Shannon Hayes

Did you or someone you know opt to sidestep a traditional career track to put your family and the planet first? For my next book project, I am looking to meet and profile folks who have learned to live on less in order to take the time to nourish their family and the planet through home cooking, engaged citizenship, responsible consumption and creative living. Enlightened homemakers can be male, female or two people sharing the role, full or part-time. Click on the link below to send me an email and tell me about yourself or someone you know. Please put "enlightened homemaker" in the subject heading. Thanks!

Shannon Hayes farms and writes about great food, agriculture, sustainability, and rural living. Armed with a keen palate, a farm background, an eye for the absurd and a hearty appetite, she is on a mission to convince the world that we can save the planet, one bite at a time. Her articles, essays and columns have appeared in Yankee Magazine, Adirondack Life, Kaatskill Life, Graze, Farm To Table.org, as well as on Northeast Public Radio and in many local and national newspapers and farm periodicals. She has been a featured guest on numerous radio talk shows around the country, and her first book, The Grassfed Gourmet, is available through Eating Fresh Publications, 10 Speed Press, or through grassfedcooking.com. Her second book, The Farmer and the Grill, is available through grassfedcooking.com (simply follow the link at the top of this page) or Chelsea Green.

Hayes' quirky lifestyle, her attempts to live a life of personal accountability and sustainability, and her current research and writings about homemaking as an ecological movement have landed her and her family on the pages of the New York Times; Brain Child Magazine, Lancaster Farming, Small Farm Quarterly, and Hobby Farm Home Magazine.

Shannon, her husband Bob Hooper and their daughters Saoirse and Ula live in Schoharie County, New York where they work with her parents, Jim and Adele Hayes, on Sap Bush Hollow Farm . The family raises all-natural grassfed lamb, beef, pork, and poultry.

Shannon holds a BA in creative writing from Binghamton University, and a masters and Ph.D. in sustainable agriculture and community development from Cornell University.