An intimate look at the life and livelihood of a modern-day farmer, as told by a former urbanite.
A bona-fide city dweller, Kurt Timmermeister never intended to run his own dairy farm. When he purchased four acres of land on Vashon Island, he was looking for an affordable home a ferry ride away from the restaurants he ran in Seattle. But as he continued to serve his customers frozen chicken breasts and packaged pork, he became aware of the connection between what he ate and where it came from: a hive of bees provided honey; a young cow could give fresh milk; an apple orchard allowed him to make vinegar. Told in Timmermeister's plainspoken voice, Growing a Farmer details with honesty the initial stumbles and subsequent realities he had to face in his quest to establish a profitable farm for himself. Personal yet practical, Growing a Farmer includes the specifics of making cheese, raising cows, and slaughtering pigs, and it will recast entirely the way we think about our relationship to the food we consume.
Growing a Farmer: How I Learned to Live Off the Land
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Book Description
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Editorial Reviews
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Successful baker, chef, and restaurateur Timmermeister�s leap from food preparer to food producer should not have been a large one, yet the steps he took to become a working farmer were monumental. Starting with the purchase of a modest but woefully overgrown tract of land on Washington�s Vashon Island, Timmermeister quickly became ensconced�some would say mired�in the vagaries of self-sufficiency. As he set out to transform his acreage into a viable farm, raising vegetables, fruit, livestock, and even bees, Timmermeister had more will than wisdom, and he recounts his failures and setbacks with disarming honesty. Yet though his hodgepodge of animals and equipment was assembled in a haphazard fashion by relying both on the kindness of strangers and the miracle of Craigslist, somehow it all works. Think of it as the Little Farm That Could. With pluck, luck, and admirable determination, Timmermeister not only manages to supply his paying customers but, more importantly, succeeds in feeding his soul. --Carol Haggas
Review
“What sets this book apart is its practical, calm, confidence-inspiring tone. The message is: Farming may not be easy, but just do it.”
--This text refers to the
Kindle Edition
edition.
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More About the Author
Kurt Timmermeister was born in 1962 in the heart of Seattle, no where near farm country. Anticipating working in foreign service, he graduated from the American College in Paris with a degree in International Affairs. While in Paris he realized his love of food and restaurants far surpassed his affinity for government work and he returned to Seattle to begin a career in food service.
A series of restaurant jobs both in the kitchen and dining room gave him the early hubris to open his own café at the age of twenty four. For eighteen years he ran a series of ever larger Café Septiemes while at the same time beginning his education in small scale farming. In 1991 he moved to Vashon Island, buying land that was to eventually become Kurtwood Farms.
The farm began as four acres of overgrown blackberry brambles with rusted-out cars and cast-off junk hidden beneath the canopy of weeds. Little by little the four acres was cleaned out and planted with fruit and nut trees, vegetables and herbs. Once more land was acquired, pastures were created and fenced and sheep, pigs and cows arrived. By 2004 with the restaurants behind him, Kurtwood Farms had become his full time job.
Soon a professional kitchen was built to begin processing the food grown on the farm and to create a space for friends to gather for dinners of ever greater quality and scope. Progress on the enterprise continued with a Grade 'A' dairy licensed in the newly built dairy buildings and a cow barn raised to house the bovine producers of that milk.
Kurtwood Farms is now home to a small herd of Jersey cows, a motley crew of sheep, happy free rooting pigs, an ever changing flock of chickens, geese and ducks, a guest room and sofa often filled with Seattle's best cooks and Kurt and his two dogs Byron and Daisy.
Kurt now produces fine, farmstead cheeses at the farm from the milk of the Jersey cows: Dinah's Cheese, a traditional Camembert-style, bloomy rind cheese and Francesca's Cheese, an Italian-style hard cheese aged in the newly-dug underground cheese cave. He is also the author of Growing a Farmer: How I Learned to Live Off the Land, a memoir and how-to guide to creating and running a small farm, published by W.W. Norton in 2011.
A series of restaurant jobs both in the kitchen and dining room gave him the early hubris to open his own café at the age of twenty four. For eighteen years he ran a series of ever larger Café Septiemes while at the same time beginning his education in small scale farming. In 1991 he moved to Vashon Island, buying land that was to eventually become Kurtwood Farms.
The farm began as four acres of overgrown blackberry brambles with rusted-out cars and cast-off junk hidden beneath the canopy of weeds. Little by little the four acres was cleaned out and planted with fruit and nut trees, vegetables and herbs. Once more land was acquired, pastures were created and fenced and sheep, pigs and cows arrived. By 2004 with the restaurants behind him, Kurtwood Farms had become his full time job.
Soon a professional kitchen was built to begin processing the food grown on the farm and to create a space for friends to gather for dinners of ever greater quality and scope. Progress on the enterprise continued with a Grade 'A' dairy licensed in the newly built dairy buildings and a cow barn raised to house the bovine producers of that milk.
Kurtwood Farms is now home to a small herd of Jersey cows, a motley crew of sheep, happy free rooting pigs, an ever changing flock of chickens, geese and ducks, a guest room and sofa often filled with Seattle's best cooks and Kurt and his two dogs Byron and Daisy.
Kurt now produces fine, farmstead cheeses at the farm from the milk of the Jersey cows: Dinah's Cheese, a traditional Camembert-style, bloomy rind cheese and Francesca's Cheese, an Italian-style hard cheese aged in the newly-dug underground cheese cave. He is also the author of Growing a Farmer: How I Learned to Live Off the Land, a memoir and how-to guide to creating and running a small farm, published by W.W. Norton in 2011.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
26 of 27 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
engaging, entertaining,
By
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Growing a Farmer: How I Learned to Live Off the Land (Hardcover)
Growing a Farmer is a great read. It draws the reader into the farmer's world. Kurt is honest and humble, selfdepricating and rightfully proud. The prose is easy to read and still artfully paints a clear picture of the landscape, animals, tasks, and the experience and results of his farm life. I was so engaged and entertained that I will be reading this again and maybe again and again. It has inspired me to make more use of my 1.5 acres. My husband and I will be taking beekeeping and cheesemaking classes this winter. We are also planning to expand our vegetable garden. Thanks Kurt!!
15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Look Before You Leap into the Bucolic Life,
By
This review is from: Growing a Farmer: How I Learned to Live Off the Land (Hardcover)
For anyone who has dreamed of running away from the the big city and corporate life to enjoy life on a farm, Kurt Timmermeister's "Growing a Farmer" is a realistic wake-up call.
It is a fascinating look at his transition from restaurateur to dairy farmer, complete with sobering descriptions of whole animal butchery. You will never look the same again at a glass of milk, a breakfast plate filled with bacon and eggs or a roast leg of lamb after reading Timmermeister's journey to becoming more connected to the land as an organic farmer. His descriptions are poetic without being overly sentimental and the chapter on beekeeping is one of the book's highlights.
11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Passionate & Practical,
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Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Growing a Farmer: How I Learned to Live Off the Land (Kindle Edition)
Soulful mix of memoir and farming how-tos, charmingly written with encouragement and functional insight. It's not all pretty. Crops fall short , deer destroy plants, flies lay maggots in precious meat, bees die in the cold in first attempts of bee keeping. Dreams are challenged on the way to living the good farm life. Yet through it all, Kurt Timmermeister lives his philosophy, finding beauty in the disciplined work and mystery that is farming. Whether you have a green thumb or are all thumbs - if you've thought about starting your own farm, this book has wisdom to share. . . and helps you believe you can do it!
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