Delightfully written story of an intellectual first time backyard gardener in inner city Oakland, California. Quote from The New York Times Book Review: Farm City is easily the funniest, weirdest, most perversely provocative gardening book the reviewer had ever read. " Ditto."

There were moments in this when I wanted to say, "What were you thinking?" but that was because the whole book was a completely revealing account of MS Carpenter's farming time on "the 2-8". Her parents were back to the land hippies and the attitudes learned during her childhood have persisted into her adulthood so that she is willing to look past immense mounds of problematic situations to a desirable end. In other words, she can see past a scruffy abandoned lot in a dangerous slum area of Oakland to a neighbourhood farm supporting a mostly welcoming community. One of my favourite points was when she told one of the workers in a high end restaurant that she got to know the place because she "dumpster dived out back". Why was she dumpster diving? Because she was feeding two pigs and couldn't keep up with their appetites. No, she was not about to buy food for the pigs. This was the only part of the book that gave me pause because the reason we were always told to cook pork well was that people took advantage of the truly omnivorous nature of pigs to feed them whatever waste there was and the result was trichinosis. The remains from the fish market dumpster were of really questionable quality and she didn't cook them first. The bee information was interesting and familiar and Harold the turkey reminded me of a place out the Fraser Valley which had a pet tom turkey who would walk up to you to have his head scratched. I'm surprised she had only one dog attack and only one opossum since her animals seem to be continuously at risk. No rats. Did she ever discover why? I really enjoyed all the experiences she described, including the street co-operating to chase Big Guy back into the yard.
I agree with her on the topic of the mad Sheila, who obviously did not care what she was being asked, and also about Novella's desire to be there when the pigs were killed. As for the "American" butcher, you do the job as you are taught and he had been taught to do it as expeditiously as possible, an attitude that lowers cost but does away with art.
I will get a copy of this for a friend who is part of a downtown garden which is mostly decorative plants but includes herbs, tomatoes and zucchini, all of which are available to anyone who wants some. He will enjoy all the literary references as well.

Picked this up at BookCrossing Meetup (Vancouver). Sounded like something my sister would enjoy, and 'Strude' recommended it.

Gave it to my sister. It sounded like something she'd be interested in.