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Finding Turtle Farm: My Twenty-Acre Adventure in Community-Supported Agriculture
The story of starting and running an organic farm—told by the woman who owned one of the first Community-Supported Agriculture operations in the Upper Midwest
On a twenty-acre farm in Iowa in 1995, Angela Tedesco planted the seeds (quite literally) of a quiet revolution. While American agriculture had strayed so far afield, her farm would raise food that served the earth and the community as well as the palate. In Finding Turtle Farm, Tedesco recounts this adventure in all its down-and-dirty work and wonder, from plan and plot to harvest, with nods along the way to the vagaries of weather, pests, and human nature.
Introducing Community-Supported Agriculture to Iowa, Tedesco’s Turtle Farm educated its customers along with providing seasonal boxes of produce—an undertaking that continues here, as Tedesco describes what it takes to establish and run an organic operation, bringing to bear all her experience growing up on a family farm, studying chemistry and horticulture, and shepherding a religious education program. From ordering seeds and tending greenhouses to surviving floods and a personal health crisis, Tedesco tells a story of transforming a piece of land and the life within it. She includes practical information about harvesting and preserving food, the discoveries of research conducted on the farm and bonds established between farmers, and even recipes to make delicious use of the produce in your CSA box.
Looking forward to a healthier, happier future when crops are more than mere commodities and food feeds the soul of a community, Finding Turtle Farm is an enlightening, hard-won, and ultimately hopeful account of what it means to meet the most basic of human needs.
On a twenty-acre farm in Iowa in 1995, Angela Tedesco planted the seeds (quite literally) of a quiet revolution. While American agriculture had strayed so far afield, her farm would raise food that served the earth and the community as well as the palate. In Finding Turtle Farm, Tedesco recounts this adventure in all its down-and-dirty work and wonder, from plan and plot to harvest, with nods along the way to the vagaries of weather, pests, and human nature.
Introducing Community-Supported Agriculture to Iowa, Tedesco’s Turtle Farm educated its customers along with providing seasonal boxes of produce—an undertaking that continues here, as Tedesco describes what it takes to establish and run an organic operation, bringing to bear all her experience growing up on a family farm, studying chemistry and horticulture, and shepherding a religious education program. From ordering seeds and tending greenhouses to surviving floods and a personal health crisis, Tedesco tells a story of transforming a piece of land and the life within it. She includes practical information about harvesting and preserving food, the discoveries of research conducted on the farm and bonds established between farmers, and even recipes to make delicious use of the produce in your CSA box.
Looking forward to a healthier, happier future when crops are more than mere commodities and food feeds the soul of a community, Finding Turtle Farm is an enlightening, hard-won, and ultimately hopeful account of what it means to meet the most basic of human needs.
- GenresCookbooks
240 pages, Kindle Edition
Published July 12, 2022
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
November 13, 2022
It took me a while to finish this book but it had to with the fact that Angela Tedesco writes so passionately about growing food and the process of Turtle Farm. I found it astonishing how certain vegetables grow and in which conditions they best flourish. I love how it also encourages the reader to look around where they live and see what grows there and how to involve oneself in living frugally and consciously. I also really enjoyed the last part of the book where it talk about each vegetable/herb a little deeper and then there is a recipe.
I do hope to use some of the recipes that were added at the end of the book. They sound so delicious.
I do hope to use some of the recipes that were added at the end of the book. They sound so delicious.
June 25, 2022
Enjoyable, down to Earth (pun intended) read. I grew up with my mother’s large backyard garden which was surrounded by larger multi-family farms that grew cotton, soybeans and winter wheat. Now I meet my mother weekly all year round at just one of the three the farmers markets that the city I live in hosts. Even with talking with the farmers and participating in a CSA for a few years, there was much to learn and appreciate in Finding Turtle Farm. I knew farmers were hard workers who loved their craft, but this book gave me new perspectives on why farmers (and organic farmers) do what they do to feed those around them.
I generally place books I have read in my Little Free Library to share with my neighborhood, which is a urban biosphere all it’s own with its birds, bees, butterflies and wild creatures(skunks and groundhogs to name two) but this one will stay with me until I’ve had the chance to try the seasonal recipes in the latter portion of the book.
I generally place books I have read in my Little Free Library to share with my neighborhood, which is a urban biosphere all it’s own with its birds, bees, butterflies and wild creatures(skunks and groundhogs to name two) but this one will stay with me until I’ve had the chance to try the seasonal recipes in the latter portion of the book.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews