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My Empire of Dirt: How One Man Turned His Big-City Backyard into a Farm
For seven months, Manny Howard—a lifelong urbanite—woke up every morning and ventured into his eight-hundred-square-foot backyard to maintain the first farm in Flatbush, Brooklyn, in generations. His goal was to subsist on what he could produce on this farm, and only this farm, for at least a month. The project came at a time in Manny’s life when he most needed it—even if his family, and especially his wife, seemingly did not. But a farmer’s life, he discovered—after a string of catastrophes, including a tornado, countless animal deaths (natural, accidental, and inflicted), and even a severed finger—is not an easy one. And it can be just as hard on those he shares it with.
Manny’s James Beard Foundation Award–winning New York magazine cover story—the impetus for this project—began as an assessment of the locavore movement. We now think more about what we eat than ever before, buying organic for our health and local for the environment, often making those decisions into political statements in the process. My Empire of Dirt is a ground-level examination—trenchant, touching, and outrageous—of the cultural reflex to control one of the most elemental aspects of our feeding ourselves.
Unlike most foodies with a farm fetish, Manny didn’t put on overalls with much of a philosophy in mind, save a healthy dose of skepticism about some of the more doctrinaire tendencies of locavores. He did not set out to grow all of his own food because he thought it was the right thing to do or because he thought the rest of us should do the same. Rather, he did it because he was just crazy enough to want to find out how hard it would actually be to take on a challenge based on a radical interpretation of a trendy (if well-meaning) idea and see if he could rise to the occasion.
A chronicle of the experiment that took slow-food to the extreme, My Empire of Dirt tells the story of one man’s struggle against environmental, familial, and agricultural chaos, and in the process asks us to consider what it really takes (and what it really means) to produce our own food. It’s one thing to know the farmer, it turns out—it’s another thing entirely to be the farmer. For most of us, farming is about food. For the farmer, and his family, it’s about work.
Manny’s James Beard Foundation Award–winning New York magazine cover story—the impetus for this project—began as an assessment of the locavore movement. We now think more about what we eat than ever before, buying organic for our health and local for the environment, often making those decisions into political statements in the process. My Empire of Dirt is a ground-level examination—trenchant, touching, and outrageous—of the cultural reflex to control one of the most elemental aspects of our feeding ourselves.
Unlike most foodies with a farm fetish, Manny didn’t put on overalls with much of a philosophy in mind, save a healthy dose of skepticism about some of the more doctrinaire tendencies of locavores. He did not set out to grow all of his own food because he thought it was the right thing to do or because he thought the rest of us should do the same. Rather, he did it because he was just crazy enough to want to find out how hard it would actually be to take on a challenge based on a radical interpretation of a trendy (if well-meaning) idea and see if he could rise to the occasion.
A chronicle of the experiment that took slow-food to the extreme, My Empire of Dirt tells the story of one man’s struggle against environmental, familial, and agricultural chaos, and in the process asks us to consider what it really takes (and what it really means) to produce our own food. It’s one thing to know the farmer, it turns out—it’s another thing entirely to be the farmer. For most of us, farming is about food. For the farmer, and his family, it’s about work.
288 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2010
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331 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 124 reviews
July 20, 2010
I picked this one up after seeing the author on the Colbert Report, having found the interview amusing but not knowing anything about it and not having read one review. If you're reading this before you read this book, you have not made my mistake.
The premise seemed interesting: a man with no agricultural knowledge attempts to create a farm in his Brooklyn backyard with the intent to live off of the harvest for a month. What you find out is that this was an all-expense paid stunt concocted by his publisher to spite the locavores at the NYC Farmer's Markets, that he has no personal interest in the local or slow food movements, and that he's an asshole and an alcoholic.
Thanks to his bottomless pockets, if one method of farming or husbandry doesn't come through on his unrealistically short time line, he can throw money at the next. He repeatedly purchases animals (from pets, to the rabbits and chickens he intends to raise for food) without having made any provisions for them. What finally dropped my opinion of this book through the floor were the numerous episodes of animal cruelty (from killing his daughter's pet birds through complete ignorance of how to care for them, to drowning a caged squirrel in a garbage can full of water because he doesn't know what to do with it.) He sought no advice from local gardeners, nor did he seem to consider the option of a vegetarian diet when his rabbits failed to produce (instead he just bought more). By the end, I found myself disappointed that he was able to harvest anything at all.
This is not a book about urban farming; it's about a guy being paid to prove (or disprove, it seems) that urban farming can be sustainable. No planning, and no research went into this book, and it shows. I would not recommend it.
