The Urban Farm Handbook:
City-Slicker Resources for Growing, Raising, Sourching, Trading, and Preparing What you Eat
by Annette Cottrell & Joshua McNichols
Photgraphy by Harley Soltes
Mountaineers Books
Copyright © October 2011
ISBN 9781594856372
288 Pages (384 including Index)
$24.95 Paperback
Book Description:
More than just a few ideas about gardening and raising chickens, THE URBAN FARM HANDBOOK uses stories, charts, grocery lists, recipes, and calendars to inform and instruct. As busy urbanites who have learned how to do everything from making cheese and curing meat to collaborating with neighbors on a food bartering system, the authors share their own food journeys along with those of local producers and consumers who are changing the food systems in the Pacific Northwest.
Review:
I won a copy of this book from a GoodReads give away. Had I explored it a bit more before signing up for the raffle, I probably would have had second thoughts. Upon receiving it, I thumbed through it quickly to browse the photographs and was surprisingly shocked at the instructional pages on how to slaughter chickens and pigs. That extremity aside, the rest of the book is a plethora of good information when it comes to urban gardening.
There is a ton of basic information for the small avid gardener like me which includes planting and tending to a year-round vegetable garden, making your own compost, maximizing small spaces, raising backyard animals for eggs and milk, and preserving foods (canning, drying, freezing, pickling, and fermenting).
For those on a higher level, there is information about creating a direct farmer-to-consumer connection, setting up “buying clubs” with other local farmers, creating cold storage for roots and squashes, learning about city farming permits, and making your own soaps and cleaners.
The book itself caters to the Pacific Northwest when it comes to locales and resources, but its wealth of lists, photographs, and home-production recipes makes it a good resource for anyone living in the city with even a flower box reserved for vegetables or herbs. There truly is something here for everyone – young or old, novice or experienced. If you have an interest in at-home sustainable living, this handbook is for you.
