Farm City Reading Journal 1 In the introduction of Farm City, Novella Carpenter writes, “I have a farm on a dead-end street in the ghetto.” This sole sentence, while unusual at first, summarizes what Novella endured during her life in Oakland, California. Her farm initially started as a means to make a living, a way to produce food but then it became something more. The community around the plot of land started to coalesce and work together to build something that was once just weeds and dirt, into a world of color and life. She bought bees by the boxes, compiled manure from a local horse stable, and even ordered live poultry or as she coined it “meat-birds” for the meat that they will provide to the dinner table. Yet as soon as things were
