Book 2 Post 2

 

Growing a Farmer by Kurt Timmermeister

Kurt Timmermeister focuses his book on 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. I really liked how he divided his book up into chapters like bees, cows, butchering, etc. He talks about his experiences with each of those aspects of his farm life and uses vivid examples to describe all the events, both good and bad. I was very pleased that he took the time to reflect on everything he was doing, but always eagerly moving ahead to reach his goals. This made him much easier to connect to, even though his life is completely different from mine. He always has interesting insights and life lessons, even when talking about seemingly simple agriculture.

I was amazed at how little he knew about farming and yet, he made everything happen. He identifies all his problems one at a time and works to solve them. A part I really liked was that he admitted his life is elitist. His lifestyle wouldn't be possible if he didn't own a restaurant, since his farm wasn't profitable. Something that stuck with me was how much he valued animals. Even though I was rather put off by the gory descriptions of slaughtering and butchering of the animals, Timmermeister wrote about how he had to use every bit with no waste. He wrote that these animals were raised for consumption, completely for our nourishment, and therefore, he had to treat them well in their lifetime. I also appreciated that he ended the slaughter chapter with the anecdote of a hanging frozen pig being called a pigsicle.

I learned a lot from his book, especially because I know nothing about running a farm. Timmermeister made a great argument for raw milk and I could see that he was quite passionate about it since he wrote a lot about it. It got me thinking more about the benefits and risks of it and whether it should be appropriate to consume. He wrote about his way of dealing with the animals and I could tell that he loved them all, especially because they were his own. I felt particularly bad when I read that all the bees he had ordered for his beehives all died before reaching his farm. A big topic that stood out to me personally was the topic of chicken giblets. When he talked about slaughtering the old hens, he talked about how important it was to keep the giblets intact. I personally enjoy the taste of chicken giblets and I eat them a few times a month. In my experience, I thought that most people who grew up in the US would find them repulsive because they're organs, and so I thought it was a Chinese culture thing. So, I was pleasantly surprised to read that he enjoys eating them too.