Book review of Sown in the Stars by Sarah Hall

For centuries, farmers have been consulting celestial cycles, akin to the zodiac and the phases of the moon, to time their planting, with a quantity of calendars and almanacs printed yearly to assist them do exactly that. There’s scant scientific analysis on this kind of zodiac-based cultivation, however as affiliate professor of agriculture and pure assets Sarah L. Hall muses in Sown in the Stars, “It does seem (even to a scientist like me) that when a practice continues over a long period of time, there might just be something to it.”

Hall interviewed a big quantity of Kentuckians who observe the people custom of planting by the indicators (I really like how she refers to them as “garden artists”), and their tales form the coronary heart of this fantastically designed guide. Hall provides readers an outline of astrology and astronomy, which inform this methodology of farming, and he or she even shares the outcomes of her personal season of planting by the indicators. Whether you want to give it a go your self or are merely interested by conventional practices, this guide is a precious cultural doc, full of expertise and knowledge sometimes handed from one era to the subsequent by ladies.