Initial Thoughts on Growing a Farmer by Kurt Timmermeister
When professor Hansen first introduced Growing a Farmer to us in class, my interest was peaked. I initially thought, "Why would any sane person from the city (willingly) become a farmer?" It just didn't make much sense to me. After reading the first few chapters, I started to see why Kurt decided to become a farmer. For some unknown reason he had always dreamed of owning a farm (specifically one that looked like the farms he had seen in old British styled movies) and when given the chance he jumped on it. I can't say that reading Kurt's experiences has swayed me to drop everything and become a farmer, far from it, but I can say that I admire his ambition and persistence. Even when things went horribly wrong, whether it be the countless amounts of dead bees or it be his own goats and the wild deer attacking his precious plants and trees, he persisted and that is admirable.
Although I admire Kurt’s tenacity, I do have some criticisms. I’m a bit upset with his attitude towards animals in general. It was in the fifth chapter that Kurt first began to explain his experiences raising animals. I found it a bit horrifying that he had thought the lambs were only cute until they grew into sheep. After they were considered a 'sheep' he thought of them solely as food or a producer of more lambs (and to that effect for food). In his chapter about raising cows, I couldn’t quite tell if he truly cared about the cows or just cared about how important they are to his livelihood. He mentioned that he was very upset about Bella having to get put down but I just don’t know if I believe him. When Kurt begins describing the specifics he seemed to lose all bits of empathy for his animals, emphasizing that each animal would eventually become food. I've only read about half of the book, but I know one thing for sure, I could never be a farmer myself. I don't think I could deal with all the nature (more specifically the bugs) and the laboriousness of tending to crops. I also wouldn't be able to keep animals for the sole purpose of them becoming food. I'd probably get too attached to them and would never want any of them to die. I admire Kurt for choosing to ditch his city life to become a farmer, I certainly wouldn't be able to do it myself.
(Having not dreamed of owning my own farm, when Kurt explained some of the experiences he went through I could only vaguely picture in my head what he was talking about. The third chapter was entirely about his beekeeping process and after finishing the chapter I knew I had to look into what this actually looked like in real life. Below is a video I found on YouTube, just in case you were curious as well.)
Although I admire Kurt’s tenacity, I do have some criticisms. I’m a bit upset with his attitude towards animals in general. It was in the fifth chapter that Kurt first began to explain his experiences raising animals. I found it a bit horrifying that he had thought the lambs were only cute until they grew into sheep. After they were considered a 'sheep' he thought of them solely as food or a producer of more lambs (and to that effect for food). In his chapter about raising cows, I couldn’t quite tell if he truly cared about the cows or just cared about how important they are to his livelihood. He mentioned that he was very upset about Bella having to get put down but I just don’t know if I believe him. When Kurt begins describing the specifics he seemed to lose all bits of empathy for his animals, emphasizing that each animal would eventually become food. I've only read about half of the book, but I know one thing for sure, I could never be a farmer myself. I don't think I could deal with all the nature (more specifically the bugs) and the laboriousness of tending to crops. I also wouldn't be able to keep animals for the sole purpose of them becoming food. I'd probably get too attached to them and would never want any of them to die. I admire Kurt for choosing to ditch his city life to become a farmer, I certainly wouldn't be able to do it myself.
(Having not dreamed of owning my own farm, when Kurt explained some of the experiences he went through I could only vaguely picture in my head what he was talking about. The third chapter was entirely about his beekeeping process and after finishing the chapter I knew I had to look into what this actually looked like in real life. Below is a video I found on YouTube, just in case you were curious as well.)
Beekeeping Informational Video:
Also, here is a picture of the cute little lambs:
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