The essay begins with Ford's marriage to Elsie Martindale and their frugal life in Romney Marsh. It discusses Ford's 'peasant biographies' and their focus on mushroom catsup and the subsistence level rural economy. This provides a context for a reading of and Ford's poem 'From the Soil (Two Monologues), whose two parts give voice to the Field Labourer and the Small Farmer. These early works (and the rural economy of Kent) are discussed in relation to the Swing Riots of 1830, the 1795 Poor Law, the Berkshire Bread Act, and the Union Workhouse. The second part of the essay considers Ford's life at Cap Brun in the 1930s: a frugal life revolving around kitchen gardening, writing and cooking. It includes a reading of Ford's poem 'L'Oubli - Temps de Secheresse' in this context to show its celebration of vegetable gardening but also to bring out the desperation occasioned by the drought. .