Saturday Farmer’s Market is a new feature I started to showcase, well, gardens! This summer especially, I have really come to enjoy everyone’s garden posts and I selfishly want to see them all, every week! And as you all know, I’m all about the sustainable living! So give me your garden photos, your gardening books you’re reading, even give me pictures of your Farmer’s Market loot from the week! I want it ALL.
Today I want to talk about books. Yes, I know, I talk about books everyday! But these are not just any books, these are farming books! These are some of the books I hope to read over the winter, to prepare for next spring!
“By turns edgy, moving, and hilarious.” -Michael Pollan, author of The Omnivore’s Dilemma and In Defense of Food
An unforgettably charming memoir, Farm City is full of hilarious moments, fascinating farmer’s tips, and a great deal of heart. When Novella Carpenter-captivated by the idea of backyard self-sufficiency- moved to inner city Oakland and discovered a weed-choked, garbage- strewn abandoned lot next door to her house, she closed her eyes and pictured heirloom tomatoes and a chicken coop. The story of how her urban farm grew from a few chickens to one populated with turkeys, geese, rabbits, ducks, and two three-hundred-pound pigs will capture the imagination of anyone who has ever considered leaving the city behind for a more natural lifestyle.
This just sounds like all kinds of awesome.
Chosen by the American Horticultural Society as one of the seventy-five greatest books ever written about gardening, Second Nature has become a manifesto for rethinking our relationship with nature. With chapter ranging from a reconsideration of the Great American Lawn and a dispatch from one man’s war with a woodchuck to reflections on the sexual politics of roses, Pollan captures the rhythms of our everyday engagement with the outdoors in all its glory and exasperation.
I have actually owned this for years now and still haven’t read it. I’m not sure why, because it sounds really good! If the AHS says it’s one of the 75 greatest books ever written about gardening, you know it has to be good. And I just love the sound of “manifesto” don’t you?
In her new essay collection, the beloved author of High Tide in Tucson brings to us, out of one of history’s darker moments, an extended love song to the world we still have.
Whether she is contemplating the Grand Canyon, her vegetable garden, motherhood, genetic engineering, or the future of a nation founded on the best of all human impulses, these essays are grounded in the author’s belief that our largest problems have grown from the earth’s remotest corners as well as our own backyards, and that answers may lie in both those places.
Sometimes grave, occasionally hilarious, and ultimately persuasive, Small Wonder is a hopeful examination of the people we seem to be, and what we might yet make of ourselves.
I love Barbara Kingsolver’s nonfiction and had no idea this collection included essays on gardening (among other things). It just sounds fantastic though. I totally have to read, or listen to, it.
All summaries come from Barnes & Noble.com
They all look good, but I'm especially interested in second nature since it's supposed to be one of the best books written about gardening.
Amy from Amy Reads is sending me Farm City. It's been on my wish list for a long time. Can't wait to read it!
Excellent choices! My plants are all but hating me right now. I'm hoping with cooler weather on the horizon they'll like us again, thus my lack of Saturday Farmers Market posts.
I almost bought that Barbara Kingsolver book yesterday! I am really interested in agriculture so I think I might read a few of these books as well.
I have Farm City on my wishlist! It does sound fantastic, doesn't it? And I haven't heard of Second Nature but onto my wishlist it goes!! And doesn't Small Wonders sound fantastic?? Let me know when you start it! I'd love to read it with you
Though I probably won't be reading anything but spooky books til after Halloween. I'm reading a book right now called Heirloom about a tomato farmer that's excellent!! I think you'd really like that one too! It's another one you may want to add to your list 
If you haven't read it I would highly recommend Bean Blossom Dreams by Sallyann J. Murphey. I briefly reviewed it here:
If you haven't read it I would highly recommend Bean Blossom Dreams by Sallyann J. Murphey. I talk about it in a brief review here:
http://www.stainlesssteeldroppings.com/a-vacation…
It is a book I fell in love with years ago when I discovered it on a table at a small independent bookstore in one of those serendipitous moments. I've read it several times since, pulling it out once every few years. It calms me and inspires me, particularly when it comes to making sure I keep my eye on the little things and enjoy each and every day for what it is. It also inspires me in demonstrating the joy that can be had from a good day's work. Give it a look.
It is a book I fell in love with years ago when I discovered it on a table at a small independent bookstore in one of those serendipitous moments. I've read it several times since, pulling it out once every few years. It calms me and inspires me, particularly when it comes to making sure I keep my eye on the little things and enjoy each and every day for what it is. It also inspires me in demonstrating the joy that can be had from a good day's work. Give it a look.