The premise seemed interesting: a man with no agricultural knowledge attempts to create a farm in his Brooklyn backyard with the intent to live off of the harvest for a month. What you find out is that this was an all-expense paid stunt concocted by his publisher to spite the locavores at the NYC Farmer's Markets, that he has no personal interest in the local or slow food movements, and that he's an asshole and an alcoholic.
Thanks to his bottomless pockets, if one method of farming or husbandry doesn't come through on his unrealistically short time line, he can throw money at the next. He repeatedly purchases animals (from pets, to the rabbits and chickens he intends to raise for food) without having made any provisions for them. What finally dropped my opinion of this book through the floor were the numerous episodes of animal cruelty (from killing his daughter's pet birds through complete ignorance of how to care for them, to drowning a caged squirrel in a garbage can full of water because he doesn't know what to do with it.) He sought no advice from local gardeners, nor did he seem to consider the option of a vegetarian diet when his rabbits failed to produce (instead he just bought more). By the end, I found myself disappointed that he was able to harvest anything at all.
This is not a book about urban farming; it's about a guy being paid to prove (or disprove, it seems) that urban farming can be sustainable. No planning, and no research went into this book, and it shows. I would not recommend it.
May 10, 2010
I was so excited when I stumbled upon this book in the book store and added it to my list to order from the library. As you can probably tell from my reading list, I have a penchant for books about gardening and sustainable city living. Boy, was I disappointed. The author's writing style is hard to follow and his sentences are awkward and painful to dissect. Many times I got so lost within the tangle of commas in one sentence, that I had to keep re-reading it to try to distill his meaning. Still, I kept reading...I think I made it at least half way through the book (and at this point the guy is still barely "farming." I put the book down in disgust when he cold-heartedly drowned a caged squirrel in a garbage can because the author perceived the squirrels as a possible threat to his garden.
What I'm sure were supposed to be humorous anecdotes, fell completely flat. I'm not sure why the author was channeling Wendell Barry because I can imagine no one more dissimilar to Barry. With money being no object for his project (he had an unlimited expense account), his solution to every problem was to spend yet more money.
A great, great disappointment.
What I'm sure were supposed to be humorous anecdotes, fell completely flat. I'm not sure why the author was channeling Wendell Barry because I can imagine no one more dissimilar to Barry. With money being no object for his project (he had an unlimited expense account), his solution to every problem was to spend yet more money.
A great, great disappointment.
February 1, 2021
I'm 49 pages in and I can't do it. I've read really good books by people truly farming in the city such as Farm City by Novella Carpenter. I am a backyard farmer. This guy is confusing, likes to go on and on about I don't know what the hell because I'm confused on almost every page. He kills birds in the first chapter because he doesn't research or seem to even care that he's mixed breeds that kill each other and then he ignores the situation as the birds are killing each other, in the end he goes into a drunk rage and kills off the rest by scaring them or catching them.
To say the least, I'm already too disturbed to go on. I've read the other reviews and it sounds like there will be more crazy animal killing sprees. It is not the charming city boy who turns farmer and learns to feed his family on a small garden and names his beloved hen's silly names and bonds with them.
This is a dark and confusing tall of what happens when you don't educate yourself and prepare before going into a huge project.
To say the least, I'm already too disturbed to go on. I've read the other reviews and it sounds like there will be more crazy animal killing sprees. It is not the charming city boy who turns farmer and learns to feed his family on a small garden and names his beloved hen's silly names and bonds with them.
This is a dark and confusing tall of what happens when you don't educate yourself and prepare before going into a huge project.
June 21, 2010
6/21: i was hoping this man came to a much unhappier ending than he did.
a note about tone, 60 pages in. you know those people who justify their bad table manners by calling you uptight, and excuse away their flakiness, unemployability and general asshattery by insisting they're free spirits when in fact they are just incompetent emo-douches? yeah, meet manny howard. so far we've got poor judgment, insane entitlement [my daughter deserves a FLOCK of songbirds! dude, she's two. give her a large cardboard box and she'll be entertained:], misplaced self-righteousness toward the farmer's market regulars while repeatedly referring to his "mansion", and some wacky domestic animal killing which he no doubt thinks is a charming depiction of foreshadowing his madcap "farm adventures". the only reason i am keeping with this is i am clearly a masochist in the hopes of something worthwhile being said, somewhere in this crap pile.
a note about tone, 60 pages in. you know those people who justify their bad table manners by calling you uptight, and excuse away their flakiness, unemployability and general asshattery by insisting they're free spirits when in fact they are just incompetent emo-douches? yeah, meet manny howard. so far we've got poor judgment, insane entitlement [my daughter deserves a FLOCK of songbirds! dude, she's two. give her a large cardboard box and she'll be entertained:], misplaced self-righteousness toward the farmer's market regulars while repeatedly referring to his "mansion", and some wacky domestic animal killing which he no doubt thinks is a charming depiction of foreshadowing his madcap "farm adventures". the only reason i am keeping with this is i am clearly a masochist in the hopes of something worthwhile being said, somewhere in this crap pile.
