{"id":274,"date":"2015-11-28T17:41:44","date_gmt":"2015-11-28T17:41:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nortoncreekpress.com\/wordpress\/?page_id=274"},"modified":"2026-10-18T08:49:04","modified_gmt":"2026-10-18T15:49:04","slug":"gold-in-the-grass","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.nortoncreekpress.com\/wordpress\/back-to-the-land-2\/gold-in-the-grass\/","title":{"rendered":"Gold in the Grass"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>Rags to Riches Through Soil Reclamation and Sustainable Farming<\/h2>\n<style>.ncp-book{text-align:center;float:right;clear:right;margin:.375em 0 1.75em 1.75em;}.ncp-book--left{float:left;clear:left;margin:.375em 1.75em 1.75em 0;}.ncp-book--center{float:none;clear:both;margin:1.5em auto;}.ncp-book--none{float:none;margin:1.5em 0;}.entry-content .ncp-book a{box-shadow:none;text-decoration:none;}.entry-content .ncp-book a.ncp-book__cover{display:block;margin:0 0 .6em;}.ncp-book img{display:block;max-width:100%;height:auto;margin:0 auto;box-shadow:0 1px 4px rgba(0,0,0,.25);}.entry-content .ncp-book a.ncp-book__btn{display:inline-block;padding:.618em 1em;border-radius:3px;background:#1b4411;color:#fff;font:700 13pt\/1 Montserrat,sans-serif;letter-spacing:.046875em;text-transform:uppercase;white-space:nowrap;}.entry-content .ncp-book a.ncp-book__btn:hover{background:#003300;color:#fff;}@media (max-width:599px){.ncp-book,.ncp-book--left{float:none;clear:both;margin:1.5em auto;}}<\/style><div class=\"ncp-book ncp-book--right\" style=\"width:190px;max-width:100%\"><a class=\"ncp-book__cover\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nortoncreekpress.com\/wordpress\/product\/gold-in-the-grass\/\"><img src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nortoncreekpress.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/gold-in-the-grass-cover.jpg?fit=665%2C1024&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"Gold in the Grass book cover\" width=\"166\" height=\"256\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\"><\/a><a class=\"ncp-book__btn\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nortoncreekpress.com\/wordpress\/product\/gold-in-the-grass\/\" aria-label=\"Get the Book: Gold in the Grass\">Get the Book<\/a><\/div>\n<p><em>by Margaret F. Leatherbarrow<br \/>\n<\/em><em>Norton Creek Press, 218 pages. ISBN 0972177051.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>As World War II was ending, Alfred Leatherbarrow, a wounded Canadian veteran, and his nurse, Margaret, fell in love, married, bought their dream farm\u2014and discovered that their crops would not grow. The farm&#8217;s soil had been exhausted through years of destructive tillage practices.\u00a0Faced with certain defeat, they used innovative farming techniques\u2014including a prototype forage harvester to gather grass for silage\u2014to restore the fertility of their farm. This early experiment in sustainable agriculture not only saved the farm in a rags-to-riches turnaround, but showed other farmers in their region how to pull out of the death spiral of decreasing fertility, yields, and income.<\/p>\n<p><i>Gold in the Grass<\/i> is a love story, a back-to-the-land adventure, and an inspirational example of how conservation tillage can restore the fertility of a used-up farm. This is a great book, and has spent far too many of its fifty years out of print.<\/p>\n<p><i>Gold in the Grass<\/i> is an example of the Norton Creek Press motto: &#8220;Most of the best books are out of print and forgotten, but we can fix that!&#8221;<\/p>\n<h2>How to Order<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nortoncreekpress.com\/wordpress\/product\/gold-in-the-grass\/\">Order online<\/a> from a variety of online bookstores.<\/li>\n<li>More options:\u00a0see our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nortoncreekpress.com\/wordpress\/product\/gold-in-the-grass\/\">How to Order<\/a> page.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Rags to Riches Through Soil Reclamation and Sustainable Farming by Margaret F. Leatherbarrow Norton Creek Press, 218 pages. ISBN 0972177051. As World War II was ending, Alfred Leatherbarrow, a wounded Canadian veteran, and his nurse, Margaret, fell in love, married, bought their dream farm\u2014and discovered that their crops would not grow. The farm&#8217;s soil had &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nortoncreekpress.com\/wordpress\/back-to-the-land-2\/gold-in-the-grass\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Gold in the Grass&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1141,"parent":8,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-274","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-back-to-the-land"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Gold in the Grass - Norton Creek Press<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nortoncreekpress.com\/wordpress\/back-to-the-land-2\/gold-in-the-grass\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Gold in the Grass - Norton Creek Press\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Rags to Riches Through Soil Reclamation and Sustainable Farming by Margaret F. Leatherbarrow Norton Creek Press, 218 pages. ISBN 0972177051. As World War II was ending, Alfred Leatherbarrow, a wounded Canadian veteran, and his nurse, Margaret, fell in love, married, bought their dream farm\u2014and discovered that their crops would not grow. 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Leatherbarrow Norton Creek Press, 218 pages. ISBN 0972177051. As World War II was ending, Alfred Leatherbarrow, a wounded Canadian veteran, and his nurse, Margaret, fell in love, married, bought their dream farm\u2014and discovered that their crops would not grow. 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