Julia Shipley’s essays have also appeared in Alimentum: the Literaure of Food, December Magazine, Fourth Genre, The Magazine, Orion, The Toast and elsewhere. She is the author of Adam’s Mark (Plowboy Press, 2014) and is completing a manuscript (from which this essay is adapted) of further indiscretions on man, land and literature. She lives in northern Vermont. Her website is www.writingonthefarm.com