First published 1998
Josh McBroom thought he got swindled when he purchased eighty acres of New England farmland with nothing but a pond sitting on top. The deal seemed too good to be true, and it was. Or so McBroom believed until nature intervened. A severe drought strikes the region and drains the pond completely dry. What McBroom discovers beneath the water changes everything. The exposed soil possesses extraordinary fertility that defies all logic and experience. Vegetables planted in this miraculous earth grow at an impossible rate. McBroom watches crops mature so quickly that he can harvest four full yields in a single day. What started as an apparent swindle becomes the agricultural opportunity of a lifetime. The story follows McBroom as he learns to work with his remarkable land and discovers that sometimes the worst deals turn into the greatest fortunes.
Genres: american-fiction, 20th-century, adventure, agriculture
Vibes: thought-provoking, whimsical
Tropes: fish-out-of-water, unexpected-discovery
Setting: New England
Period: 20th-century
Unknown Binding · Grosset & Dunlap