Author · Zone 6B Vermont · 15 of 15 volumes published
Hadley Wren writes The Steading Codex: a series of 15 field journals for the keeper of soil, water, plant, flock, and harvest. They are written from a working smallholding in Zone 6B Vermont, on 3.2 acres, and designed to work in Zones 4 through 7.
"A working record. Use a pencil. Mistakes are data."
It began with a busted compost pile
The Steading Codex started in 2018 with a busted compost pile and a soggy notebook.
Like most working keepers, I'd built up a decade of knowledge:
- composting;
- biochar batches in a tin kiln;
- drip irrigation laid in winter;
- a small flock of laying hens;
- a kombucha SCOBY that never died;
- a pantry I rotated about a third as often as I should have.
The knowledge was real. The records were not.
The first version of Soil Soul was 20 pages stapled together in a ring binder. It held temperatures, moisture and C:N ratios, plus what I added, what I turned and what I noticed. After one season the binder was a working artifact: compost piles finished in 90 days instead of "next year", and each batch was better than the last. It was the binder, not me.
That's the philosophy behind every volume. These aren't picture books with pretty illustrations. They're field manuals: dot grids, reference tables and structured logs. The keeper fills them in, and the journal compounds across seasons.
5 phases. 3 volumes each.
- 01 Prepare the land. Soil, biochar, water.
- 02 Grow the green. Microgreens, balcony, herbs.
- 03 Raise the flock. Chickens, bees, rabbits.
- 04 Process the harvest. Ferments, apothecary, smoke & salt.
- 05 Steward the loop. Harvest, inputs, scrap. The waste audit becomes the next compost pile.
The bias
I'm biased toward systems that work in cold winters and short hands. Most of these journals were field-tested in Zone 6 climates, on plots between a quarter-acre and three acres.
I'm not a homesteading celebrity. I won't sell you a $2,000 course. The books are the work.