Trading his dreams of rock stardom and pro angling for a patch of Iowa farmland, Ethan Book shares the story of starting from scratch at Crooked Gap Farm, where he wages an annual war on mud and finds lessons in patience while waiting to turn his cows out to a new pasture; a born talker who longs for a mechanical bent, “The Beginning Farmer” shares the tale of doing rounds of meetings in DC as a voice for small-scale farmers.