The "how-to" guide for a new generation of farmers from the author of Farm City and a leading urban garden educator. In this indispensable guide, Farm City author Novella Carpenter and Willow Rosenthal share their experience as successful urban farmers and provide practical blueprints-complete with rich visual material-for novice and experienced growers looking to bring the principles of ethical food to the city streets. The Essential Urban Farmer guides readers from day one to market day, advising on how to find the perfect site, design a landscape, and cultivate crops. For anyone who has ever grown herbs on windowsills, or tomatoes on fire escapes, this is an invaluable volume with the potential to change our menus, our health, and our cities forever.

Chronicles the adventures of a woman who turned a vacant lot in downtown Oakland into a thriving urban farm, complete with chickens, turkey, bees, and pigs.

This edition includes a variety of articles on urban agriculture. Articles discuss urban agriculture as a viable solution to food insecurities; the economic sustainability of urban agriculture; the impact of urban agriculture on specific groups, such as women in developing countries; and the future of urban farming. Includes primary and secondary sources from a variety of perspectives; eyewitnesses, scientific journals, government officials, and many others.

One of New York Times “Top 10 Books of 2009” (Dwight Garner) “Easily the funniest, weirdest, most perversely provocative gardening book I've ever read. I couldn't put it down . . . The writing soars.” —The New York Times Book Review “Captivating . . . By turns edgy, moving, and hilarious, Farm City marks the debut of a striking new voice in American writing.” —Michael Pollan, author of The Omnivore's Dilemma and Food Rules When Novella Carpenter—captivated by the idea of backyard self-sufficiency as the daughter of two back-to-the-earth hippies—moves to a ramshackle house in inner-city Oakland and discovers a weed-choked, garbage-strewn abandoned lot next door, she closes her eyes and pictures heirloom tomatoes, a beehive, and a chicken coop. What starts out as a few egg-laying chickens leads to turkeys, geese, and ducks. And not long after, along came two 300-pound pigs. And no, these charming and eccentric animals aren’t pets. Novella is raising these animals for dinner. An unforgettably charming memoir, full of hilarious moments, fascinating farmer’s tips, and a great deal of heart, Farm City offers a beautiful mediation on what we give up to live the way we do today.