Accidental Shepherd

How a California Girl Rescued an Ancient Mountain Farm in Norway

By: Liese Greensfelder

Narrated by: Emily Sutton-Smith

In May 1972, Liese Greensfelder arrived in the small Norwegian town of Øystese to startling news: Johannes, the farmer who hired her for the summer, had just been hospitalized after a stroke. Could she please watch over his place for a month or so, until he got back on his feet? Twenty years old and with no farming experience, Liese was dropped off the next day at a centuries-old mountain farm at the end of a dirt road high above the magnificent Hardanger Fjord—with 115 sheep, two cows, one calf, a draft horse, and a Norwegian herding dog to care for.

Although her employer had alienated his neighbors, they welcomed the American newcomer and offered her help. As "a month or so" stretched to a year and Liese struggled, she joined this tight-knit enclave of farmers, learning their stories and history, adopting their dialect, and growing familiar with the grass-based farming practices that had sustained them for generations.

From moments of levity to soul-battering challenges to the yearnings of a young woman awash in a sea of masculinity, Accidental Shepherd is a candid account of Liese's year in a remote farmhouse. Confronted with dangers and obstacles for which she was utterly unprepared, she tells a story of remarkable resilience and records the fascinating but rapidly vanishing traditions of the community that took her in.

©2024 Liese Greensfelder (P)2024 Tantor Media

Fantastic memoir!

I truly enjoyed this memoir… The author’s descriptions were fantastic. I almost felt as if I had been on this journey with her.

Uplifting and engaging

Seems like an honest telling of her story with an emphasis on community, even when someone refuses to engage. The connection to the past comes alive.