3.5
The $64 Tomato
ByPublisher Description
Bill Alexander had no idea that his simple dream of having a vegetable garden and small orchard in his backyard would lead him into life-and-death battles with groundhogs, webworms, weeds, and weather; midnight expeditions in the dead of winter to dig up fresh thyme; and skirmishes with neighbors who feed the vermin (i.e., deer). Not to mention the vacations that had to be planned around the harvest, the near electrocution of the tree man, the limitations of his own middle-aged body, and the pity of his wife and kids. When Alexander runs (just for fun!) a costbenefit analysis, adding up everything from the live animal trap to the Velcro tomato wraps and then amortizing it over the life of his garden, it comes as quite a shock to learn that it cost him a staggering $64 to grow each one of his beloved Brandywine tomatoes. But as any gardener will tell you, you can't put a price on the unparalleled pleasures of providing fresh food for your family.
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Meet readers like you in the Fable For You feed, designed to build bookish communitiesThe $64 Tomato Reviews
3.5
“Loved the humor in this book. My husband and I are avid gardeners and, having just bought our first home 2 years ago, we got a little carried away with the garden along with planting a plethora of fruit trees and bushes. Including the lovely Brandywine! I really saw ourselves in this book, the constant state of flow between sweating blood over endless weeding and then a moment later nearly crying when you taste that first strawberry. We are often reminded that we aren't saving any money by doing this ourselves, but for us, at this point in our lives, we really don't mind. I'm almost glad our place isn't really that big, space is a limiting factor, so my husbands wild ideas can literally only go so far.
Anyway, a great mix of cautionary tales, humor, and a level of stubborn optimism I've only ever known hard-core gardeners to have.”
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