To Boldly Grow

Finding Joy, Adventure, and Dinner in Your Own Backyard

By: Tamar Haspel

Narrated by: Tamar Haspel

Length: 7 hrs and 36 mins

Publisher's summary

A love-letter to the unexpected delights (and occasional despair) of so-called “first-hand food”—meals we grow, forage, fish, or even hunt from the world around us. To Boldly Grow is “part memoir, part how-to guide and wholly delightful” (Washington Post).

Journalist and self-proclaimed “crappy gardener” Tamar Haspel is on a mission: to show us that raising or gathering our own food is not as hard as it’s often made out to be. When she and her husband move from Manhattan to two acres on Cape Cod, they decide to adopt a more active approach to their diet: raising chickens, growing tomatoes, even foraging for mushrooms and hunting their own meat. They have more ambition than practical know-how, but that’s not about to stop them from trying…even if sometimes their reach exceeds their (often muddy) grasp.

With “first-hand food” as her guiding principle, Haspel embarks on a grand experiment to stop relying on experts to teach her the ropes (after all, they can make anything grow), and start using her own ingenuity and creativity. Some of her experiments are a rousing success (refining her own sea salt). Others are a spectacular failure (the turkey plucker engineered from an old washing machine). Filled with practical tips and hard-won wisdom, To Boldly Grow allows us to journey alongside Haspel as she goes from cluelessness to competence, learning to scrounge dinner from the landscape around her and discovering that a direct connection to what we eat can utterly change the way we think about our food--and ourselves.

©2022 Tamar Haspel (P)2022 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

"One of Cosmopolitan’s 10 Best Non-Fiction Books of 2022 You Should Add to Your Reading List ASAP
One of Smithsonian Magazine's 10 Best Books About Food of 2022

“To Boldly Grow is part memoir, part how-to guide and wholly delightful.” —Washington Post

“If you have ever fantasized about trading in city life for foraging for your own food, Tamar Haspel…has done it for you in her hilarious memoir…[Haspel] turns her skills as a science journalist toward solving the perplexing problems that come with living off the land and enticing readers with its many rewards.” —Christian Science Monitor

“To Boldy Grow serves as both a memoir and guidebook to discovering the joys food, from planting to plating, can bring.” —Veranda

Wonderfully written and read this is a must listen

An exceptionally written and read story that will take you on a journey of personal discovery and reconnection with food and surprise you with deep insights into human nature and share a wonderful personal relationship.

Funny, Smart, and Growth Encouraging

There are several levels that readers can appreciate and enjoy this book. First of all, it will make you laugh out loud. Great comedic writing. Next, you'll appreciate the intelligent turn of phrase, or the perfect wording. My favorite? "The brain stem level of satisfaction" of raising your own food. Perfect. It's a book that will make foodies hungry and gardeners grin in recognition.

But beyond that is the story of a person...of you and me...being willing to try something new. A story of how when we give in and say "yes" to pushing ourselves into starting from scratch, learning new skills, we experience one of the best experiences that life has to offer.

Celebration of the joy of DIY

Part memoir, part how-to, this book is a great read for anyone who’s ever felt the profound satisfaction of figuring out how to accomplish something new.

Thinking about starting a garden?

I enjoyed Tamar's initial venture into vegetable gardening. I loved container gardening when I lived in an apartment, only problem was the southern sun exposure of our apartment. It helped plants to grow,but also dried them out considerably. Since we bought a home with a backyard, I've wanted to garden again. My husband suggested this book to get a full idea of all that goes into trying to live off the land. I have no intention of starting a farm, but I was inspired by Tamar and her husband's fortitude in starting something and completing it. That's my failing, I get a "bee in my bonnet" with an idea, but I lose interest if it doesn't turn out how I expected. This is an excellent guide to all that goes into gardening, poultry raising, c
hunting and cooking from an amateur perspective. I enjoyed the book, but I'll need to think twice about starting my own projects.