"Voices from the Farm" is an honest, varied and frequently entertaining album of snapshots by many former, and current, residents of the Farm. Its warmth and diversity of viewpoints lends it an undeniable authenticity. Not every controversy or change is made apparent here,but there is at least an introduction to the complexities of life in a built-from-the-mud-up intentional community of voluntary hippie peasants.


Even the reader who thinks he or she understands the Farm will gain a new insight from reading this collection. Topics addressed include the laundromat assembled from military salvage where "sort-out sessions" dealing with relationships between residents become at least as important as drying a stack of cloth diapers, the founder's ongoing relationship with the Farm's assigned "FBI man," marriage and family life in a community where "if you're sleeping together you're engaged" and the ways an American approach to tantriclovemaking informed this life. The events that led to the exodus of many Farm residents,including those who'd been there from the beginning, are offered with the same tone of bemused kindness.