I'm searching for an obscure organic hippy magazine from the 70's

December 10, 2007 3:07 PM

I'm looking for a magazine from the early 70's that was geared towards natural hippy lifestyles, homesteading, composting, crafts, self-sustainability and organic gardening. Does this ring a bell with anyone and can you help me find some back copies?
posted by watercarrier to society & culture (24 comments total)

Are you thinking of Whole Earth Review?
posted by serazin at 3:11 PM on December 10, 2007

Mother Earth News?
posted by iconomy at 3:12 PM on December 10, 2007

How obscure? You're not thinking of Mother Earth News, are you?
posted by thehmsbeagle at 3:12 PM on December 10, 2007

Foxfire? Mother Earth News?
posted by RogerB at 3:12 PM on December 10, 2007

Mother Earth News?
posted by Carol Anne at 3:13 PM on December 10, 2007

If it is Mother Earth News, they've archived on CDs.
posted by iconomy at 3:14 PM on December 10, 2007

no, not Mother Earth News. That's not obscure! :) This was an ~underground~ homey kind of publication.....guess I should have put that in the original question.
posted by watercarrier at 3:15 PM on December 10, 2007

Wasn't foxfire either....
posted by watercarrier at 3:16 PM on December 10, 2007

Was it a newsletter, or an actual magazine?
posted by thehmsbeagle at 3:17 PM on December 10, 2007

Harrowsmith? Home Power?
There was a ton of these came out of the back-to-the-land movement.
posted by scruss at 3:22 PM on December 10, 2007

Well, it ain't a magazine, but "The Encyclopedia of Country Living" by Carla Emery is a pretty damn good compendium of this type of hippy-knowledge.

Google Books link
posted by terpia at 3:22 PM on December 10, 2007

Co Evolution Quarterly?
posted by Killick at 3:30 PM on December 10, 2007

thehmsbeagle, an actual magazine
posted by watercarrier at 3:40 PM on December 10, 2007

To echo scruss, there were a bunch of magazines like this. If you've got a decent university library nearby, you might see what they have in bound and/or microfilmed periodicals. Or try some advanced searches in Worldcat.
posted by box at 3:47 PM on December 10, 2007

It might be Rodale Press' "Organic Gardening and Farming," which was founded in 1942 but was very popular in the 1970s.
posted by jeffmshaw at 3:49 PM on December 10, 2007

Would it have been a regional thing? What region?
posted by LobsterMitten at 4:00 PM on December 10, 2007

Countryside and Small Stock Journal?
(Used to be just Countryside.)
Small Farmer's Journal?
I think Rodale had one that wasn't Organic Gardening, but I sure can't remember the name right now.
posted by Floydd at 4:01 PM on December 10, 2007

Makes me think of the old GrassRoots magazine...

I believe it's now defunct but there are copies on eBay all the time.
posted by ninazer0 at 4:29 PM on December 10, 2007 [1 favorite]

Are you sure it's a magazine? I answered a similar question once before with Living on the Earth by Alicia Bay Laurel (which was in my consciousness thanks to a friend who'd grown up indoctrinated in its ways) and that ended up being the right one.
posted by Madamina at 7:26 PM on December 10, 2007

Where in the world are you located? My parents (in Australia) used to get two magazines like this - Grass Roots and Earth Garden. I think at least one of them is still going, but back in the 70s they were really underground-looking publications.
posted by andraste at 8:29 PM on December 10, 2007

YES! This is it - *Makes me think of the old GrassRoots magazine...

I believe it's now defunct but there are copies on eBay all the time.*
posted by ninazer

Thanks so very much ninazer!

And everyone who replied - thanks for helping me find it. You guys are great. Thanks MetaFilter. Yippeeeee!
posted by watercarrier at 7:37 AM on December 11, 2007

Madamina - I remember that book - whooee takes me back into the sunshine. :)
posted by watercarrier at 7:41 AM on December 11, 2007

andraste - yeppers all the way! It is a down-down-down under magazine. I'm so psyched about this. No chance of you having any back copies to sell, eh? :)))
posted by watercarrier at 7:42 AM on December 11, 2007

I think it might still be going, but they don't have a website - this blog post refers to an article from 2006 and I'm pretty sure I saw it at the newsagents when I was in Australia in September. The link in the post doesn't work - contact details are:

Grass Roots magazine
Megg Miller, editor
PO Box 117,
Seymour VIC 3661
Australia
Ph 03 57924000 (from overseas [phone])
Fax [phone] ([phone])

Earth Garden is very similar.
posted by goo at 10:17 AM on January 3