November 6, 2010
I had such mixed thoughts about this book. I picked it up from the library after seeing his interview on the Colbert Report. The interview was hilarious and I loved Manny Howard's deadpan humor. The book was much the same, only with many more incidents of animal cruelty, which is why I have the mixed feelings.
The premise is simple - Manny is a writer who is asked to do a story about growing his own food in the small yard of his Brooklyn home. You know, think Barbara Kingslover, only with a wacky guy in Brooklyn instead of a person committed to the idea of sustainable food living in the country. The magazine he works for wanted his take on the "locavore" movement.
It didn't bother me so much that it wasn't his idea or that he was paid to do it. What bothered me was how little he cared for animals. He purchased animal after animal, never preparing for their arrival or even doing much basic research first. He had this crazy idea that animals were easy and all he needed to do was put up a few cages or something. He was woefully unprepared and it caused the death of so many animals. The first one might be a horrific accident, but when it happened again and again, I had to wonder if there is some sort of mental issue with him or just a pure disregard for animal life. It was really difficult and made for some very cringe worthy passages.
The parts of the book that did not deal with animals were much better. His writing style is that dry sort of humor that I found so appealing in the Colbert interview. He had such a lack of knowledge of gardening yet a crazy sense of bravado that he could just get it done. When the plants finally get growing, he deals with crazy weather. And through it all, his wife nearly divorces him.
I came away with a few things from this. a) not everyone should be a farmer. b) the author is kind of a jerk and an animal abuser. I can only hope that going through the experience and then writing about it taught him just how awful it was, the things he did to animals so that he won't do that again.
The premise is simple - Manny is a writer who is asked to do a story about growing his own food in the small yard of his Brooklyn home. You know, think Barbara Kingslover, only with a wacky guy in Brooklyn instead of a person committed to the idea of sustainable food living in the country. The magazine he works for wanted his take on the "locavore" movement.
It didn't bother me so much that it wasn't his idea or that he was paid to do it. What bothered me was how little he cared for animals. He purchased animal after animal, never preparing for their arrival or even doing much basic research first. He had this crazy idea that animals were easy and all he needed to do was put up a few cages or something. He was woefully unprepared and it caused the death of so many animals. The first one might be a horrific accident, but when it happened again and again, I had to wonder if there is some sort of mental issue with him or just a pure disregard for animal life. It was really difficult and made for some very cringe worthy passages.
The parts of the book that did not deal with animals were much better. His writing style is that dry sort of humor that I found so appealing in the Colbert interview. He had such a lack of knowledge of gardening yet a crazy sense of bravado that he could just get it done. When the plants finally get growing, he deals with crazy weather. And through it all, his wife nearly divorces him.
I came away with a few things from this. a) not everyone should be a farmer. b) the author is kind of a jerk and an animal abuser. I can only hope that going through the experience and then writing about it taught him just how awful it was, the things he did to animals so that he won't do that again.
January 20, 2011
So you know when you go out to dinner with friends, you meet a new couple there and the guy dominates the evening? He drinks a little too much. He has some interesting stories but it is clear he finds them funnier than the rest of the table (like the Christmas Eve story in the book). You notice his wife getting sympathetic looks when he spouts something that makes others cringe. And you are relieved to be free of him when walking to the car at the end of the evening.
That’s how it felt for me and this book. I liked the bit about the hydroponics store. I did not like the bit about the squirrel.
August 23, 2010
okay, first I decided to read this book for one reason. Manny Howard is the only person Ive ever seen beat Stephen Colbert at his own game. On multiple occasions during his short little interview on the Colbert Show, Howard really managed to take Colbert by surprise and left him at a loss for words. He was hilarious. I was sold.
What I expected was a witty little story about home farming with a trendy social lesson at the end about how we're all doing our part to destroy the earth by not growing our own food, or at least eating 100% local.
The book is funny, but it is not at all preaching. Howard approaches the assignment purely as an experiment, and the story is a deeply personal one. I wasn't prepared for some of the more heartbreaking stories about what it was like to deal with the mounting failures of the farm, or the tremendous pressure the project put on his relationship with his wife.
