Busy urban dwellers might feel relegated to a life of commercial supermarkets, but there's a new book out to disprove that assumption. Using personal success stories, charts, grocery lists, recipes and more, The Urban Farm Handbook shows readers how it can be done, even for busy families.
Written by Annette Cottrell and Joshua McNichols, the handbook (which focuses on the Pacific Northwest) is organized by season and covers:
- Tips for creating a farmer-to-consumer connection, and how to form a "buying club" with neighbors
- Grinding grains for flour and other uses
- How to maximize space for planting a variety of fruits and vegetables
- Small-animal husbandry and beekeeping
- Canning, drying, freezing, fermenting, and pickling techniques
Throughout the book, readers will also find "Opportunities for Change" - steps people can take to achieve a more sustainable urban kitchen, whether it's as simple as changing the types of vendors you buy from or turning your front yard into an edible farm!
Find It: The Urban Farm Handbook: City Slicker Resources for Growing, Raising, Sourcing, Trading, and Preparing What You Eat, $16.47 at Amazon
(Image: Urban Farm Handbook)
Small Cool Lessons: Discovering Small Space Design Ideas That Really Work
Beatriz's Fun & Functional Workspace
Good Food to Share 
The Big Book of Small, Cool Spaces 
Apartment Therapy Presents 
The Eight-Step Home Cure 
Sheex Bedding
How to Make Easy 3-Ingredient Energy Bars at Home
How to Make Fresh Pasta Dough in the Food Processor
My mom just got a copy and we're looking forward to seeing how much of it we can incorporate!
OK, how did that goat get its head through the slats??
I've visited her urban garden- it was amazing. She inspired me when we were trying to decide whether or not to convert our suburban front yard to a garden (we did.) Can't wait to read what she (and Joshua Nichols) have to say!!
I would love to do this - but I own and run two small businesses, and the labour-intenstive urban farming simply doesn't fit into the number of hours I have available. As it is, I barely have an hour each evening to rush through the shops and feed the family, before diving into the day's admin after a full day's labour to bring in the cents.
I've had a look at the preview pages of her book - I'm not sure if she works outside her home or not, but personally cannot find enough hours in the day to grind my own grain, bake bread, etc. I'm doing what I can with 4 square feet of rented back yard, herbs and veggies, and a few minutes here and there to at least water them.
Urban farming is to be aspired to, and many of us will buy the book, dream the dream, and in a small way get started. But for the majority of us it's never fully realized - we're not stay at home moms, we don't have as much space in our back-to-back little apartments and the neighbours would certainly not appreciate a goat occupying the 1 square foot under the laundry line.
@seekingserenity - I know exactly where you're coming from. Our approach in this book is to show people how it's okay to have different levels of commitment to this lifestyle. Annette does it all, but I (co-author Joshua) have set my goal much lower - to eat this way 30% of the time. We break our ideas up into a series of baby steps, and incorporate kids into the production of food so that cooking doesn't compete with family time. I can't keep a goat because I need to be able to drop everything and work like a crazy person for days at a time - but chickens require less maintenance and fit well into that lifestyle. In the end, it's the growing food community that's made this worthwhile for us - our social circle has expanded and deepened, and we feel the richer for it. If you end up reading our book, I hope you find a new activity that fits like a missing puzzle piece into your complex and no doubt interesting life.