An interesting book written by the director of communication of the Brooklyn Grange about the formation of their hipster rooftop farming and events business. Full of interesting stories of how the Brooklyn Grange got off the ground and developed from the idea of a rooftop farm to a diversified business farming, installing green roofs, hosting events, promoting rooftop farming and educational efforts this is more of a small green business book than a book about rooftop farming. The information about the selection of space for a productive rooftop garden and the installation process along with the grants available for green roofs in NYC was also fascinating. The book gets a little rambly toward the end but overall a good read. I received a free copy of this book through Goodreads First Reads Giveaways.
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Not what I was expecting. I thought this book would be more about farming and farming practices. Instead it is more about how to build a business. It just didn't really interest me. Others may like it more than I did. ( )

Interesting, yet also annoying. I would describe the feeling of this book, overall, as "kum-ba-yah". It's kind of like, "look you can be as awesome as us, if you have people as awesome as us working for you"....not a direct quote just a feeling I came out of this with. I expected the book to be along the lines of Animal, Vegetable, Miracle but it was more of a how-to business book. The how-to wouldn't apply to lots of people though, in my opinion, so I wish it had more about the actual farm. The author is also having a flagrant love affair with the word "nascent". I've never seen it so much before, and I hope I don't see it again for a while.

Overall, a good reference for how to search out diverse streams of revenue for a business, but not incredibly compelling. ( )

Won as an ARC in a Goodreads Giveaway.
The imagination and work that went into the Brooklyn Grange project is simply staggering. I am familiar with pot gardening and similar ventures, but to grow enough produce to serve as an income source is a totally different kind of looney. And yet, it worked for them. I found it to be an excellent resource to free up the imagination to implement a dream of starting a new and exotic business as well as a lot of good old *how to*. It made for good reading, and fascinating. ( )

Anastasia Cole Plakias and a small number of others embarked upon an unusual way of making a living in New York City. She and her partners brought soil to the rooftops of a couple of tall buidings. It was there, up high, where they chose to farm. Stop and think about the extraordinary nature of this undertaking. There are not many places to farm in a city like New York. Like-minded people decided to find structures where management was receptive to farming up high.

This is a fascinating story about a direction few would dream of pursuing. It's admitedly unconventional, and the idea was relatively untested until the group in New York tried it. The organization called Brooklyn Grange is an example of how people can make things work when they think outside the box. If more than a five star recommendation were allowed, I would certainly go higher than that.

The book is entitled The Farm on the Roof. It has this lengthy subtitle: What Brooklyn Grange Taught Us About Entrepeneurship, Community, and Growing a Sustainable Business. One of the most impressive things about it is the writing quality. Ms. Plakias has a knack for exquisitly telling a most unusual story. She is persusave and engaging, and almost makes the reader want to go to the rooftop with some packets of seeds, a few buckets of soil and the will to plant and wait for a bountiful harvest.