I find Howard to be incredibly relatable. In a very specific way. He seems like the kind of guy who loves to start projects. I'm a little that way, and my wife is a lot that way. We start lots of projects. We've even made stabs at container gardens that deliver fresh vegetables and herbs to our table. But we manage to consistently kill things like basil and rosemary, which both grow wild where we live. So I felt genuine empathy for Manny when his potato crop never grow larger than the size of shirt buttons.
There are some interesting social statements here, at least in the subtext. it is interesting to think about how in only a few generations most of us have become very removed from our food sources. Many of us would have no real clue how to raise or grow food if we ever had to do it. But the most interesting thing about the book, is the personal story of one guy trying his damnedest to live off of a back yard farm in the middle of Brooklyn. And as a story about one person's quest, it succeeds wildly. I could not put this book down.
What I expected was a witty little story about home farming with a trendy social lesson at the end about how we're all doing our part to destroy the earth by not growing our own food, or at least eating 100% local.
The book is funny, but it is not at all preaching. Howard approaches the assignment purely as an experiment, and the story is a deeply personal one. I wasn't prepared for some of the more heartbreaking stories about what it was like to deal with the mounting failures of the farm, or the tremendous pressure the project put on his relationship with his wife.
I find Howard to be incredibly relatable. In a very specific way. He seems like the kind of guy who loves to start projects. I'm a little that way, and my wife is a lot that way. We start lots of projects. We've even made stabs at container gardens that deliver fresh vegetables and herbs to our table. But we manage to consistently kill things like basil and rosemary, which both grow wild where we live. So I felt genuine empathy for Manny when his potato crop never grow larger than the size of shirt buttons.
There are some interesting social statements here, at least in the subtext. it is interesting to think about how in only a few generations most of us have become very removed from our food sources. Many of us would have no real clue how to raise or grow food if we ever had to do it. But the most interesting thing about the book, is the personal story of one guy trying his damnedest to live off of a back yard farm in the middle of Brooklyn. And as a story about one person's quest, it succeeds wildly. I could not put this book down.
January 5, 2011
I, like many others, got interested in this book after seeing the author on COLBERT. NO, he's by no means Kingsolver - he doesn't really whitewash the fact that he's kind of a slacker a**hole. Through the hellish summer of his backyard livestock-&-gardening sustainability experiment, he screws up again and again. And then there's just bad luck. Peppered with fascinating side notes about the Brooklyn history, cockfighting, tilapia farming in dumpsters, tornado fun facts, and his own endangered marriage, the writing is funny, visceral, and vivid. I especially loved his ongoing 'conversation' with Wendell Berry, the real voice of farming (and life) wisdom here. Too many times, books like this one are predicated on a THIN premise: will he do it? and what will he learn? The lessons learned in this book are surprising and poignant, giving the conclusion much more a tone of penance than of platitude. He probably IS impossible to be around, but his book made me cry.
January 24, 2011
This man is an idiot. Do not waste your time by reading this book. I've had a thing for memoirs lately, and kept waiting for Howard's book to get better, perhaps filled with more chicken antecdotes or something. Instead, I keep reading about yet another one of his animals miserably dying - through neglect, accident, or sheer uncontrolled rage (there's more than one instance of Howard killing an animal because he's upset with it, not just because it's a farm and things die on a farm.) or how his wife wants to leave him (she really should), or how he didn't want his daughter when his wife became pregnant. THAT was lovely. Nothing like starting off a book by saying you didn't want your own children.
I was looking for a kooky comedy about trying to life off of what you can grow, I ended up reading a tale of animal abuse, unlimited spending, unwise decision making, and self-centeredness that had nothing to do with farming.
I was looking for a kooky comedy about trying to life off of what you can grow, I ended up reading a tale of animal abuse, unlimited spending, unwise decision making, and self-centeredness that had nothing to do with farming.
February 22, 2011
Ugh. I couldn't help but think "this Guy is an idiot!", before I even made it halfway through. Save yourself some frustration and find a gardening or farming book to read instead.
I knew this story was in trouble when the author continued to harrass a fish salesman for a couple live Tilapia and couldn't seem to figure out how to go online and order some from a dealer. Come on now! If the big box pet store I worked for in Alaska could have salt water fish overnighted and couriered, why couldn't this guy figure out how to get a couple tilapia shipped to him? And since when are chickens a lot of work? Really, he could have had an instant protein source with some hens via their eggs. It's not brain surgery!
