farming life than Antonia Murphy and her husband Peter as they were in the early 2000s. The couple lived in ultraliberal San Francisco and were totally into the lifestyle; the only farm animals they ever saw were found in the meat department of their favorite grocery store. But somehow the Murphys found the courage to go for it. 

Both Peter and Antonia were into sailing, so they felt comfortable packing up their worldly goods and heading off to an entirely new world and life via sailboat. First, they made their way through Mexico and Central America, then across the Gulf of Panama, down to Ecuador, and finally, across the Pacific to New Zealand. By the time they arrived in New Zealand to begin their new lives, Antonia was six months pregnant with their first child. Then a few years later their son was born with major genetic developmental disabilities, and the Murphys decided they needed to relocate to a more self-sustaining lifestyle in a rural part of the country. 

As it turns out, the family found a lifestyle that perfectly suited their wants and needs. Probably most importantly, little Silas was taken under the wing of an entire community of diverse New Zealanders who loved him and respected him for who he was. And that's when the real fun begins.

Upon arrival, the Murphys hope to learn about animal husbandry and living off the land, and to be fully accepted and acclimated into the little community in which they've moved. Luckily, a small farm becomes available for a twelve-month lease when that farm's owners decide to move to Germany for a year. The transplants spend the next year learning the farming ropes, meeting neighbors, and becoming a loved and integral part of the community. Almost before they know it, the Murphys are owners of nineteen farm animals (a goat, sheep, chickens, alpacas, turkeys...but purposely, no pigs) - and a lease that expires in just two months leaving them no place to go. 

Largely because Antonia Murphy writes with such a good sense of humor and irony, Dirty Chick is a fun memoir to read. The only warning I will give more "squeamish" readers is that Murphy does tend to focus on the scatological aspects of farming life. Farming can be, and usually is, a dirty business, one in which farmers are often up to their elbows in natural substances they would otherwise avoid at all cost. It's this kind of thing, however, that more easily shocked Antonia as she adjusted to farm life, and it is her lessening aversion to such things over the months that gauge her transformation from urbanite to farmer - so I get it.

The memoir ends with a short epilogue that sums up everything nicely, but it was written nine years ago, and I was curious about what has been going on in Antonia Murphy's life since 2014. I'll leave it up to the curious to Google her, but color me surprised...big time. 

(I discovered Dirty Chick via Jeane's review on her always interesting book blog Dogear Diary. Jeane's review can be found at this link.)