GROWING A FARMER Pt.2

After Mr. Timmermeister realized that merely being a vegetable grower failed to bring him profits, he decided to shift his work focus to livestocks. His first step was to produce raw milk - the type that is not pasteurized. Mr. Timmermeister believed that raw milk was in great demand but little supplies so there wasn't much competition. The only problem was it required license to sell raw milk at that time. Initially selling unlawafully, then with licenses, Kurt went through a frustrating process. He couldn't understand what was wrong with selling products to customers who would be willing to pay whatever it took. Selling out of the law made him to feel the most primitive aspects of nature and that was actually the core for his farm - to get close to the real nature. Normally, people may think of pigs as dirty animals but the writer describes them as "smart, attentive, aggressive, stubborn and charming". He depicted a picture of pigs laying under the sun with their bellies "splayed out" which was so funny that made me to laugh. Kurt also didn't put his pigs into a very small and limited space. He didn't use a cage but just an electric wire to confine boundaries but his pigs always escaped. Later on, he was famous for "errant farm animals". He concluded the Pigs chapter by saying "breeding pigs did give me an insight into their unique nature" and I think that's why he insisted on becoming a farmer. He loves the nature so much to the point he enjoyed every aspect of it and learned from it every day. Even though the reality wasn't so optimistic as he didn't gain a lot of profits from his own farms, he never tried to quit this farm job and by 2003 he became a full-time farmer. His main revenues came from a Camembert-style cheese. He also set up a main event for his farm: cooking dinners for guests every Sunday using foods produced in his farm.

After spending a short journey with Kurt Timmermeister to his Kurtwood Farms, I was deeply touched by his love of nature hidden in sentences. Initially, I thought this book would tell the readers how to operate a profitable farm and indeed Kurt gave a lot of details on how he grew fruit trees and bred sheep, cows, chickens, and pigs. But the writer didn't focus on the results of his farming but the process. Kurt didn't end up his chapters like "after several trials, I found out this type of cows is more profitable". He simply enjoyed the process of milking his cows and came up with ideas on how to produce high-quality raw milk. I think that's why Growing a Farmer is a charmingful book. The process of becoming a full-time farmer and the transformation from an urbanite to a countryman is the story that Mr. Timmermeister wants to tell us. And it seems suburban life particularly suits him. He likes to nap on the floor of a hoop house nakedly. He likes to catch his pigs wondering in others' farms. He likes to sell fresh, raw milk to his neighbors without a license. He likes to gather fresh hens eggs ealy in the morning, having no regrets "about tearing down the outmoded wooden chicken coops, with their floors thick with manure, errant feathers and bits of straw". Eventually, he writes, the main purpose of this farm is a "throwback to an earlier era". Either fighting against regulations or struggling with profitability situations, what matters at last is the beauty of nature which most people nowadays aren't able to enjoy. Rather than saying this book tells readers how to make a farm profitable and commercial, I would say Growing a Farmer really evokes everyone's hidden desire to enjoy the outdoor world. Eventually, what matters the most is food, family, and nature.