Really, this joker needed to do a bit of research before jumping head in. Are all New Yorkers really this clueless about their food? Because, I'm pretty sure Sesame Street teachers preschoolers that eggs come from chickens.
I knew this story was in trouble when the author continued to harrass a fish salesman for a couple live Tilapia and couldn't seem to figure out how to go online and order some from a dealer. Come on now! If the big box pet store I worked for in Alaska could have salt water fish overnighted and couriered, why couldn't this guy figure out how to get a couple tilapia shipped to him? And since when are chickens a lot of work? Really, he could have had an instant protein source with some hens via their eggs. It's not brain surgery!
Really, this joker needed to do a bit of research before jumping head in. Are all New Yorkers really this clueless about their food? Because, I'm pretty sure Sesame Street teachers preschoolers that eggs come from chickens.
May 31, 2010
I was disappointed. This was not a project he came up with on his own. It was simply an assignment and he treated it as such. Plus, it was an expensive undertaking and not something anyone without disposable funds could attempt. His lack of regard for the animals' lives was what really turned me off though. He mentions at one point buying $1100 worth of song birds for his daughter's birthday and because he doesn't know anything about birds, they end up killing each other. The sole survivor (a.k.a. the one that killed the other birds) is purposefully thrown at a wall one day when he's drunk and his family isn't home. I guess this charming anecdote foreshadows his ease with killing animals later on his "farm."
didnt-finish-didnt-start
February 7, 2021Didn’t start. Don’t start
July 12, 2020
3.5 stars
This book is more about his journey getting ready than it is about the month he spend eating from his own yard. I feel bad for his wife, but he's pretty honest about what a jerk he was so he gets credit for owning up to it. A fantastic primer on what NOT to do if you're trying this haha
This book is more about his journey getting ready than it is about the month he spend eating from his own yard. I feel bad for his wife, but he's pretty honest about what a jerk he was so he gets credit for owning up to it. A fantastic primer on what NOT to do if you're trying this haha
July 3, 2017
I found this book at the Dollar Tree and am very glad that I only paid a dollar for it.
This book was sort of all over the place. Neat concept but Manny Howard seemed to write about the experience off the top of his head, with no attempt to order his thoughts, and frequently going off on rabbit trails (no pun intended).
Kind of a bumbling sort of guy who had NO earthly idea what he was doing, but isn't afraid to reveal that to us.
I learned that a can of sardines can lure raccoons into a trap, as well as a bagel spread with a little dab of cream cheese. Also, that cat food (Whiskas) can fatten up chickens. There were a few other factual nuggets that I was interested to learn about, but overall i just felt sorry for the guy.
During the process of turning his small city backyard into a farm, he sawed his pinky finger off, an F2 tornado leveled his crops, his rabbits died, he got very sick from eating a chicken gone bad, his little girl had knee surgery just when his crops were coming in, and a few other misadventures happened that would have caused most folks to give up.
The most unfortunate thing to me about this whole book was that Manny's wife was so completely uncooperative and unsupportive of him; impatient and rude during the whole process. I do not know how he put up with her. She ought to be ashamed of her behavior. I rather think HE was the more patient of the two. She just needs to apologize if she hasn't already.
This book was sort of all over the place. Neat concept but Manny Howard seemed to write about the experience off the top of his head, with no attempt to order his thoughts, and frequently going off on rabbit trails (no pun intended).
Kind of a bumbling sort of guy who had NO earthly idea what he was doing, but isn't afraid to reveal that to us.
I learned that a can of sardines can lure raccoons into a trap, as well as a bagel spread with a little dab of cream cheese. Also, that cat food (Whiskas) can fatten up chickens. There were a few other factual nuggets that I was interested to learn about, but overall i just felt sorry for the guy.
During the process of turning his small city backyard into a farm, he sawed his pinky finger off, an F2 tornado leveled his crops, his rabbits died, he got very sick from eating a chicken gone bad, his little girl had knee surgery just when his crops were coming in, and a few other misadventures happened that would have caused most folks to give up.
The most unfortunate thing to me about this whole book was that Manny's wife was so completely uncooperative and unsupportive of him; impatient and rude during the whole process. I do not know how he put up with her. She ought to be ashamed of her behavior. I rather think HE was the more patient of the two. She just needs to apologize if she hasn't already.
February 10, 2011
I wanted to laugh at this man but as much as I tried I could only pity him and the animals he bought to live on his "farm". Having no idea of how to take care of animals he repeatedly purchases livestock and through neglect, ignorance and even malice manages to kill most of them. I didn't find this very funny. He seems to learn nothing from their deaths and so it happens again and again. I didn't find that very funny either. The fact that he has a seemingly endless well of money to draw from only further ensures that he will never be forced to face the consequences of his choices. I found this waste galling and frustrating. Still not very funny.
