Rate this book

The Quarter-Acre Farm: How I Kept The Patio, Lost The Lawn, And Fed My Family For A Year (2011)

by Spring Warren(Favorite Author)

3.74 of 5 Votes: 2

ISBN

1580053408 (ISBN13: 9781580053402)

languge

English

genre

Memoir & Autobiography

publisher

Seal Press

review 1: This book reminded me often of Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle... the same desire to eat produce free of traces of chemicals, the same concern about the amount of petroleum based products required to get a crop from the field to the grocery store, the same descriptions of and recipes for seasonal dishes. The difference was that this one was so light-hearted and entertaining that I actually read the whole thing. The premise in Quarter-Acre Farm is that a woman living in suburbia decides to grow the majority of the food she eats for a year. It's interesting to read about the evolution of her family from tolerant spectators to grudging helpers to collaborators sharing her success. She has such a great sense of humor as she describes her challenges and how she... more overcomes them. Too many snails? Do enough research to determine that the pests in her garden are genetically identical to the ones sold as escargot and throw a dinner party. I love how she describes wine as an essential lubricant, rendering her guests willing to eat the snails. She talks about making tomato sauce using a Vitamix blender that she describes as "jet-engine loud." She tries to guilt her neighbors into helping her weed by mentioning that it's her birthday. Granted, this is not fine literature. It is very entertaining, pleasant reading.
review 2: This was a very enjoyable read that made me wish it was gardening season here rather than snow season. Also living in California would probably help because I just don't feel like Pittsburgh has the same garden growing options. I'm jealous of her year-round gardening and all the fruit trees she already had growing. The writer had a very approachable style, even though she was doing this "crazy" project she made herself seem like a normal person with junk food desires and bad gardening skills. She made everything seem very doable; she didn't hide the problems, but also showed how she overcame or accepted them. They put a ton more work into their garden than I am willing to, but she wrote in a way that made it all seem possible for the reader.The recipes at the ends of chapters were nice to see, but generally not ground-breaking new ideas or things I'm actually likely to try even if I enjoyed reading about them. Sometimes I wished she'd decided to give a recipe about something else she talked about in the chapter. I also found myself wanting more information about things while she seemed to be becoming more vague as the book went on. The tangents on non-gardening topics started to take away from my enjoyment. Did I need to know the history of the freezer or canning? I could've enjoyed some information on growing greens more. I'm unlikely to ever try to eat 75% of my food from my own garden, but it's a nice thought and makes me want to make a better garden. This year I let most of the things I picked from my garden just rot on my front porch rather than cooking it or eating it raw. Even more of it was never picked at all. I still have beets and carrots, and possibly radishes, in the ground, I never picked any lima beans or peppers, and none of my brussels sprouts or cauliflower actually made something edible. Her garden planning and journaling ideas at the end of the book might be helpful, unfortunately I'm likely to have forgotten all about them by our frost date in May. What I really need is a plan for actually cooking or storing the things I grow rather than letting them go bad on the vine or porch.PS This was my first ebook. It was a good experience and I think I'll try reading more things on my phone like this. less

Download links for: The Quarter-Acre Farm: How I kept the patio, lost the lawn, and fed my family for a year

Advertising