Growing a Farmer: How I Learned to Live Off the Land
Successful baker, chef, and restaurateur Timmermeister�s leap from food preparer to food producer should not have been a large one, yet the steps he took to become a working farmer were monumental. Starting with the purchase of a modest but woefully overgrown tract of land on Washington�s Vashon Island, Timmermeister quickly became ensconced�some would say mired�in the vagaries of self-sufficiency. As he set out to transform his acreage into a viable farm, raising vegetables, fruit, livestock, and even bees, Timmermeister had more will than wisdom, and he recounts his failures and setbacks with disarming honesty. Yet though his hodgepodge of animals and equipment was assembled in a haphazard fashion by relying both on the kindness of strangers and the miracle of Craigslist, somehow it all works. Think of it as the Little Farm That Could. With pluck, luck, and admirable determination, Timmermeister not only manages to supply his paying customers but, more importantly, succeeds in feeding his soul. --Carol Haggas