My New Hero

Novella Carpenter is my new hero.  An educated, articulate, and slightly irreverent urban farmer.  Okay, so I am a little slow getting to her book Farm City.  I have to wait for books to get to the library so give me a break.  I had seen Novella Carpenter on Chow.com at YouTube, so both her name and her picture on the back of the book were familiar to me and let me know that I would probably like this book and I did.

There is something so 'taken for grated' about the way she chose to move to a scary part of Oakland, her neighborhood was nicknamed "Ghost Town" and squat garden on the vacant lot next door.  She makes it all seem so natural.  Her great respect for her animals on the other hand makes her point of view very special.  I don't know that I will ever be able to dispatch the animals that I eat, but I have to admire her for her ability to do it and to it with such decency. 

Novella steps so easily into the new situations that she finds herself in, like suddenly becoming the student of a talented chef to learn his craft to make the most of her pig's meat, is inspiring.  As an independent person I often take steps that I don't actually consider adventurous or risky, at least other less independent friends tell me that I do.  Now tho' my horizons have been stretched even further by another who seems to take her boldness in stride. 

Being late to the Farm City fame tho' does have some good points.  I believe there is another book in the works and I won't have to wait as long to read it as those who found Novella Carpenter early on.  Between now and then there is her blog Ghost Town Farm.