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Hobby Farms (magazine)

US magazine

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 13, 2026
Entity authorityQ5874930
Source-derived summary

Hobby Farms is a bimonthly magazine, devoted to the life of hobby farmers, homesteaders and small producers. Its editorial offices are based in Lexington, Kentucky. Hobby Farms magazine's tagline is "Rural Living for Pleasure and Profit". The magazine is known for its award-winning design and photography.

History

The magazine was the brainchild of Norman Ridker, founder and chairman of BowTie Inc. In 1999, he was visiting a friend and business associate in upstate New York who enjoyed making maple syrup on his farm in his spare time. Looking around at the farm and his friend's life—a working professional who enjoyed farming as a hobby—he realized that no magazine existed that served him and others like him. He enlisted editors to begin researching "hobby farmers" and the seeming groundswell of urban professionals moving to the country seeking a more meaningful existence and with a desire to farm in their spare time. Finding that a very real need existed for education and basic information about farming for such individuals, BowTie trademarked the term "hobby farm", and launched Hobby Farms magazine in the spring of 2001.

In 2004 Hobby Farms editorial office moved from Irvine, California, to Lexington, Kentucky.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “Hobby Farms (magazine)” as uS magazine. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Hobby, Farms and magazine.

Editorial reviewA concise reference frame for defining the subject, testing terminology and identifying the institution closest to the evidence. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1999, 2001, 2004—that can be checked directly. The authority record carries competing date values—2001-01-01, 2001-03—which should remain separate until their references and qualifiers are resolved. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Hobby, Farms and magazine providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Hobby Farms (magazine)”, the useful work is to connect “uS magazine” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 13, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5874930. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1999, 2001 and 2004.

Critical limits

Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
Verify next

The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Hobby Farms (magazine)”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Hobby Farms (magazine) primary sources, Hobby Farms (magazine) archive and Hobby research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Hobby Farms (magazine)”?
  2. Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
  3. What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
Subject index

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Hobby Farms (magazine)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.