Penguin, June 2009
When Novella Carpenter and her boyfriend Bill move to Oakland, they land in the "lower bottoms," Oakland's flatlands, "a postcard of urban decay... Cheetos bags somorsaulted across the road. An eight-story brick building on the corner was entirely abandoned and tattooed with graffiti."
The couple rents the upper apartment of a 1905 Queen Anne house in a neighborhood that, because of all the abandoned storefronts, boarded up houses, and empty lots, is nicknamed GhostTown. Carpenter gazes out onto an adjoining vacant lot - 4,500 square feet of weeds - and envisions a backyard vegetable garden that she quickly realizes by squat-gardening on the land whose nightly chorus includes not cricket sounds, but gunshots, sirens, and the roar of traffic on the nearby highway. This is Farm City, a simultaneously gritty and spirited account of Novella Carpenter's garden in the ghetto which, though abutted by the chain link and razor wire of the neighboring auto-shop/junkyard, flourishes:
When Novella Carpenter and her boyfriend Bill move to Oakland, they land in the "lower bottoms," Oakland's flatlands, "a postcard of urban decay... Cheetos bags somorsaulted across the road. An eight-story brick building on the corner was entirely abandoned and tattooed with graffiti."
The couple rents the upper apartment of a 1905 Queen Anne house in a neighborhood that, because of all the abandoned storefronts, boarded up houses, and empty lots, is nicknamed GhostTown. Carpenter gazes out onto an adjoining vacant lot - 4,500 square feet of weeds - and envisions a backyard vegetable garden that she quickly realizes by squat-gardening on the land whose nightly chorus includes not cricket sounds, but gunshots, sirens, and the roar of traffic on the nearby highway. This is Farm City, a simultaneously gritty and spirited account of Novella Carpenter's garden in the ghetto which, though abutted by the chain link and razor wire of the neighboring auto-shop/junkyard, flourishes:
"There was a lime tree near the fence seding out a perfume of citrus blossoms from its dark green leaves. Salks of salvia and mint, artemesia and penstemon. The thistlelike leaves of artichokes glowed silver. Strawberry runners snaked underneath raspberry canes. Beds bristled with rows of fava beans, whose pea-like blossoms attracted chubby black bumblebees to their plunder. An apple tree sent out girlish pink blossoms..."
More than a book about gardening, Farm City is a riveting and oftentimes hilarious narrative of how Carpenter evolves as an urban farmer, an evolution that includes not just the raising of vegetables but meat, as well. Carpenter starts with poultry - chickens, geese, ducks, turkey - what she calls the "gateway" meat, one that opens the doors for her to the harder stuff - rabbits, and eventually, pigs.
More than a book about gardening, Farm City is a riveting and oftentimes hilarious narrative of how Carpenter evolves as an urban farmer, an evolution that includes not just the raising of vegetables but meat, as well. Carpenter starts with poultry - chickens, geese, ducks, turkey - what she calls the "gateway" meat, one that opens the doors for her to the harder stuff - rabbits, and eventually, pigs.
Carpenter's experience as an urban farmer is a fascinating tale, through which she faces difficult challenges of the path she's chosen: her initial foray into beekeeping ends in the death of the hive, a single prize watermelon is taken by a passerby, and slugs invade her garden. Throughout Farm City, Carpenter remains optimistic in the face of setbacks, and her unbeatable sense of humor surfaces even in the face of the most grim experiences, including her bathtub beheading of a duck with a pair of pruners:
"I merely opened up the loppers, placed them around the duck's neck, and squeezed the loppers shut. The duck went from being a happy camper to being a headless camper."
Carpenter continually references the pioneering spirits after whom she models herself - Thoreau, who famously squatted upon Ralph Waldo Emerson's land, the farmer and writer Wendell Berry, and Eull Gibbons, whose foraging guides are her inspiration when she's neck deep in a Chinatown dumpster, collecting pig slop.
Farm City is a smart and funny book that never strays far from Carpenter's central message of the joy that is getting back to the land, wherever that land may be.
"I merely opened up the loppers, placed them around the duck's neck, and squeezed the loppers shut. The duck went from being a happy camper to being a headless camper."
Carpenter continually references the pioneering spirits after whom she models herself - Thoreau, who famously squatted upon Ralph Waldo Emerson's land, the farmer and writer Wendell Berry, and Eull Gibbons, whose foraging guides are her inspiration when she's neck deep in a Chinatown dumpster, collecting pig slop.
Farm City is a smart and funny book that never strays far from Carpenter's central message of the joy that is getting back to the land, wherever that land may be.
