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Start giftingLocally Laid
How We Built a Plucky, Industry-Changing Egg Farm—from Scratch
Narrator
Kate Reading
This audiobook uses AI narration.
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Length
8 hours 26 minutes
Language
English
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 two thousand 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 mid-sized 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.
Lucie Amundsen is a writer, marketer, and reluctant farmer. She co-owns Locally Laid Egg Company, a farm that provides pasture-raised eggs in Minnesota, Iowa, and Indiana.
Kate Reading has recorded hundreds of audiobooks across many genres, over a thirty year plus career. Audie Awards: The Strange Case of the Alchemist’s Daughter (mystery), Breasts (non-fiction), Bellwether (fiction), and Words of Radiance (fantasy), co-narrated with her husband, Michael Kramer. Among other awards, she has been recognized with: the ALA Booklist best of 2019 for Bowlaway (fiction), AudioFile Magazine Voice of the Century, Earphones Awards, Narrator of the Year, Best Voice in Science Fiction and Fantasy, and Publisher’s Weekly’s Listen-Up Award. She records at her home studio, Madison Productions, Inc., in Maryland.
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Reviews
“I absolutely loved Locally Laid! Read it in two days and enjoyed every minute. Funny and informative.”
“Locally Laid is as entertaining as it is thought-provoking. With candor, humor, and a distinctly midwestern irreverence, Lucie B. Amundsen chronicles her family’s earnest effort to bring some sanity back to the food system.”
“Written with candor, sarcasm, and humor, Locally Laid is, to pluck a phrase from the book, an immersion into ‘a loud, flustery poultry tsunami.’ It cures one of any residual romantic notions of playing farmer; makes one appreciate afresh how grueling and risky it is to operate a midsize family farm; and explains why their products are more expensive.”
“Narrator Kate Reading is excellent at capturing Amundsen’s emotions…During the more technical passages, Reading slows the pace and reads with crisp enunciation, making the material easy to understand.”
“In this honest, chronological memoir, Amundsen shares her knowledge and wisdom as co-owner of Minnesota-based Locally Laid Egg Company…Her first-person narrative makes her experience as a business owner in this industry informative yet accessible while also including humor.”
“[A] rollercoaster pastured-poultry farm start-up memoir. Locally Laid is a perfect example of why farm apprenticeships are so important. Seldom will nonfiction keep you from going to bed at night: Locally Laid will definitely keep you up!”
“As a ‘remedial adult’ with chickens, I heartily commend you to the words, wisdom, and knowledge of Lucie B. Amundsen, an author whose voice is as earthy as a chicken run, as goofy and bright as a pasture-raised egg yolk at sunrise, and as down-to-earth as barn boots in mud.”
“Witty and eye-opening, Locally Laid is a gem. I found myself rooting for this couple of lunatics who get into the egg business in the most unlikely of places, in the most unlikely of circumstances. Lucie B. Amundsen, aka Bird, is utterly uninhibited and quite hilarious.”
“Lucie Amundsen’s refreshingly honest account of starting a mid-sized farm will resonate with any business owner. She brings the perfect measure of levity to her tale, keeping the reader laughing during even the most tense moments of this true-to-life story.”
“The author’s skepticism and her husband’s optimism collide to create a laughable, empathetic tale of re-education for (wo)man and beast…Don’t let Amundsen’s self-deprecating humor fool you into taking this book lightly. In between capers, she makes a nuanced plea to respect local farms and the animals that populate them.”
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