A summer job turns serious when a young woman takes the reins on a remote farm-and learns far more than how to herd sheep

In May 1972, Liese Greensfelder arrived in the small Norwegian town of Oystese to startling news: Johannes, the farmer who hired her for the summer, had just been hospitalized after a stroke. Could she please watch over his place for a month or so, until he got back on his feet? Twenty years old and with no farming experience, Liese was dropped off the next day at a centuries-old mountain farm at the end of a dirt road high above the magnificent Hardanger Fjord-with 115 sheep, two cows, one calf, a draft horse, and a Norwegian herding dog to care for.

Armed with a command of Danish that enabled rudimentary communication, Liese began learning from neighbors who spoke an ancient Norwegian dialect-how to feed the animals, milk by hand, and supervise her first lambing. The farm was run in the old way: horses and wagons instead of tractors, haymaking in the rain, and hikes into the mountains to check on the sheep that ranged free over those wild peaks all summer. And, she was quick to discover, the farm was on the brink of ruin, for Johannes was a heartless man who had abused his animals and neglected his buildings and equipment for decades.

Although her employer had alienated his neighbors, they immediately welcomed the American newcomer and offered her help. As "a month or so" stretched to a year and Liese struggled for the survival of the farm, she joined this tight-knit enclave of farmers, learning their stories and history, adopting their dialect, and growing intimately familiar with the grass-based farming practices that had sustained them for generations.

From moments of levity, such as sampling a neighbor's fruit wines, Christmas parties, and skiing; to soul-battering challenges, including the directive to kill a fox, sending sheep to slaughter, rotten silage, and vicious weather; to the yearnings of a young woman awash in a sea of masculinity, Accidental Shepherd is a candid account of Liese's year in a remote farmhouse. Confronted with dangers and obstacles for which she was utterly unprepared, she tells a story of remarkable resilience and records the fascinating but rapidly vanishing traditions of the community that took her in.

About the Author

Liese Greensfelder is a freelance writer focusing on medicine, biology, and agriculture. She has worked as a farm advisor for the University of California Cooperative Extension and as a science writer for UC San Francisco and UC Berkeley, and she initiated an agricultural development project in the Guatemalan highlands. In 1975, an epistolary account of her first six months on Johannes's farm became a bestselling book in Norway. She lives in rural Nevada County, California, on the western slope of the Sierra Nevada mountains.

Reviews

"Liese Greensfelder's exciting and unexpected adventure in Norway moved a whole nation when she first shared her story in 1975. Now a new generation will be inspired to take a journey that might change their lives forever. I loved Accidental Shepherd-I laughed, I cried, and I will carry this young woman's heroic tale with me always." -Camilla Flaatten, travel journalist, Aftenposten, Oslo

"Accidental Shepherd keeps an open, smart, frank tone, and Liese Greensfelder's good humor working through problems shines. The farm animals come wonderfully through-especially the sheep and difficult lamb birth. She offers a good balance of light and dark with lots of enlightening detail." -Gary Snyder, Pulitzer Prize-winning poet, author, and essayist

"Finally the real, rural Norway, with language lessons to boot. Liese Greensfelder creates a cast of characters-and animals-that show how Nordic life has persevered over the centuries. My wife wanted to give up everything to lead a bucolic life as sheepherders in Norway for three months. Now we can just read this charming book instead-thank you Liese! Her stories of farm life along the fjord make her a Norwegian James Herriot." -Eric Dregni, author of For the Love of Cod: A Father and Son's Search for Norwegian Happiness

"Liese Greensfelder's vivid writing transported me into the heart of a community still relying on sustainable, grass-based farming practices handed down through generations. Her story of the triumphs, catastrophes, elation, and heartbreak she experienced there will keep you reading to the end." -Craig McNamara, farmer and author of Because Our Fathers Lied: A Memoir of Truth and Family, from Vietnam to Today

Book Information
ISBN 9781517917661
Author Liese Greensfelder
Format Hardback
Page Count 280
Imprint University of Minnesota Press
Publisher University of Minnesota Press
Weight(grams) 340g
Dimensions(mm) 229mm * 152mm * 15mm