Growing a Farmer: How I Learned to Live Off the Land
Kurt Timmermeister talks about his new memoir, his life on the land, and why he chose to build a farm from the ground up.
Even on days when the headlines don鈥檛 bring horrors, a book like Kurt Timmermeister鈥檚 Growing A Farmer provides a sense of calm and wonder. It鈥檚 the story of how a Seattle chef turned a bramble-covered patch of land into paddocks and orchards. It鈥檚 also a finely observed education in ethics and animals, crops and cheesemaking, an up-and-down journey that transformed land into a farm and a man into a farmer.
Timmermeister didn鈥檛 set out to write a book, and said 鈥渋f you call me a writer, I鈥檓 extremely flattered.鈥� The memoir鈥檚 spark came from the newsletter he sent to customers who dined on home-grown meals at his Kurtwood Farms on Vashon Island. Seattle food writer Hsiao-Ching Chou was on his mailing list, told him 鈥淵ou should do something with this,鈥� and helped him secure a deal with Maria Guarnaschelli at W. W. Norton, the high-profile editor whose projects included the revised 鈥淛oy of Cooking鈥�.
As the book鈥檚 Jan. 17 publication date approached, I spoke with Timmermeister about writing and life:
On how a farmer finds time to write:
"My attention span is very, very short, which is why I used to run a restaurant and now I own a farm. It was written in 30 minute, an hour, maybe two-hour increments. There are little bits of time that are always available in the middle of the day, and somehow I patched it together.
鈥淚 wasn鈥檛 making as much cheese then. I was selling milk at the time. The technical challenge was that there鈥檚 a point where the book has to be finished, and yet the farm changes every year, so that the book you have sitting there is not about this farm any longer. There are no sheep here any longer. I don鈥檛 sell raw milk any more鈥�.There had to be a point where I just stopped the clock.鈥�
On how accidental and unreplicable his farming journey was 鈥� starting out when land was cheap, working his way through various harvests and herds without a specific plan:
鈥淭hat鈥檚 the way I do most things. I don鈥檛 plan that much, I鈥檓 just, 鈥淥h, I鈥檒l try this and see how it works.鈥� There are people I see that 鈥� plan endlessly. I have a cook who works for me who wants to open a restaurant, and is always looking for the perfect space and the perfect investor. He鈥檚 like 34 now. I said, 'You鈥檙e late already! Stop looking for that [perfect thing], just do something.' 鈥�
On building his farm from the ground up:
鈥淵ou can skip a few steps, but I think it鈥檚 valuable to not [do that]. I think it鈥檚 valuable to spend that time making those mistakes, and paying the price.鈥�
On the book鈥檚 frank but reasoned discussions of hot-button topics like selling raw milk or restricting pigs to farrowing crates:
鈥淚 started as a waiter 30-and-some years ago. I think I was a good waiter because I鈥檓 always very calm and not much bothers me. Things happen constantly, and you just need the ability to keep going and trying to keep calm and so on. I think I鈥檓 pretty good at it at this point. I may be screaming on the inside鈥�.鈥�
"With raw milk, 鈥淚 think I was one of the very few people who was in the middle on that, where I liked it but didn鈥檛 love it, and I understood the problems with it but I also understood there was some benefit to it. I liked being in the middle. Both ends of it were ridiculous 鈥� and there was no middle for them to come to.鈥�
On the responsibility of keeping cows, with a milking ritual that the book says has 鈥渂ecome my practice 鈥� in the Buddhist sense of the word":
"Every day of my life, I do the same thing, in exactly the same way.... Ninety-nine times out of 100 that Zen experience is very positive. One percent of them are just hell, it鈥檚 frozen or the power鈥檚 out, or there鈥檚 so much rain. It鈥檚 hard to present that as writing about reality, that doesn鈥檛 sound like you鈥檙e whining.鈥�
On why he didn鈥檛 give in to the temptations of giving up the farm and returning to city life:
鈥淚鈥檓 very, very stubborn, and I don鈥檛 like to lose 鈥� ever. I stick with almost anything, I鈥檒l stick with it and learn it and make it right. I鈥檝e certainly often been tempted 鈥� to say I can鈥檛 do this anymore. Cheese has been another challenge. It鈥檚 incredibly complicated, far more so than I anticipated, to make a consistent excellent cheese every day in different seasons and different conditions.鈥�
On the next book he hopes to write:
鈥淎 cookbook that starts on the land. [For instance]: 鈥楾hese are cows, this is what they are fed, this is how they are slaughtered and butchered. Now we have 25 different cuts of meat and here鈥檚 what we are going to do with it.鈥�
"Food doesn鈥檛 show up at the grocery store independently. It鈥檚 a really weird paradigm we鈥檝e created. I want to break that down a little, and explain where these things come from, and how they鈥檙e cooked and manipulated.鈥�
On the future, and why he is ending the farmhouse dinners that kept Kurtwood financially sustainable in the early years:
鈥淚鈥檝e done it鈥�. I realize that, as is my nature, I have to stop it or I鈥檒l just go through the motions鈥�.
"Maybe it鈥檚 a function of age. I鈥檓 48, and life is really short and we鈥檙e just flying through it. I don鈥檛 want to do anything that鈥檚 rote and predictable at this point. I like projects that are 5 years and 10 years long, and I鈥檓 challenged, and I can learn something new....鈥�
鈥淚 want to always be standing on that cliff, looking over, and not sure how it鈥檚 going to work.鈥�
Rebekah Denn blogs at .
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