Ragworts and thistles / various.

Prepublication ISBN.

Our land. Isolation / Irene Pearson. My country windows / Kaye Ellis. The sound of country silence / Lorraine Miller. Being a country woman ; Morning in the Maruia / Beverley Blanche. The big snow / Sue Hargreaves -- Our lives. Country kitchen / Christine Benson. The dance of life / Sandra Clark. The farmer's wife / Jackie Marshall. Me and Fred / Shirley Gillies. A townie's view / Karen Zelas. New Zealand farmer / Heather Paton. Gumboot lady / Jo Gardiner. Generation gap / Kath O'Sullivan. Our primary producers / Olwyn Green. Madge / Dawn McMillan. A day in the life of a would-be writer / Sue Hargreaves. Edna's day out / Alma Stevenson. Book club / Paula Slack -- Our work. That cow / Beverley Blanche. Thoughts of a lady farmer / Heather Lomas. The sheepyard bully / Marilyn Kerwin. Gumboots. Christine Benson. Digger / Olwyn Green. Poor motherless lamb / Marian Taylor. My first three days / Jo Carson-Barr. Women's work / Gill Logan. My mother, 'the farmer' / Kristina Jensen. A woman in a man's world / Dorothy Scott. Docking / Denise Williamson. The late calf / Philippa Graham -- Our story. Blue velvet skirt / Garrick Batten. For better or for worse / Ellen Ramsay. Ragwort and thistles / Marion Day. Goatus Operandi / Marie Higgs. Bud's mate / Marion Williams. Surviving loss / Joanie Throssell. A different woman / Jane Carswell. Three miles south of Peel Forest / Jan Mackenzie. Milk and honey / Anna-Lisa Vaatstra -- Our heritage. Counting the cost / Ali Everts. The valley / Jonnie Rutherford. Then and now, two women on the land / John McTavish. Grandfather's legacy / MK Bola. Greta's flute / Annette Knowler. In my mother's footsteps / Cynthia Cass. A treasure house of memory / Janet Pates. The old one / Joyce Welch. Farm food in the forties / Margaret Dodds. The 1980's / Yvonne Cochrane. Feedlot women / Jenny Watts. Granny was a greenie / Joyce Wyllie.

'Ragwort and Thistles' consists of 52 pieces of writing from 48 submitters from around New Zealand. These poems and short stories celebrate the life of rural women.