Urban Farmers

I read the most interesting book this weekend. It is titled Farm City: The Education of an Urban Farmer by Novella Carpenter. I am a total back-to-the-earth hippie at heart (though I shower regularly and shun patchouli) and daydream about the day I can have a gigantic garden and honey bees and farm birds and would love to be completely self-sufficient. I know the complete self-sufficiency is a long-shot, though, because I draw the line at raising and butchering my own meat and I will never be anything other than an omnivore. The author of this book, however, draws no such line. She lives in urban Oakland and turns the abandoned lot next to her apartment into a big garden and raises everything from chickens and geese to pigs, rabbits and goats in her backyard with the intent of eating the meat birds and animals. I totally geeked out reading this book - imagine how excited I was when i found her blog online! (novellacarpenter.com) I love the idea of growing all my own produce. Right now my garlic crop is coming in and I check it every day as though I expect it to grow inches overnight. I am planning this year's garden already, deciding what food I want to grow and what the ratio of ornamentals to edibles should be. I will grow flowers to attract the hummingbirds and bees so am researching which varieties will draw the biggest crowds. I am totally itching to get my fingers dirty and it's still January!