I did enjoy it when he wrote about the history of Brooklyn and the shaping of the land there. As long as his personal life is completely removed from his subject matter I could imagine reading another book by him. But another memoir? Never.
I did enjoy it when he wrote about the history of Brooklyn and the shaping of the land there. As long as his personal life is completely removed from his subject matter I could imagine reading another book by him. But another memoir? Never.
August 21, 2010
I'm only halfway through but I don't think I'll finish this book. What's turning me off? The author is cruel to animals, doesn't know or care about vegetables and decides to embark on this "Farm" adventure because he was assigned a journalism piece. He will be reimbursed for all his expenses in this endeavor, and therefore spends crazy amounts of money to set up his backyard and basement to grow and raise food; I find this wasteful and unrealistic. He has multiple failures in his quest- and they are not funny. The failures, rather, seem to be due to his ignorance and self-centeredness. There are MUCH better books on this topic out there, so don't waste your time on this.
February 9, 2012
I really wanted to like this book. More importantly, I really wanted the author's experiment to work.
He had unlimited funds behind him, and spent thousands upon thousands of dollars of his publisher's money setting up his food production system. What was he missing? Research and follow-through. He gave a half-hearted attempt at tons of different farming methods, things he really didn't bother to learn much about, and gave a bad name to urban agriculture when his farm failed.
It was frustrating to read about his incredibly wasteful methods.
He had unlimited funds behind him, and spent thousands upon thousands of dollars of his publisher's money setting up his food production system. What was he missing? Research and follow-through. He gave a half-hearted attempt at tons of different farming methods, things he really didn't bother to learn much about, and gave a bad name to urban agriculture when his farm failed.
It was frustrating to read about his incredibly wasteful methods.
June 3, 2010
Assigned to make his Brooklyn backyard into an urban farm for a New York Magazine story, Manny Howard managed all of it and also this book. It certainly is a cautionary tale and you might never feel the same way about chickens or rabbits, but his writing rings true and is so funny in places. He is also very funny in person.
March 10, 2011
not a good book for anyone that loves a living thing or cares about the food they grow. Manny Howard is the gardner that every gardner dreads might be out there. Not a fish out of water story- that could be good. This story is told with too much unneccessary violence, glorifing ignorance, bad planning and no humor. I didn't even like his kids.
September 17, 2010
This one was disappointing and I couldn't get through it. Once I learned that the author did this with an unlimited budget, I completely lost interest. That and the needless killing of the song birds...
September 6, 2011
Empire of Dirt is the opposite of Animal Vegetable Mircale, in the sense that it is funny, feels very honest, and doesn't inspire me to do much of anything with my backyard.
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August 4, 2023Normally I won’t even rate a book but based on the reviews and the front cover it already seems like a horrible book to read and I’m genuinely concerned for anyone who likes this book. I read it. The man on the front cover look likes he’d grab me off the street, take me to his place and kill me. He looks like the type to drown someone in a kiddie pool when he was little and from what I’ve read he has killed animals who did nothing to him. He has the basic tendencies of a serial killer and that’s worrying. The writing style of this book is impossible to follow and the way he is really trying to make it sound funny makes me want to shoot my own brains out. There was a point during reading this that I wanted to pry my eyes out so that I wouldn’t have to continue to read this. I put the book down halfway through and I couldn’t bring myself to pick it back up because my mental health cannot handle this shite. Do not read unless you are 🤏🏼 this close to killing yourself already and you just want something to help push you off the edge. Also don’t kill yourself, because I (a stranger and the best being to ever walk the planet) said so.
June 24, 2017
I like how honest he is about his failures. His approach to farming was fascinating in its lack of forethought, planning and mission. This book should be the go to guide on what not to do when deciding to become an urban farmer. But it is a good story, and you can skip the side trips and forays, and still enjoy the read.
November 3, 2019
I read the first 50 pages and decided to stop. I didn’t care for the author’s voice, his ancillary stories didn’t interest me, and I didn’t care for the format of the book. I was going to force myself to read in its entirety but decided against it. This book isn’t for me.
December 9, 2024
actually a 3 1/2 not 3.
Was an interesting read- detailed account of what happened and what it was like- But not what I was hoping for, looking to read..learn.
Good idea and goodexample for others Now to do it my self.
Was an interesting read- detailed account of what happened and what it was like- But not what I was hoping for, looking to read..learn.
