"As a seasonal farmer in upstate New York and Vermont-living hand-to-mouth, but in love with the land and its creatures-Ellyn Gaydos understands the delicate balance between loss and gain. Choosing such work instead of moving to the city with her long-distance boyfriend, Gaydos recognizes her role in cycles bigger than herself. Yearning to be a mother, she recognizes, too, how new life is mirrored in everything that surrounds her: livestock, full moons, endless acres of green that seem to blossom overnight. But there's tragedy on the farms as well: fields gone barren, opioid addiction, and animals meeting their end too soon. While small farms struggle to survive in the face of industrial operations, low wages, and loneliness, Gaydos takes us into a violent and gorgeous world where pigs are turned into star-bright symbols of hope, and beauty surfaces in the furrows, the sow, and the slaughter"--

Prologue: Gumdrop --

First bloom.

New Lebanon -- Mating -- Springs -- Brother Sun, Sister Moon -- Go, pigs, go --

Turning stone green.

Planting in the quarry town -- Luke -- Red, white, & blue -- Size of everything -- Thunder road -- Funeral --

Days of harvest.

Eve of destruction -- Summer's solstice -- Machine work -- Fairgrounds -- Guardian angels -- Fattening -- Reaping -- Returns --

Winter.

Solstice -- A new year -- March -- Epilogue: Spring Again