Jeanne Nolan

Growing up in a small, conservative town in the pacific northwest in the early 90s, I listened to 60s/70s protest music, read [b:50 Simple Things You Can Do To Save The Earth|61142|50 Simple Things You Can Do To Save The Earth|Earth Works Group|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1232784537s/61142.jpg|59466], and dreamed of joining a hippie commune. By the time I graduated from high school, I'd lost some of my idealism. I settled for getting an education degree from a liberal public show more university.

Jeanne Nolan, almost a decade older than me, experienced a similar disconnect from her suburban Illinois upbringing. But she actually did join a commune at the age of 18, causing a major rift in her relationship with her parents. When she returned to their home seventeen years later, she brought with her a young daughter, a mountain of regret, volumes of disillusionment, and few marketable skills. However, she did know a ton about organic gardening (her main responsibility on the commune) at a time when farmers markets and the slow food movement were taking off across the country.

This memoir/call-to-action alternates between Ms. Nolan's commune years and her more recent activities in the Chicago area: creating a demonstration garden at Lincoln Park Zoo, building a business that helps urban and suburban homeowners (and urban restaurant owners) to grow their own food, and otherwise rebuilding her life. I really enjoyed both parts of books, but occasionally got bogged down in the details of soil-enrichment, etc.

Whether you, like me, have ever dreamed of running off with a bunch of hippies, or if you just want to grow your own food, I would recommend this book. show less

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.

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. show more 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. show less