Customer Reviews

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

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

I really like this book. I like how there are several short stories about different types of people but who are all doing what they love and doing things organically. I also like how after their stories, they each give recipes. It was very interesting and I didn't put it down until I read it all! I also bought copies for Christmas presents!

Although I get what the author was trying to do, I was not a fan of the format of this book. Told road-trip style, it contains narration on the traveling alternated with her stops and interviews. I didn't feel that the book was going any where or was reaching any conclusions; it rather meandered and I never felt that it did justice to the themes and ideas in pays homage to. The recipes were also disappointing. Shoved into boxes on the edges of the pages, they were more an afterthought than a feature and few of them were anything I'd attempt to make.

Katherine Leiner was not well served by her editors and book designers. She supplied the raw material for a useful resource on sustainable farming, with engaging and inspiring portraits of interesting practitioners, and had it turned into a glossy coffee-table hodgepodge of only marginal utility. She deserved better.

Buy it used, if at all, and leave it in the bathroom, where it will make for delightful reading.

I received Katherine Leiner's book from my sister as a gift this past Christmas and I just love it. Reading about the passion these young people have for living close to the earth is so uplifting. Thank you, Katherine for your time and dedication to bringing us closer to the realization that how we grow and prepare food is just as important as eating itself. I also appreciate the enthusiasm and regard you convey for the places you travelled to gather your information. The book is truly an enjoyable read.

I felt this book really shows the nature of our future if we are to have quality foods. I loved the personal stories of the young people who have the love, knowledge and heart to live as sustainable farmers. Katherine takes to the into of their lives and brings such hope and knowledge of these people.

As a young bride, I came upon DIET FOR A SMALL PLANET, a book that changed my awareness of all things food - growing, producing, preparing, eating, sharing. Picking up Katherine's book, I was reminded of the profound way I was then affected, as
GROWING ROOTS had the same effect on me. Only this time, Katherine's story, interwoven with the stories of our country's young pioneers in the sustainable food movement, adds a fullness that completes the circle of growing and preparing food - that of the tables that we all sit around for our meals, and how the act of sharing our food, of making a celebration of each meal, is a gift in itself.

I consider myself deeply immersed in local, sustainable agriculture. I have a garden, shop locally, cook many meals at home. So I didn't think Leiner's book would add much to my life. But I was intrigued by the premise of hope: young people around the country moving against the prevailing attitude of fast, cheap and unhealthy. The profiles are inspiring for anyone wondering about the viability of living a sustainable life. Leiner's "travelog" approach, while sometimes too winsome for my taste has moments of exquisite prose: "I feel a bittersweet tenderness as gardens across La Plata County are being put to bed." There are tips that even a seasoned cook like myself finds interesting, like cooking your bacon at a lower temperature; cooking it longer reduces the formation of nitrosamines. Of course I don't know what nitrosamines are, but it makes my bacon taste better! And while many of the recipes may seem basic to some, I've already begun to experiment with recipes like mushroom and fennel bread pudding (deelish!). So whether you are looking for a new lifestyle, inspiration or cooking ideas, this book can open new horizons. Plus the people Leiner profiles and the generous photo illustrations make the book, well, a feast.