As a reader of the Ghost Town Farm blog, I picked this book up in hopes of getting a guidebook with good tips and bits of knowledge. What I got was that and more.At times heartwarming, others heartbreaking, Farm City is a snapshot into the very challenges we face as a culture reacquainting ourselves with food and each other again. The author, Novella Carpenter, allows us to see through her direct experiences, the blunt inner workings of a place that is grappling with major societal issues at every turn and she still manages to put bacon (amazing tasting to be sure) on the table.
As an aspiring urban farmer, I found valuable insights and instances of hope and in Farm City. Here we are nearing the brink of sorts and yet here is Novella Carpenter doing what needs to be done: breaking ground, raising animals and growing food in a place that is far from a rural picturesque setting, in fact in an urban setting that is more like a place where over 50% of the worlds population now lives.
It is the reapplying old knowledge in a new setting that is encapsulated in this book. A lot of what is presented in Farm City is old knowledge, but it’s for a new generation that now lives in cities in apartments or postage stamp lots that want to take control of what they are eating. Feeding ones family from the land was common knowledge a mere 50 years ago, yet here we are teaching ourselves in new ways, adding knowledge and know-how with books like Farm City.
