Valhalla is a force of nature in WWE, but while the superstar is always ready to go in the ring, wrestling isn’t the only realm she’s diving into. Valhalla is about to launch her first children’s book under her real name Sarah Rowe, and the book (up for pre-order now) is titled From The Farm, To Our Table. The book is being published by Gnome Road Publishing and will feature gorgeous artwork from artist Amanda Morrow, which you can preview below. From The Farm, To Our Table is a story centered on Leo and Finlay, two twins who start to learn about where their food comes from, the hard work that goes into bringing the food to the table, and respecting the animals and the land that made that food possible.
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“So I wrote the book two years ago. We just had an idea for the book, and Gnome Road Publishing picked it up, and then we brainstormed together,” Rowe said. “And then Amanda Morrow, the illustrator who did an adorable job came in a little later, and she had to make the book come to life, and she did beautifully. The book is about two twins, Leo and Finlay, and they wake up and have breakfast with their mom. They start talking about where the breakfast is from, and what’s their favorite part, and the mom’s like, ‘Well, this breakfast didn’t just get here by itself. Let’s go do chores.’ So the kids go around the farm. They do chores, and they’re talking about where each thing came from. They have a run-in with a rooster, and they get splashed in the mud by a pig.”
“And while they’re on their adventure going around and doing chores, they’re like, ‘Why don’t we make dinner tonight? Why don’t we gather ingredients from the farm to make dinner for our parents?’ So they go out on the farm and get all the things they need for a shepherd’s pie. They use venison that their mom harvested during hunting season, and they go in and cook it, and they are so tired from their day of work they can barely finish their dinner,” Rowe said. “But it is a cute book about farming, sustainable living, stewardship of the land, animals, and cooking. It is the book I wanted to read to Cash when he was starting to read books. So I couldn’t find a book that was about farming the way I farmed. We do regenerative agriculture, and we’re very sustainable, and we try to get back to the land, and have a positive carbon footprint, and yada, yada yada.”
“And we only raise food for us, so we don’t have a production farm. We just have a farm for us,” Rowe said. “So that’s why I wanted to write this book, to hopefully write a book that children can understand where their food came from, that parents can explain it to their kids in a simple way, that encourages everyone to find a local farmer or two, raise some chickens, or to get some meat rabbits, or even grow herbs in their window sill. And it’s sustainable farming, and growing your food is a lot closer and more realistic than a lot of people think.”
Rowe hopes that this book can help make the conversation about where food comes from with children a bit easier, while also emphasizing the weight behind how food gets to the table. “Yeah. It’s a hard conversation to have. How can you explain to something that just loves everything, that there is a weight behind our food? And there is. I think Cash is going to have a little different understanding of it, because he just sees it so much, but I think it’s so important to let kids see that it’s not just a death. It is a sacrifice. It is a worthy, beautiful sacrifice. And I know to get Cash to eat something that he won’t eat, if I show him where it comes from, and he works to get that food, and I involve him in getting that food, he 9 out of 10 times will eat it,” Rowe said. “So it’s a passion very close to my heart. It’s something that I struggle with as a parent, and I wanted to talk with my kid as a parent, and I’m like, ‘I’m sure hopefully other parents will like this, and want to have these conversations too.’ So that’s why I wrote the book.”
In addition to the main book, there are also a host of other free resources available that parents and children can download to continue the conversation. “There’s even on gnomeroadpublishing.com, there is an educator resource where it has a paper, and it’s a worksheet that gives you games, and things you can do with your kid to use, things talked about in the book to apply them to homeschooling, or just parenting your kid, and trying to get them more involved in this world. And local farms are so great if you want to. I know if someone wrote me, and was like, ‘Hey. Could I bring my kids? Absolutely. I would love you to bring your kids.’ So it’s definitely more obtainable than a lot of people realize. It just takes a little footwork,” Rowe said. There are also downloadable pages for fans to color. “On the Educator Resource page, you can actually print out coloring sheets of things from the book that Amanda has illustrated. So those are super cute, and I will be using lots of those,” Rowe said.
As for the future, Rowe is excited to keep writing, and in addition to the possibility of more children’s books, she is also hoping to move into one of her personal favorite genres, the world of fantasy and magic.
“Yeah. So I love writing. It’s something I do a lot, and it’s just intimidating, your own worst critic, and I love reading fantasy books. Joe Abercrombie, Pierce Brown, and Brandon Sanderson are some of my favorite writers, and their world-building and stuff just blows me away,” Rowe said. “So I do plan on writing more children’s books, and I am also dabbling into my own fantasy stories, which is along the lines of a Joe Abercrombie, like battling magic, all the fun stuff. But I just read such good stuff, and I’m like, ‘I don’t know if I’m ever going to be able to live up to this,’ but I’m trying. So no. I hope it is not the last thing I publish or the last thing I write. I’m going to try for more.”
From The Farm To Our Table is available for pre-order now, and will land in stores on April 2nd.
Will you be picking up the new book? Let us know in the comments, and you can talk all things wrestling and more with me on Threads @mattaguilarcb!
