Growing A Farmer (1)

Growing A Farmer is more than Kurt Timmermeister describing the evolution of a twelve-acre property he bought away from the city of Seattle; it is about his failures and successes in transforming the piece of land into a functioning farm. The author describes buying the property and turning it into a farm in the first two chapters and then dwells into one of many things on the farm in each chapter. He discusses how he was going to try to make the farm sustainable by “trying out sheep and goats, pigs and cows, bees and chickens, vegetables and fruits” (51). In the chapters following, he discusses his efforts and process with each attempt, whether is it with bees and bee hives or apples and vinegar. 

As he realizes the connection between what he was serving in the restaurants and how it came to be, he distances himself from eating meat. I found this very interesting because we don’t often think about our actions twice, especially when it comes to food. Why would anyone question what they are eating if it tastes good? This is the point. We should be focusing on how and where what we consume was produced because knowing and understanding that process will alter our perception. The reason why we avoid knowing the processes behind what we eat is before we fear that the disclosure may stray us away. For the most part, this is often true. However, Timmermeister’s approach to farming and processes of creating honey and vinegar reminded me of the process that I had forgotten about. 

When he discussed the act of growing vegetables in Chapter 9, “It was pure and good, and the end result was an exceptional vegetable. I couldn’t give that up”, I recalled growing flower plant in my backyard and always wanting to water it thinking I could make flower bloom faster (177). However, rushing the process does nothing but harm to the plants and that was one of my favorite parts emphasized by Timmermeister in the chapter. All in all, the book thus far discusses the origins of items we may or may not have known of before.