Book 2 Post 1

 

Growing a Farmer by Kurt Timmermeister

Kurt Timmermeister starts off his book by talking about how we should add a perspective on the food we eat: where our food comes from, what goes into producing it, and how it was traditionally prepared. He also says that he would be thrilled if readers of his book quit their day jobs and moved out of the city and built small farms. This introduction made me particularly interested in reading more about how he would persuade readers into becoming farmers. Two of the main aspects of his personality I noticed immediately were his entrepreneurship and self-initiative. He opened his own restaurant at twenty-four years old. He then used his money to pursue his vision of the American dream: owning property. He bought a farm because of his visions of it becoming great in the future. It was initially extremely decrepit and rundown but he managed to make it work even without any support from his family. Timmermeister even ends up moving his restaurant to a more busy location, and ends up selling that restaurant for money he could use for the farm.

I was amazed at how little he knew about farming and yet, he made everything happen. None of his writing holds any bit of disappointment. Instead, he identifies all his problems one at a time and works to solve them. It was quite ironic how Timmermeister became disgusted at his own restaurant. He didn’t like how nasty the meat looked and how it was packaged, and so he decided to focus on raising animals on his farm. I saw that he made $17500 in a year through farming and I was really surprised. He could have made so much more money through his restaurant, which was a very stable business. But, I’m excited to keep reading and see how he continues on with his passion.