Good idea and goodexample for others Now to do it my self.
January 10, 2018
This was both an amusing and heartbreaking read of one man's quest to feed himself for one month on just what he has grown or raised.
November 15, 2019
Very easy read but I didn't like the author or his perspective. Seemed haphazard and cavalier. Still, I really was interested in what happened!
July 26, 2024
Very hard to read
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December 13, 2015Like many people, I was inspired to read this book after I saw Manny Howard plugging it on Stephen Colbert. Like many people, I found the book disappointing. And like many other people, the main reason is that I didn't really like Manny Howard. He comes across as a bumbling, incompetent farmer, yet somehow arrogant. Manny says that his wife had originally been attracted to his enthusiasms and his sense of adventure, but in his backyard farming project those qualities were manifested as what I would call going off half cocked, jumping in without adequate preparation, and then trying to clean up the mess afterward.
He seems to be playing it for laughs in the book, as when he goes to the hydroponics store, and no one will wait on him, or when he and his drunken buddies dragged a chicken around New York City. But these things struck me as more pathetic than funny.
I had heard others complain about animal cruelty in the book. I expected this not to bother me. After all, unless you are a vegetarian, animal death is a necessary part of farming. But it did bother me. Manny's pre-farm episode of the songbird cage for his two-year old daughter (definitely poorly-thought out) shows a callous disregard for the welfare of the birds, and his finishing off the last bird by throwing it against the wall shows a casual cruelty that was disturbing. Likewise, his drowning of the captive squirrel seemed like an unnecessarily cruel death when he could have chosen a more humane one.
I think that the people most likely to be interested in reading Manny Howard's book are people who are interested in urban farming. But they will be the least likely to enjoy it. They will already have gone beyond Manny's first stabs at it. Although there is actual useful information in here. If you intend to pursue urban farming, you will have to deal with issues of drainage, of available light, of soil quality. You will have to deal with inclement weather and animal pests. If you have animals, you will have to deal with housing, hygiene, breeding, feeding, and waste removal. You will have to deal with the neighbors and the police. Manny offers little in the way of practical information here, but a heaping dose of "it's definitely better to plan ahead."
I think the people most likely to enjoy Manny's book, are people most like him, people who have never given the topic a thought, people who say to themselves, "This farming thing! Can you believe it! You break your back, everything dies, you slice off your finger, and your wife leaves you. This is crazy."
As to the Howard marriage, the Farm definitely strained it, but that marriage had issues before. Manny was no great communicator. He should definitely not have bought the songbirds before discussing it with his wife. He should not have cut down a tree, or built a wheelchair ramp, before discussing it with his wife. But that wife was no great communicator, either, because, at least as depicted in this book, her usual means of dealing with what made her angry, was to stomp off and slam the door. Anyway, they make up at the end.
There is also something of a happy ending for Manny Howard and his backyard farm. He has absolutely no interest in the growing urban farm movement, but he didn't quit entirely. He kept up a small garden, and he continued to keep chickens, for the eggs. One could say that he learned a lot of lessons during his farm project, but the number one thing that he learned is that he had quite literally never worked so hard in his entire life, and that that work was satisfying in itself.
He seems to be playing it for laughs in the book, as when he goes to the hydroponics store, and no one will wait on him, or when he and his drunken buddies dragged a chicken around New York City. But these things struck me as more pathetic than funny.
I had heard others complain about animal cruelty in the book. I expected this not to bother me. After all, unless you are a vegetarian, animal death is a necessary part of farming. But it did bother me. Manny's pre-farm episode of the songbird cage for his two-year old daughter (definitely poorly-thought out) shows a callous disregard for the welfare of the birds, and his finishing off the last bird by throwing it against the wall shows a casual cruelty that was disturbing. Likewise, his drowning of the captive squirrel seemed like an unnecessarily cruel death when he could have chosen a more humane one.
I think that the people most likely to be interested in reading Manny Howard's book are people who are interested in urban farming. But they will be the least likely to enjoy it. They will already have gone beyond Manny's first stabs at it. Although there is actual useful information in here. If you intend to pursue urban farming, you will have to deal with issues of drainage, of available light, of soil quality. You will have to deal with inclement weather and animal pests. If you have animals, you will have to deal with housing, hygiene, breeding, feeding, and waste removal. You will have to deal with the neighbors and the police. Manny offers little in the way of practical information here, but a heaping dose of "it's definitely better to plan ahead."
