Monday, December 15, 2008

Read: This Organic Life


I'm not sure how this book managed to escape my radar for so long.  "This Organic Life," written by Joan Dye Gussow, is a terrific read.  

Warning:  If you don't own/have access to somewhere you can grow things, this book can be frustrating.  Here's the thing: Ms. Gussow loves to garden.  She loves it so much, that you're going to want to grow things too.  And not just a few things.  You might find yourself at the garden center enviously eying people buying a fig tree, or a grape vine.  You might find yourself secretly planting shallots between your landlord's flowers.  You might find yourself going to Home Depot and buying a GIANT box, then filling it with hundreds of pounds of dirt....

Yeah.  That's probably going to happen.  Why?  Well, it's a very sensible (and wonderful!) thing to grow your own food.  Joan Dye Gussow's tale of suburban gardening is a terrific read.  Gussow manages to inspire without preaching.  She might live a life sustained almost entirely of things she grows, but she never expects the reader to.  This isn't a holier than though type of sustainable living read.  Rather, it's pure inspiration.  

No comments: