Customer Reviews

Growing a Farmer: How I Learned to Live Off the Land

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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!!

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.

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!

As someone who grew up in the country and ended up in the city, I have often found myself longing for a bit of land and a large garden, and maybe a few animals. In short, I dream of self-sufficiency. This was a great book because it gave an honest account of the ups and downs that is farm life. I cried when he described having to slaughter his cow. I laughed at his accounts of bee-keeping and honest assessment of his skills as a farmer.

However, as a fellow pastry chef, I found that his adoration and appreciation for food to be immediately apparent and I liked him for it. Describing the simple joys of boiling down apple juice for redux, making his own butter, and collecting honey made me remember why I went to culinary school and why I still cook whenever I have a chance.

It's important to know what goes in to growing our food and to stop settling on over-processed, chemically-enhanced junk. I would suggest this book to anyone interested in the Slow Food movement, farm living, or cuisine.

I loved the honesty and style in which this book was written. I recently purchased a ranch and some books make everything over
whelming, I know I am going to make mistakes, as the author describes his successes and failures, I felt comforted knowing that
I am good company. I loved this book and have watched his video the building of his cheese cave. Enjoyable book from a real
person trying, and succeeding to live a sustainable, good life, and make a living doing it!!

'Growing a Farmer' should be required reading for anyone thinking about starting a farm. Kurt Timmermeister doesn't sugarcoat his experiences and does the reader a huge service in chronicling his ups and downs in trying to establish his own farm. The journey through his attempts at growing different crops or raising different animals serves partially as inspiration and partially as a cautionary tale. I admired his tenacity and willingness to push ahead even when confronted with failure, especially knowing he had a successful career he could return to if he wanted.

He gives the reader a gift he received himself, a true respect for the land and the animals that he is in charge of. One can wonder how he stayed with it the whole time, but it becomes pretty clear that he was meant to be a farmer.

I felt the book itself vacillated between a very personal narrative and an informational, almost 'how-to' approach to the different aspects of farming. I felt a certain disconnect when he began detailing the facts of the animals or plants he was discussing. At times, it had a bit of a dry, textbook style. These passages seemed to distract from the main flow of the story, but were very interesting and very short, and soon enough the reader was returned to the action.

In the end, I finished this book wanting more. He followed his passion, was smart and patient enough to let it build and form over time, and ultimately succeeded in giving readers a well-written glimpse into a fascinating life.

This book is the perfect inspiration for urban dwellers who want to give up the suburbs and the rat race in exchange for sustainable farming. If the author can do it, anyone can. I love that the book is so honest about the amount of time and work it takes to get to a place where your comfortable, but how you can never really get to the exact place you want to be (maybe because we always want to get better). I also love that he explains what his thinking was as he undertook each new venture, what his expectations were, the problems he faced, the results and whether or not it lived up to his expectation. He's makes no apologies for not being perfect (none of us can be) but is clearly doing a great job. Through reading about his experience, I've learned that nothing is black and white in farming. It's good to hear from someone who started out with the same sort of political and food ideals and beliefs, and then see how farming changed some of them. Life's about the journey.

I loved this book! Like the author, we left our busy city lives and bought a few acres on a rural island near Seattle. We turned our plot of land into a small working farm with a garden, chickens, goats, horses, and a wonderful Jersey cow. We actually know Henning, the sustainable farming expert mentioned in the book. I smiled throughout the pages as I frequently "saw" our farming experiences described time and again. I also learned some valuable farming lessons. Thanks for documenting our lives as we live and farm in paradise.

I have to admit, I did enjoy reading this book. I guess its the whole idea of somebody trying to live the dream that so many of us wish we had. Its what many of us want to do but havnt. In a way it allows us to live throught the author's eyes for a brief moment. I think its also helpful to hear about the potential pitfalls that many people fall into. The portion of the book which mentions his desire and struggle with trying to sell raw dairy products was very interesting. There were certain parts in the middle of the book where I definitely was not as interested, but that did not seem to last for very long. Overall, I'm happy I bought the book and will eventually give it to the local library so some other folks can enjoy it as well.

Of course I have to say that this book was a pleasure to read! I have to admit I'm one of those that really wishes I could give up my city job and run a farm but choose to read about it.

I ready many passages aloud to my amused boyfriend and laughed out loud atleast once a chapter. The bee chapter was quite infomative and I now know I will never keep bees unless someone else is doing the work!Many of the chapters captured the entire feel of whatever animal or experience that Kurt was going for, but somewhere near the end it slowly lost focus.

I did copy down the Kurtwood Farm menus and I will be trying to make some of the items althoug there were no recipes.

Write another about your cheese cave and whatever else is new!

(I also enjoyed Animal Vegetable Miracle)