I think the people most likely to enjoy Manny's book, are people most like him, people who have never given the topic a thought, people who say to themselves, "This farming thing! Can you believe it! You break your back, everything dies, you slice off your finger, and your wife leaves you. This is crazy."
As to the Howard marriage, the Farm definitely strained it, but that marriage had issues before. Manny was no great communicator. He should definitely not have bought the songbirds before discussing it with his wife. He should not have cut down a tree, or built a wheelchair ramp, before discussing it with his wife. But that wife was no great communicator, either, because, at least as depicted in this book, her usual means of dealing with what made her angry, was to stomp off and slam the door. Anyway, they make up at the end.
There is also something of a happy ending for Manny Howard and his backyard farm. He has absolutely no interest in the growing urban farm movement, but he didn't quit entirely. He kept up a small garden, and he continued to keep chickens, for the eggs. One could say that he learned a lot of lessons during his farm project, but the number one thing that he learned is that he had quite literally never worked so hard in his entire life, and that that work was satisfying in itself.
March 25, 2013
Manny Howard is a big city guy and a food and travel writer for numerous magazines. He has no clue about farming. However, when a magazine editor calls him (while Howard is in the middle of a life crisis) to ask if he wants to turn his backyard into an urban farm and write a piece about it, he completely devotes himself to the project; livestock, 5 tons of soil and marriage problems follow. His goal is to feed himself off his land for a month.
On this journey, there is a lot of 'collateral damage', mostly animals. Some reviewers have pointed out Mannys cruelty towards them, however, this cruelty does not stem from sadism, but from complete ignorance, neglect and poor planning. As said, Manny doesn't know anything about farming and in my opinion is mostly overburdened by the task (but doesn't realize or admit it). His intentions were good, but the execution flawed. He is just not the right guy for the job and doesn't have the right premises. While other urban or rural farmers start having livestock only after years of experience, Manny is required to do it all in one season.
Howards writing is direct and unsentimental. The dialogs are fun and authentic. However, the structure of the book was sometimes hard to follow (especially in the first half), 'cause it jumps from a childhood story of building a raft to his life crisis, to not getting the tilapia fish he wanted, to building a drainage system for the plot, to getting rabbits, to getting veggies, to rabbits dying all of the sudden and so forth. I found it hard to see the farm growing, as the chapters were more anecdotal and often not connected to one another. Only sometimes these lose threads were picked up later on.
What also bothered me was the wife, who came across bitchy and really unsupportive (I don't think she stepped into the backyard once). All this considering, Howard was really set up for failure.
I enjoyed reading the book anyway. It shows that producing food is hard work. Maybe it takes a city guy to show what millions of farmers around the world have to go through (and I'm not talking about big agriculture here). Through all, Howard never loses hope. And he is quite a character - and an interesting one at that! His enthusiam and his way of always biting off more than he can chew are really relatable. As are his bad habits as procrastination and bad planning (something I think we all suffer from to one degree or another). He is that guy you really wouldn't want to be friends with, but who makes movies, books and life interesting.
On this journey, there is a lot of 'collateral damage', mostly animals. Some reviewers have pointed out Mannys cruelty towards them, however, this cruelty does not stem from sadism, but from complete ignorance, neglect and poor planning. As said, Manny doesn't know anything about farming and in my opinion is mostly overburdened by the task (but doesn't realize or admit it). His intentions were good, but the execution flawed. He is just not the right guy for the job and doesn't have the right premises. While other urban or rural farmers start having livestock only after years of experience, Manny is required to do it all in one season.
Howards writing is direct and unsentimental. The dialogs are fun and authentic. However, the structure of the book was sometimes hard to follow (especially in the first half), 'cause it jumps from a childhood story of building a raft to his life crisis, to not getting the tilapia fish he wanted, to building a drainage system for the plot, to getting rabbits, to getting veggies, to rabbits dying all of the sudden and so forth. I found it hard to see the farm growing, as the chapters were more anecdotal and often not connected to one another. Only sometimes these lose threads were picked up later on.
What also bothered me was the wife, who came across bitchy and really unsupportive (I don't think she stepped into the backyard once). All this considering, Howard was really set up for failure.
I enjoyed reading the book anyway. It shows that producing food is hard work. Maybe it takes a city guy to show what millions of farmers around the world have to go through (and I'm not talking about big agriculture here). Through all, Howard never loses hope. And he is quite a character - and an interesting one at that! His enthusiam and his way of always biting off more than he can chew are really relatable. As are his bad habits as procrastination and bad planning (something I think we all suffer from to one degree or another). He is that guy you really wouldn't want to be friends with, but who makes movies, books and life interesting.
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