I Once Had a Farm in Ireland

Book Details

Title: I Once Had a Farm in Ireland
Author: Siggy Buckley
Genre: Memoir
Format: eBook
Length: 233 pages
Cover Designer: Tayyana Bano
Publication Date: May 5, 2015

Book Trailer

I once had a Farm in Ireland: Living the Organic Lifestyle

I Once Had a Farm in Ireland – Synopsis

A wheelbarrow, a cable drum, gardening tools, and a pickaxe are unusual items on a wedding registry. They are what Mac and Siggy, a German professional couple, need to fulfill their dream of organic gardening. When Chernobyl blows up a few years later, they are scared enough to undertake fundamental changes in the lives of their young family to seek a simpler and healthier lifestyle in an unspoiled country.

They buy a farm in Tipperary, Ireland. They give up their jobs, friends and home to raise their children in an unpolluted environment. Although Siggy shares her husband’s environmental convictions, she would prefer a warmer climate, maybe an olive farm in Tuscany.

A period of intense learning and acquiring new skills follows: how to raise chickens, pluck geese, breed cattle and sheep, and how to grow all kinds of vegetables. Soon they find out that farming means a never ending workload. They almost kill themselves ─and each other─ to produce healthy food.

I Once Had a Farm in Ireland not only gives advice for budding organic gardeners but it is also the story of a woman who sacrifices her own ideals for the sake of her family until she discovers her own dreams.

I Once Had a Farm in Ireland – Excerpt

“So what was I doing on an Irish farm? I was a German city girl and a high school teacher. My then-husband — let’s call him Mac — was a CPA and accountant with a legal background and also German. We had strong leanings towards the Green party, sympathized with most environmental movements; we were both scared by news of deteriorating environmental conditions all around us at a time when we started a family. We cared about what was in our food, worried about the poison of the day, food additives, E-numbers, growth promoters, and chemicals — you name it, the whole shebang. That’s what a lot of German people did at the time, in the eighties. Like so many others, our awareness about the environment had been given a jumpstart by the nuclear disaster around Chernobyl and we were downwind.

We had gone green as far as we possibly could. We had been members of Greenpeace and environmental activists for years. How much more can you do as an individual to achieve your goal of a healthy lifestyle? Escape to a remote island?”

Endorsement

“As the descendant of central Virginia agricultural families, I relate to the candor of Siggy Buckley’s words – “For almost ten years, we nearly killed ourselves — and each other! — producing healthy food.” Buckley’s book I Once Had a Farm in Ireland: Living the Organic Lifestyle is a ‘must read’ for any one who considers or views modern day homesteading as idyllic. For, enabling an organic life-style as Siggy found, can be an all consuming life altering experience. —- Sylvia Hoehns Wright, an eco-advocate, challenges all to ‘Move from eco-weak to eco-chic – green life’s garden, one scoop at a time!”

Sylvia Hoehns Wright is a nationally recognized eco-advocate, contributing writer and communications specialist; in her spare time she is a passionate historian and member of the American League of Pen Women.(www.NLAPW.org). To learn more about Wright’s eco-legacy: Wright’s eco advocacy, visit web site www.TheWrightScoop.com

Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars A Truly Magnificent Story, Straight From The Heart May 28, 2015

I Once Had a Farm in Ireland – Buy Links

Amazon US

About the Author

Educated in Germany with a Master’s Degree in English, Siggy Buckley lived in Ireland for over 15 years, first teaching at the University of Limerick as an adjunct professor, while building up an organic farm. She later ran her own businesses in Dublin before coming to the USA in 2003. In 2005, Siggy married an American and pursued her life-long dream of writing.

Publication History

Memoirs

Next Time Lucky: Secrets of a Matchmaker (self-published with Createspace 2012)
Next Time Lucky: How to Find your Mr. Right, 2nd extended edition (self-published with Lightning source/Ingram) 2014
I Once had a farm in Ireland: Living the Organic Lifestyle (self-published May/June 2015, Lightning Source) and all on Kindle.

Short Stories

There is No Going Back (Self-published 2014) Kindle edition
Mother Knows Best (Self-published 2014) Kindle edition

Poems

Special K, published on Akashicbooks.com

In the News

My interview with Sylvia Hoehns Wright on Blog Talk Radio
Book trailer on Next Time Lucky
Book Trailer for I Once had a Farm in Ireland
On TV on Dating advice; on Home Swapping
Siggy Buckley appeared several times on local NPR with Melissa Ross’ First Coast Connect and On First Coast Living (Local TV ─ NBC) and had numerous interviews on blog talk radio. Her experience as a former Irish matchmaker makes her a welcome guest for local paper interviews. She also wrote articles for www.Opednews.com and www.Americanchronicles.com.