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    Unavailable
    From the Ground Up: A Food Grower's Education in Life, Love, and the Movement That's Changing the Nation
    Unavailable
    From the Ground Up: A Food Grower's Education in Life, Love, and the Movement That's Changing the Nation
    Unavailable
    From the Ground Up: A Food Grower's Education in Life, Love, and the Movement That's Changing the Nation
    Ebook355 pages5 hours

    From the Ground Up: A Food Grower's Education in Life, Love, and the Movement That's Changing the Nation

    By Jeanne Nolan and Alice Waters

    4.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    An inspiring story for everyone who’s ever dreamed of growing the food they eat
     
    When Jeanne Nolan, a teenager in search of a less materialistic, more authentic existence, left Chicago in 1987 to join a communal farm, she had no idea that her decades-long journey would lead her to the heart of a movement that is currently changing our nation’s relationship to food. Now a leader in the sustainable food movement, Nolan shares her story in From the Ground Up, helping us understand the benefits of organic gardening—for the environment, our health, our wallets, our families, and our communities. The great news, as Nolan shows us, is that it has never been easier to grow the vegetables we eat, whether on our rooftops, in our backyards, in our school yards, or on our fire escapes.
     
    From the Ground Up chronicles Nolan’s journey as she returned seventeen years later, disillusioned with communal life, to her parents’ suburban home on the North Shore as a single mother with few marketable skills. Her mother suggested she plant a vegetable garden in their yard, and it grew so abundantly that she established a small business planting organic gardens in suburban yards. She was then asked to create an organic farm for children at Chicago’s Lincoln Park Zoo, and she soon began installing gardens around the city—on a restaurant’s rooftop, in school yards, and for nonprofit organizations. Not only did she realize that practically anyone anywhere could grow vegetables on a small scale but she learned a greater lesson as well: rather than turn her back on mainstream society, she could make a difference in the world. The answer she was searching for was no further than her own backyard.  
     
    In this moving and inspiring account, which combines her fascinating personal journey with the knowledge she gained along the way, Nolan helps us understand the importance of planting and eating organically—both for our health and for the environment—and provides practical tips for growing our food. With the message that we can create utopias in our very own backyards and rooftops, From the Ground Up can inspire each of us to reassess our relationship to the food we eat.

    Praise for From the Ground Up
     
    “One of the most intelligent, surprising and impressive garden memoirs I’ve read in a long time . . . radiant with hope and love.”—The New York Times Book Review

    “The joy of From the Ground Up is not Nolan’s own happy ending but rather the illuminating way she applies her vision to practical problems. . . . The hardest memoir to write is the one that is honest but not self-obsessed; Nolan accomplishes this with clarity and poise.”—Jane Smiley, Harper’s

    “[A] rare and improbable thing: a gripping gardening memoir . . . [Nolan’s] voice is an honest and reassuring one.”—Chicago Reader

    “[A] refreshing narrative . . . From the Ground Up triumphs the backyard micro-garden as it imparts lessons from Nolan’s life about family. . . . The book is a good read for foodies and lovers of a good story alike, and an inspiration to garden wherever you can find space.”—Fredericksburg Free Lance–Star

    “From the Ground Up resonates powerfully with me, as a gardener, and inspires me to ‘double dig’ my garden bed. But even readers who keep their fingernails clean will benefit from this beautiful story and powerful message.”—Sophia Siskel, president and CEO of the Chicago Botanic Garden
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRandom House Publishing Group
    Release dateJul 16, 2013
    ISBN9780679644477
    Unavailable
    From the Ground Up: A Food Grower's Education in Life, Love, and the Movement That's Changing the Nation

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    Reviews for From the Ground Up

    4.5/5

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    • 5/5
      Wonderful memoir about making mistakes and finding your way through. Also an excellent book about gardening, organic foods, and how to treasure things that really matter by making better choices. Well, ok, so that makes it sound either dry and boring or preachy in some fashion, but nothing could be farther from the truth. Jeanne Nolan walked a hard path and manages to tell us about it with humor, compassion and pretty excellent tips on soil.
    • 5/5
      Part memoir of reclaiming life after living in a cult-like commune, part organic gardening primer, part locavore/slow food treatise, I loved and was deeply moved by every aspect of From the Ground Up. Jeanne Nolan fled her suburban Chicago home for Zendik Farm as a teenager, hoping for a life filled with meaning and connection to the Earth. When she returned to “mainstream society” with her young daughter seventeen years later she was broke, unemployed, disillusioned, and disoriented. All she knew was organic gardening, a skill she was afraid had no place in the world she grew up in, so when her mother suggested she grow vegetables in their backyard Nolan jumped at the chance. Tending that garden allowed Nolan to begin healing, and step by step it led to her creating a business helping families plan and plant their own organic gardens. Engagingly written, From the Ground Up is an affecting, heartfelt personal story, and an inspiring, non-preachy account of the joys and benefits of growing organic food.