By CALAMITY KATE – For SlamWrestling.net

Since giving birth to my son, Van, over two years ago, I have a new respect and appreciation for my fellow wrestling mamas. It was very exciting for two worlds to collide when I had the opportunity to read From the Farm to our Table written by WWE wrestler, Sarah Rowe — who is now known as Valhalla alongside the Viking Raiders, Ivar and Erik (to whom she is married).

From the Farm to our Table tells the story of a mother and her two children, Leo and Finlay, as they go about their daily life living on a farm. Starting their day with breakfast, doing chores on the farm, taking care of the animals, harvesting vegetables, and eventually cooking their dinner. The story ends off with the family enjoying the fruits of their labor around the table.

Leo and Finlay help Mama collect eggs, feed chickens, visit the pigs, and the cute cows. All kids love farm animals. It was especially fun for Van to make the animal sounds as I read. Their cute dog follows them around wherever they go, which was something that I particularly loved.

As a vegetarian, I couldn’t quite connect with every aspect of the story, that being said, although I’ll never suggest to my son that we eat venison for dinner (such as the mother in the book does), I wholeheartedly believe that this book sends a beautiful message to our children. Hunting what you need and living off the land versus factory farming is an important concept to share with our children.

This story teaches kids where their food comes from. It teaches an appreciation of the care that goes into raising livestock and gardening and the rewards that are reaped for our hard work. As I was reading the book to my son, I realized he has never heard about milking a cow — nor did he know that the cow is where his milk comes from! (I mean, he’s only two but still…) He loved the part about collecting eggs because it made him think about Easter.

Night after night, my son has asked me to read From the Farm to our Table to him. We both really enjoy it. It’s easy to read but not so simple that you fly through it in 30 seconds. The illustrations by Amanda Morrow are beautiful and detailed. The hard cover is high quality and I feel like this book will stand the test of time — my son has been nicknamed “Destructo” for a reason.

If you have little ones at home, I think From the Farm to our Table will be the perfect addition to your bookshelf!

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Calamity Kate is a wrestler, burlesque performer, and filmmaker based out of Vancouver, British Columbia. She is the co-owner of WrestleCore with her husband, KobraKai. Kate has taken some time out of the ring these days to focus on her busy film career. SlamWrestling.net profiled her in 2018: Vancouver’s Calamity Kate developing a taste for lucha