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Good Soil

The Education of an Accidental Farmhand

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Good Soil

By: Jeff Chu
Narrated by: Jeff Chu
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$8.99/mo. after 3 months. Cancel anytime. Offer ends July 5, 2026 at 11:59pm PT.

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NATIONAL BESTSELLER • A profound meditation on nature, heritage, and belonging, from an accomplished journalist who left New York City for life on a working farm

“I needed this book. I think you need it, too.”—Maggie Smith, New York Times bestselling author of You Could Make This Place Beautiful

In his late thirties, Jeff Chu left his job as a magazine writer and found himself at Princeton Theological Seminary’s “Farminary”—a twenty-one-acre working farm where students learn to cultivate the earth while examining life’s biggest questions. Now, he unpacks what he learned about creating “good soil,” both literally and figuratively, drawing lessons from the rhythms of growth, decay, and regeneration that define life on the land.

In gorgeous, transporting reflections, Chu introduces us to the cast of characters, human and not, who became his teachers. While observing the egrets that visit the pond, the worms that turn waste into fertile soil, and the Chinese long beans that get passed over in the farm’s CSA, Chu considers our desire to belong, the story behind the food on our plate, and the significance of his own roots. What is the earth trying to tell us, if we’ll only stop and listen?

Good Soil helps readers connect to the land and to one another at a time when we seem drawn most to the phones in our hands. For nature lovers, foodies, and anyone who has daydreamed about a more fulfilling life, this book is a tribute to friendship, to the sacredness of our bond with the natural world, and to how love can grow from the unlikeliest of places. Biographies & Memoirs Environmentalists & Naturalists Nature & Ecology Outdoors & Nature Professionals & Academics Science Heartfelt
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Insightful Reflections • Vulnerable Storytelling • Soothing Voice • Unified Narrative • Theological Depth • Healing Tone

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Most relevant
So beautiful, raw, vulnerableand real. Life that feeds death that feeds life. An important reminder to let things die for new things to grow. Thank you.

Mesmerizing

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This book was not exactly what I thought it was going to be but I was pleasantly surprised. I can hear the emotion in the author’s/ narrators voice in many parts. This book is going next to my copy of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance as something I will always give to a reading suggestion and/or a graduation gift.

Must read

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His candor and insight combine to make his memoir a life-giving moment of appreciation of one’s own gifts from our surroundings.

Thank you

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This book gentler walked me through what it’s like being an uncommon figure in a place where you’re always the different one from the rest—in family, religious spaces, relationships. Jeff puts to words the ache and processes what it’s like to be human among the hurt, loved among the mess, while reminding us there is always the resurrection of the compost pile.

a gentle nudge

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I enjoyed this narration of Jeff’s story. His love and struggles are lain bare in order for others to hear or read and thereby feel seen and heard. Beautiful prose that fed my soul as I salivated over his culinary creations and cried through stories of life.

Heartfelt memoir

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