Farm City

The Education of an Urban Farmer

De: Novella Carpenter

Narrado por: Karen White

Novella Carpenter loves cities - the culture, the crowds, the energy. At the same time, she can't shake the fact that she is the daughter of two back-to-the-land hippies who taught her to love nature and eat vegetables.

Ambivalent about repeating her parents' disastrous mistakes, yet drawn to the idea of backyard self-sufficiency, Carpenter decided that it might be possible to have it both ways: a homegrown vegetable plot as well as museums, bars, concerts, and a 24-hour convenience mart mere minutes away - especially when she moved to a ramshackle house in inner-city Oakland and discovered a weed-choked, garbage-strewn abandoned lot next door. She closed her eyes and pictured heirloom tomatoes, a beehive, and a chicken coop. What started out as a few egg-laying chickens led to turkeys, geese, and ducks. Soon, some rabbits joined the fun, then two 300-pound pigs. And no, these charming and eccentric animals weren't pets; she was a farmer, not a zookeeper. Novella was raising these animals for dinner.

Novella Carpenter's corner of downtown Oakland is populated by unforgettable characters. Lana (anal spelled backward, she reminds us) runs a speakeasy across the street and refuses to hurt even a fly, let alone condone raising turkeys for Thanksgiving. Bobby, the homeless man who collects cars and car parts just outside the farm, is an invaluable neighborhood concierge. The turkeys, Harold and Maude, tend to escape on a daily basis to cavort with the prostitutes hanging around just off the highway nearby.

Every day on this strange and beautiful farm, urban meets rural in the most surprising ways. For anyone who has ever grown herbs on their windowsill or tomatoes on their fire escape, or who has obsessed over the offerings at the local farmers' market, Carpenter's story will capture your heart.

©2009 Novella Carpenter (P)2009 Tantor

Reseñas de la Crítica

"Utterly enchanting.... The juxtaposition of the farming life with inner-city grit...elevates it to the realm of the magical." ( Publishers Weekly)

Not an instruction book but a fun read

First, for those upset because this woman is a "squatter," maybe should read/listen closer. She has permission to have a garden on that lot and says so at around the 45 minute spot. She just likes to call herself that because she was for about a week. Then met the owner and got permission.


This book does not give you directions so much as tell an entertaining story though you will hear tips on urban farming here and there. If hearing the four letter word for excretion rather than a more polite term for it upsets you, then move on. If the idea of putting well-rotted, composted horse manure in your car (at this point it's just a really rich soil - horse stuff is just plants ground up pretty much anyway) upsets your sensibilities then you'll hear things that will upset you. Being a former horse owner and long-time organic gardener, none of this upsets me in the least. I was jealous of her for being able to get so much of it.


For me, this was a very entertaining book and I enjoyed it a lot. Giving 4 rather than 5 stars though as I reserve 5 for only the greatest. Again, I enjoyed this book very much.

Funny, educational, relatable

What did you love best about Farm City?

I loved how real it was. The author seemed like a regular person, making her very relatable. I appreciated her honesty with her interests, struggles, triumphs, and learnings. She didn't filter unnecessarily- she described things as they were, with a healthy balance of humor, reality, and gratitude.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Farm City?

How the author related to us her realizations of a greater connectedness and cycle with living things, communities, and herself. You could tell she had a healthy respect for what she was doing and how it impacted the world around her.

Have you listened to any of Karen White’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

I have not; this was an excellent first.

Really enjoyed the story

The fact that it's mostly true was neat. The narration was excellent. I'm just sorry there's not a sequel.

Unexpected

When you choose a book like this you expect to read something that's a little more educational than entertaining. In other words, informative but not as liesurely a read as maybe a Stephanie Plum novel. However, this one surprised me. It WAS educational in some ways, and definitely autobiographical, but it was also quite entertaining. I was very pleased by this book, and by the end of it I wished I had a neighbor with a secret restaurant in her basement and a pair of turkeys in my back yard. I would almost consider this story to be the Eat-Pray-Love of urban farming except Novella Carpenter's final revelation doesn't have quite the umph of Elizabeth Gilbert's. Still, the story has a similar feel and was worth my time & credits. I would recommend it to others (in fact, I am) most certainly.

Fantastic story, lots of great info!

A great adventure in farming in the worst part of Oakland, CA. The adventures and misadventures of Nouvella Carpenter, hippy farmer are by turns touching and hilarious. Dumpster-diving to feed her pigs, hauling horse manure from farms outside the city, losing her geese and ducks to an opossum - all told from a singular point of view. Even if you're not as big a bleeding heart as Nouvella (and I'm not), there's lots of food for thought, along with stories of food for her neighbors.

Nouvella's more than just a latter-day hippie farmer, though - along with lots of references to to the literature on farming, self-sufficiency, ecology and environmentalism, I caught mentions of Icarus and Nobel Prize laureate Maurice Maeterlinck.

I'm a complete city-slicker, with more a black thumb than a green thumb, but this book is making me rethink a bit of how I live my life - and certainly making me change what I plan to read next. And to think I only got it on a whim, as $4.95 members-only special!