Growing a Farmer #1

Kurt Timmermeister is very self-conscious in this book. The descriptions he provides are very entertaining. For example, his description of bees. I admire his lack of fear towards them. I am allergic, so the thought of having a bee hive in my backyard is terrifying. Even though I find his beekeeping interesting, I also wonder why he lets them die. He does state an answer, but to me, it just sounds like an excuse. His description of beekeeping does remind me of my childhood at my grandparent's house. My grandpa has bees in one of his farms. I remember the barrels of thick dark honey that would sit at the house before being sent for filtration and packaging. I remember him opening up a barrel. I could see the honey with some dead bees and wax. It would be a little gross, but also intriguing and deep. The barrel would look so deep, like I could fall in and never get out. In a way, this book reminded me a lot of my childhood at my grandparent's house.

I enjoyed reading about his different attempts to farm different things. When he starts talking about cows I can't help but think about my family. My great-grandfather had cattle. My grandfather has cows, goats, pigs, and bees  My uncle has chickens and some cows. Even though they are all in a way farmers, none of them tend to their cows. They do visit the farms often, but all the day to day work is handled by helpers that live in the farms. I don't know if it is the culture, or the economic situation back home, but "farmers" are not "farming" all day.