I just finished this book, Growing a Farmer by Kurt Timmermeister. In typical fashion I read between work, fun and other time constraints. It didn't help that I left the book at home when I traveled North for a week. In the end it was one of those books that was always gnawing at brain cells in the back of my mind.

From the first I'll say I liked the book enormously. I liked the subject which was the 20 year journey of a man from a pastry chef to a restaurant owner to a landowner to a farmer, dairyman, once a week food preparer and host for family style cookhouse dinners. He doesn't shy from the mud and muck of being a farmer, nor the mistakes he made. But they are presented in a matter-of-fact way without preachiness.

Timmermeister is where he is because of choices he made and makes, and by the skills he learned along the way. He writes about how his failures shaped where the farm is today. Subjects such as the move from producing raw milk to cheese making are laid out. He explains what happens along the path to making cheese in a way that allows the reader to get most or all of the picture. Timmermeister further explains that this works for him and may not for others. Everyone has to find their own journey and farm in their own way.

More than anything the tone of "This is where I started and here is where I am, it works for me, but you need to find you own way," without judging is what I liked. Timmermeister would plant ideas in my head that I would ruminate about for days as his three dairy cows would their feed. I was prompted to think, "If it were me, what would I do?" Good books will do that.

I would recommend this to anyone considering going into small scale farming, people wanting to get "back to the land," or anyone that eats.