The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals by Michael Pollan
Bringing It to the Table: On Farming and Food by Wendell Berry
The Contrary Farmer by Gene Logsdon
The One-Straw Revolution: An Introduction to Natural Farming by Masanobu Fukuoka, Larry Korn, Wendell Berry, and Frances Moore Lappe
Four Seasons in Five Senses: Things Worth Savoring by David Mas Masumoto
Individual stories:
Goat Song: A Seasonal Life, A Short History of Herding, and the Art of Making Cheese by Brad Kessler
Farm City: The Education of an Urban Farmer by Novella Carpenter
Heirloom: Notes from an Accidental Tomato Farmer by Tim Stark
Second Nature: A Gardener's Education by Michael Pollan
This Organic Life: Confessions of a Suburban Homesteader by Joan Dye Gussow
Growing Vegetables:
The Vegetable Gardener's Bible (10th Anniversary Edition) by Edward C. Smith
The New Organic Grower: A Master's Manual of Tools and Techniques for the Home and Market Gardener (A gardener's supply book) by Eliot Coleman, Sheri Amsel, and Molly Cook Field
Gaia's Garden, Second Edition: A Guide To Home-Scale Permaculture by Toby Hemenway
I dream and day dream my garden. In 1976, at 23, I started my first garden. My fingernails have been dirty ever since. With each year and new property I have slowly changed to focus entirely on the production of food. My city backyard is a farm, with an orchard, chickens, turkeys, bees and vegetable gardens. I am blessed with a big yard- more than ¾ acre. Working a large yard is a steep learning curve. I experiment with varieties, locations, organic methods and push the envelope to include rare, tropical, and high chill fruits. My successes are stupendous, my failures colossal. Most of all, I have learned what real food tastes like. My garden nourishes my family and my soul. My blog will keep a record of my experiences over the months and years in L.A.'s richly diverse year long garden. This site will be memoir, diary and calendar. It will help me to plan the future, remember the past and connect with anyone who might want to share in or learn from my obsession.
