FARMER Post 2

I actually grew to really enjoy this book. I'll admit that at times, it was very slow, but overall I greatly enjoyed learning about where real food comes from. This was a fairly easy read; Timmermeister used plain english and simple sentences. Throughout the novel, Timmermeister’s success came with a ton of failures. But I love the fact that he was blatantly honest about failing. In today’s society, many people tend to cover up their failures or pass the blame on someone else, while boasting their successes. However, Timmermeister wrote much more about his failures and challenges than about his successes. For example, his efforts to grow an orchard were ruined when deer constantly devoured the crops of his new trees.  Generally, Timmermeister lacked the knowledge to be a perfect farmer. However, his passion and perseverance allowed him to push forward despite various loopholes.

One quote that I love is from chapter thirteen (Butchering). Timmermeister says,  “I think that the goal of farming and cooking is to find your own way, to learn from the traditions of Europe, but then to adapt them to your climate, to your needs, to your skills and products…My goal here is to live my American life on my little farm, eating great food; food with integrity, not food that is imitative of my counterparts a continent way (p 271).” I admire his focus on adaptability, creating his own path and making something unique and distinctly American. This quote epitomizes the novel, because it was evident that Timmermeister's failures required him to "find his own way" through learning from his mistakes. This quote also depicts the novel, because it reflects the amount of hard work and dedication required to make such an enterprise succeed.