The Urban Farm Handbook: City-Slicker Resources for Growing, Raising, Sourcing, Trading, and Preparing What You Eat

You don't have to live on 50 acres to begin taking control over what you eat

• More than 150 sustainable resources for the Pacific Northwest
• More than 90 basic home-production recipes75 black-and-white and 35 full color photographs
• Up-to-date information on Seattle-area urban farming permits and policy

Is that...a goat in your garage?! It might be if you've been reading The Urban Farm Handbook: City-Slicker Resources for Growing, Raising, Sourcing, Trading, and Preparing What You Eat. In this comprehensive guide for city-dwellers on how to wean themselves off of commerical supermarkets, the authors map a plan for how to manage a busy, urban family life with home-grown foods, shared community efforts, and easy yet healthful practices.

More than just a few ideas about gardening and raising chickens, The Urban Farm Handbook uses stories, charts, grocery lists, recipes, and calendars to inform and instruct. As busy urbanites who have learned how to do everything from making cheese and curing meat to collaborating with neighbors on a food bartering system, the authors share their own food journeys along with those of local producers and consumers who are changing the food systems in the Pacific Northwest. Organized seasonally, this handbook instructs on:

• How to maximize space for planting a variety of fruits and vegetables
• Small-animal husbandry and beekeeping
• Canning, drying, freezing, fermenting, and pickling techniques
• Grinding grains for flour and other uses
• Tips for creating a farmer-to-consumer connection
• How to form a "buying club" with neighbors
• "Opportunities for Change" steps to follow

"You actually can manage to avoid the supermarket even if you don't have a garden. You can choose which steps you want to take, from buying a grain grinder and baking your own bread, to ripping out your front lawn and getting dairy goats, to simply shifting your buying dollars from one market to another."—The Urban Farm Handbook

A resident of Seattle's Sand Point neighborhood, author Annette Cottrell is an urban mother of two small kids. Starting in 2009, she and her family transitioned from supermarket to farm-fresh food, one step at a time and largely within the limits of their suburban city lot. Follow her at SustainableEats.com. Co-author Joshua McNichols is a Seattle-based journalist with a long-term interest in sustainability and food security. His favorite stories feature people connecting through community and food, and his work has been featured everywhere from KUOW to Weekend America and The Splendid Table.