At A Glance
Farm - to - table has been quite the buzzword for the last ten or so , and by now , you ’d hard - campaign to find someone — gourmet , Fannie Merritt Farmer , a intermixture of both or neither — who does n’t have at least a pass grip of the construct . Inseparably loop with thelocal - food for thought movement , farm - to - table has arrive to make up a central dogma of the agricultural climate in the 2010s . Because of its pervasiveness , the construct has begun to lose some of its meaning , but with his fresh Good Book , grow a Feast , Kurt Timmermeisterhas set out to remind people what farm - to - table really entail .
The book of account is a first - person narrative that chronicle a single farm - to - table repast on Kurtwood Farms , Timmermeister ’s 13 - Akko homestead on Vashon Island in Washington ’s Puget Sound . To aid support the farm ’s former Day 20 years ago , he prepare what he called Cookhouse dinner party , where 20 guests would apportion a table and enjoy a farm - to - table meal . maturate a Feastchronicles the final Cookhouse dinner , part with the birthing of the dairy cow who will give her Milk River for the cheese and ending with the subdued aftermath of a 10 - course meal . ( Do n’t worry that Timmermeister does n’t have enough stuff for fill the book ’s 300 Sir Frederick Handley Page — his spirit level of detail is staggering , conscientious and very much appreciated . )
“ The chronicle of this repast begins with the parturition of that calf in my b two age before the guests sat down at the foresightful fir mesa , ” he write in the book of account ’s origination . “ The account of all repast begin 24-hour interval , weeks , calendar month before we ride down . It begin when those first seeds are engraft , the animals are born , the cucumbers are picked and pickled . ” And true to that observation , Timmermeister withdraw you through every unmarried stone’s throw of the process , from sow seeds in the garden and breeding beef cattle cow to foraging for mushrooms and in reality cooking and serving the repast .
Throughout the Good Book , you ’ll meet a coloured cast of local character who serve Timmermeister around the farm and in the kitchen : Leda , a local husbandman who barter seedlings for cheese ; Ben , a late ag - schooltime alumnus who build up a graze plan for Kurtwood Farms ’ cattle ; Tyler , a local chef who relishes the estimation of cooking with farm - fresh component ; and Jorge , a former line Captain James Cook turn moo-cow caretaker , to name a few . Timmermeister does an splendid Book of Job prime his narrative in these characters and their role , as the enticement could be to but wax poetical about growing and put up intellectual nourishment in excruciating detail page after pageboy .
Speaking of that degree of detail , he does n’t cut into so deeply to carry you or to occupy pages ; rather , his particular is intend to ram home the point that a repast does n’t begin when the guests posture down . It must be state , too , that his frank discussion of Kurtwood Farm policies is a breathing place of fresh air — there is nothing but transparence here , down to his confession that he used a generic picture of a sura on a Craigslist posting selling that animate being because “ they all look the same — dun - colourize hide , tiny ivory hooves , large inquisitive center and long pitch-black eyelash . ” And if you have an interest in agriculture ( which , if you ’re reading this , I assume you do ) , the last thing you ’ll be is tire by Timmermeister ’s treatise on planting Allium cepa and shallot showtime or the sections on butter churning and cheese fashioning .
Unsurprisingly ( spoiler alert ? ) , the meal work off without a hitch , and Timmermeister ’s guest leave behind full and felicitous — and not without a clinch from him . “ Tomorrow they will go to their local grocery shop and nibble up some veggie and nitty-gritty and put together a repast , ” Timmermeister writes in the Holy Scripture ’s final pages , referring to his dinner guests . “ My hope is that they look at that tomato a fiddling bit differently , that quart of cream with a bit more peculiarity . ”
And that is Timmermeister ’s true goal withGrowing a Feast : He just desire you to understand what go into your food , and to have a sense of wonder and wonder about what you eat up . Sure , you may not get to revel the tomato plant upside - down patty or brown butter and salvia wintertime squash soup that he discusses — there are formula in an appendix , though!—but you could get an appreciation for what farm - to - table in truth means all over again .
The Final Word : If you need aGrowing a Feastis a worthwhile journey from the birth of a cow to the last sip of coffee after a farm - refreshing meal .
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