Growing Roots: The New Generation of Sustainable Farmers, Cooks, and Food Activists [Paperback]

Katherine Leiner (Author), Andrew Lipton (Photographer), Deborah Madison (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 15, 2010

Growing Roots: The New Generation of Sustainable Farmers, Cooks, and Food Activists is about a new revolution in food that involves young people who are living sustainable lives that revolve around healthy, natural food. The book introduces us to farmers and beekeepers, fishermen and chefs, food activists and cheesemongers, and many, many more. We meet these fascinating young people from all across the nation through first-person profiles, along with brilliant photographs and delicious, simple recipes. They talk about raising grass-fed beef, lamb, and pork; growing vegetables and grains; keeping bees and making cheese; and their restaurants and their markets. Included are filmmakers, writers, and artists who change the way we look at what we eat and where our food comes from. In their profiles we learn how these young people got to where they are today, their backgrounds, their education, and their passionate relationship to food.

The author's through-line gives us a glimpse of her own journey with food, through her own childhood, raising children, and becoming an empty-nester. Growing Roots is about relationships and how food figures in those relationships. It is for everyone who is interested in learning about this new iteration of the food movement and the folks involved, whether you'd like to figure out how to do it for yourself, or just love reading about it. The photos are beautiful, the narrative lively, and the recipes simple and delicious. A must-read for all ages and a wonderful addition to the food-lover's bookshelf.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Growing Roots is, simply, a book about young farmers. While seemingly simple, this concept is actually somewhat revolutionary. It's pretty easy to go buy food, assuming you have the funds. It's easy to rely on others to grow your food, make your soap, pluck and debone your chickens, and brew your beer. But there are people who actually do these things, and this book is about them. In a time of daily technological advancements, wireless everything and a large portion of the population addicted to the idea that cheaper is better, it takes courage to slow things down and do something as archaic as obtaining self-sufficiency or following your passions. There is, of course, a growing movement toward this slower and more meaningful lifestyle, a trend toward neighbor and community, health and peace. While portions of the world surge forward, racing lemming-like toward who-knows-what, a growing percentage of people are simply hopping off the racetrack. They're your neighbors, they grow good food, and they want to sell it to you. It's such a simple but profound concept in contrast to how most of the country does it."-Joe Foster, Durango Herald



Library Journal-

Writing about sustainable food by interviewing practitioners is a new direction for Leiner, who has authored novels for adults and children, among other works. Her first good decision was to frame the series of interviews within the narrative of her own routes across the country, especially between homes in New York and Colorado. This, rather than a dry organization by food type or practice, draws the reader from section to section effectively. The other significant strength of the book is how well its subjects' voices emerge. The sections are presented not as Q&A but as flowing monologs that permit bursts of personality-even eccentricity-through philosophical and practical ruminations. On the downside, some readers will tire of the earnestness that will appeal to others. The recipes in nearly every section, moreover, are not uniformly interesting and should have been better selected and edited.

Verdict Leiner presents readers with thought-provoking ideas throughout, cloaked in an eminently readable travelog. Inspirational and entertaining reading, though perhaps best suited for those who already subscribe to many of the same tenets.



The Sierra Club

The Green Life Blog-

This collection of interviews with a diverse group of organic farmers, raw-food chefs, winemakers, beekeepers, and slow-food advocates forms an intimate portrait of America's growing sustainable-food movement. Candid conversations are paired with recipes and tips from these passionate foodies, leaving readers feeling enthusiastic about the future of green cuisine.

"Growing Roots serves up generous portions of hope and mindful action. It's a book for everyone who cares about the earth and about feeding the people we love!"--Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer, Co-owner of New Leaf Fruit, Poet Laureate of San Miguel County, CO. author of Intimate Landscapes, Holding Three Things at Once, and Insatiable

"Growing Roots introduces us to a few dozen young food pioneers through their words and, even more usefully, their recipes. Think of it as a community cookbook for the food movement."--Michael Pollan, author of Omnivore's Dilemma and Food Rules

"It's a pleasure reading what these people have to say about what they're doing with their lives, and how they spend their days and what they make of their futures. They all have great stories. Taken together they comprise a national sampling of on-the-ground, in-the trenches food visionaries..."--Deborah Madison, from the Foreword

"Katherine Leiner has compiled a wonderful anthology of revolutionary individuals who continue to push for the holistic change we need to see in the food system."--Alice Waters, author of The Art of Simple Food and owner of Chez Panisse

"Growing Roots celebrates the people who have chosen to reclaim our endangered farming heritage...Read it and cook some of the good, fair, food using the book's delicious recipes."--Robert Kenner, Director-Producer of the award winning documentary, Food, Inc.

"Growing Roots is a wonderful revelation..."--A.E. Hotchner, author and co-founder of Newman's Own

About the Author

Katherine Leiner has been writing since she was a child. She has published many award-winning books for children and young adults and, more recently, her first novel for adults, Digging Out, published by Penguin. She is working on another novel due out in 2012.

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Sunrise Lane Productions (August 15, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1603582886
• ISBN-13: 978-1603582889
• Product Dimensions: 10 x 8 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #675,932 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars To Market To Market August 14, 2010

By JoAnne McFarland

Amazon Verified Purchase

After reading Katherine Leiner's Growing Roots, I am inspired to change the way I eat. I was aware of the explosion of interest in sustainability, the increase in farmers markets in my neighborhood, the expanding constellation of healthy foods and locally grown produce. The profiles in Growing Roots solidified my intention to change my diet, to commit to a whole new way of living. Many of those interviewed by Leiner address the need to have fresh food available to more populations, and are working tirelessly to make that a reality. Among my favorites: Nasha Winters whose near death experience caused her to break away from Western medicine, Matthew Moore whose loss of a beloved landscape inspired a series of art projects around salvaging farmland and the incomparable smell of tilled soil, and Ashley Lee Martin whose childhood memories of the quest for wild rice motivate her to preserve the rice seeds of her Native people. Andrew Lipton's photographs lend grace and color to these riveting stories. I am looking forward to trying out the offbeat recipes that accompany the book.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A book to use and re-use August 30, 2010

By Gretta Keene

Amazon Verified Purchase

This is a book that I know will get dog-eared and stained and will have scraps of paper sticking out from the pages. The stories of the different young farmers are funny, poignant and inspiring. The photos are lovely and help bring us on the journey across the land. I already know some of the stories I want to copy and share and recipes I will make over and over again (hence the stains). GROWING ROOTS is many things -- instructional, thought-provoking and a good read. Like the stories on the radio show "This American Life," I felt moved and connected to the stories of the young farmers in a ways more powerful than fiction. I am already thinking about people I know who will probably get this book as a gift.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Love It! September 2, 2010

By Dylan Leiner

Amazon Verified Purchase

What a great book! It totally opened my eyes to the importance of natural, local foods and I am going to share this with all of my friends and family. Plus, the recipes are DELICIOUS! I made the chard pie for a dinner party last night and it was such a hit! It makes me want to move to a farm and raise my own food..sigh.