Growing a Farmer is the story about Kurt Timmermeister and how he started his own farm and became a farmer. The book starts at the very conception of Kurt’s farm. The first chapter of the book begins with a twenty-four-year-old Kurt living in the bustling and growing city of Seattle. During this time Kurt opens a restaurant (actually a small café) near his downtown apartment, but once his café became profitable, Kurt decided he wanted to move to a larger space of land. After doing some research, he decided to move to Vashon Island a few miles from Seattle. When he first saw the property that would become Kurtwood Farms, it was nothing more than just four acres of un-cleared land and a small house resting near the driveway, a “chicken coop” he called it. However, Kurt was set on the property at first sight and with a lot of hard work and trial and error he was able to transform his small farm into a larger farm. Each chapter of the book addresses in great detail a step/venture in his process of becoming a real farmer. For example, he talks about how his first farming venture was growing vegetables to sell at local grocery stores and farmers’ markets. At the end of the year the crop yielded very little return so he had to adjust his business model. The rest of the chapters describe similar scenarios of him trying out different farming ventures to see what would best fit within Kurtwood Farms’ capability while along the way becoming a real, more experienced farmer.

I like Growing a Farmer because I think the author wrote it with a lot of heart trying to really explain how his farm grew and how he grew with it. He was passionate about his dream of becoming a farmer—he even sold his profitable restaurant to be one full time—and he worked very hard to do so and through all the ups and downs he always loved his farm. The affection for his farm was so much that when he was presented with the opportunity of buying a more profitable dairy farm he refused because it just didn’t feel like home. The affection the author had towards his farm allowed him to really find joy in the little things of farming like the filling of the bee boxes or having dirty jeans. Through the author’s personal journey, Growing a Farmer presents the theme of perseverance with the message to follow your dreams even if you may have had a rough start and made a lot of mistakes, because if you persevere you can do it. In the beginning, the author loved the idea of owning his farm and being a farmer, but he had no idea how to run a farm. Before moving, he didn’t even know he wanted to be a farmer. With the knowledge that he got from books, magazines, lectures, and anywhere he could get it from, he was able to learn how to become a real farmer. This unlikely story of how a city restaurateur was able to find his passion of becoming a farmer, gives hope that everyone too will one day find their thing, or things.