Enjoy a sustainable lifestyle without giving up your job.

As savvy members of the eco-conscious community, we’re more than familiar with the concept of sustainable living. We alter our lifestyle to preserve and nurture the earth. We buy locally, use renewable energy, compost and recycle. In our most idyllic dreams, we’d wake on our bucolic farm to homegrown eggs for breakfast, pick dewy berries from the patch, and gather honey from our honeybees. Ah, wouldn’t that be nice?

Michael and Audrey Levatino made this very move. From a tiny apartment in Silicon Valley to a 23-acre farm in Virginia, a salesman and his wife craved the beauty of a rural lifestyle and realized it—without quitting the job.

“Hobby farming” simply means you aren’t relying entirely on agriculture to earn a living. With that pressure off, you can start small and develop gradually. Michael works off the farm at a major publishing house . He travels to the city once a month and does the rest of his work from home or the road.

The Joy of Hobby Farming weaves practical advice, honest experience, and farming memoir into a complete guide to starting and maintaining your agricultural dream home. The book is divided into sections on choosing a location, growing things, raising animals, and profiting as a business. Clearly, this isn’t an overnight process, but Michael and Audrey share years of experience with their labor of love. Off-farm income was utterly essential to its birth.

By implementing sustainable organic methods to create an optimal ecosystem, the benefits they’ve reaped are endless. Detailed instruction, lessons learned, and gorgeous full-color photos on nearly every page make this an invaluable resource for anyone desiring a peaceful and balanced rural life.

We know smaller is better. We know local is healthier. Moving from responsible consumer to responsible producer is possible. The Joy of Hobby Farming helps re-establish local farm economies to strengthen communities so we can finally connect with the land and love it back.

Image via Once Wed.