Book Review: Farm City: The Education of an Urban Farmer

by Novella Carpenter

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I really liked this book. From the very first paragraph I was drawn in...

"I have a farm on a dead-end street in the ghetto. My back stairs are dotted with chicken turds. Bales of straw come undone in the parking area next to my apartment. I harvest lettuce in an abandoned lot. I wake up in the morning to the sounds of farm animals mingled with my neighbor's blaring car alarm."

Novella Carpenter lives in the ghetto of Oakland, CA by choice. She squat farms on a vacant lot. She keeps bees, raises chickens, turkeys, ducks, geese, rabbits, and pigs.

This book is intriguing because Novella makes possible things that seem absolutely impossible. And shows she's not alone, by befriending different people who do the same thing. Urban farming. It's a very interesting read to say the least.

The book isn't super fast paced, but it's not hard to stay interested in it either. Compared to other books I've read, specifically Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver, I think Farm City is a lot easier to get through, and I like the style a lot better. While Kingsolver's book is very informative and does a lot more to instruct a person on how to repeat the process she goes through, Novella Carpenter writes a lot more about her personal experiences and personal thoughts, and less about the research she does. And although I think both authors made specific choices to write the way the did for a reason, I think Farm City is a little bit more entertaining.

Novella has a blog that she updates pretty frequently about the Ghost town Farm, if you're interested. It'll be interesting to see what happens to her farm now that her book is getting so much publicity.

Anyways, I really liked this book, I thought it was fascinating, and definitely a lifestyle I will likely never choose to live, but nice to know that it's possible if I were ever in that circumstance. I will just mention that there is a little bit of strong language in the book...she lives in the ghetto, mind...so just be aware of that when you pick it up.