I love to visit New York and I love to read about food, gardening, and history. This book was a great combination of all four interests and the stories and people Shulman dug up were interesting and inspiring in various ways, though I definitely enjoyed some chapaters more than others. My favorites were the chapters on honey/beekeeping, meat processing, vegetable gardening, and beer making, though the historical aspects of the sugar chapter rendered it worthy of inclusion.I really found interesting is the rules and regulations that evolve as a city/society's values ebb and flow. Beekeeping, for example, was in the not too distant past outlawed in the city, but now it is allowed again. People have converted vacant lots to vegetable patches during lean, leave-the-city times, and those same lots are now being swallowed by urban renewal.I also really liked reading about how various waves of immigrants worked to recreate the food from their homeland and youth, and how they worked in the different aspects of the food industry over the centuries that New York has been around.I'm visiting NYC again this spring and this book gave me a whole new set of places to check out, and a new perspective on the city that can only enhance my enjoyment of it.This book is an easy, interesting and highly entertaining read of how people who live in the modern city are continuing its agricultural roots in so many unexpected ways. These people are following traditions that most of us are unaware of like urban beekeeping, and farming in abandoned lots that go back to the founding of New York City. Robin Shulman makes these traditions come alive in the tales of the people who live by gradually taking their hobbis to the next level and becoming the gems of their neighborhoods. Their stories show that the urban population is not as disconnected from its environment as many people think. and even making simple choices can help them survive for a completely selfish reason: access to good, cheap, minimally processed food.From the description, I thought this was going to give a more indepth history of the foods, imigrants and stories of the food scene in the various neighborhoods in NYC. It did some of that but wasn't as historical or entertaining as I had hoped. I bought it used and the book was in far worse shape than described. If you are looking for insight into food production then it would be helpful.I purchased this book for my sister who is a long time Big Apple resident. It is so well writen with informationa that is universailly of interest. The history and stories of food sources and production are great. I read The Honey Trail which is packed with information about bees but this has details that were completly new to me. Yes. I will give the book to my N.Y. sib and would recommend it to anyone who is interested in food and the people who provide it.The Author knows her stuff. A top notch read on the history of food in New City and surrounding Burroughs. I was amazed that there is a growing number of contemporary roof gardens and urban growers. There are even some city slicker real free range chickens that end up being a chicken in every pot.Fun and informative read. Goes back and forth in history and the present day with great clarity and imagination. I often think about these stories as I venture through different neighborhoods of New York. I actually came across Robin Shulman's writing about the topic of education. I blog link lead me to her work as a creative writer, too!i am not from new york, nor have i ever visited, and yet i found this an incredibly interesting read. filled with history along with modern "interpretations" of how people are creating their own localvore foodstream. Very inspiring. if you are interested in food and production of all types of food, this is a great book. i'd like ms. shulman to travel across the country and do this for other cities as well!If you love New York, this is a fantastic way to learn about the city's history. Each chapter is focussed on a different food (sugar, meat, etc) and tells fascinating stories of their origin in New York and how it helped shaped the city. Highly recommend!Das Buch ist sehr gut strukturiert und man erhält zahlreiche frische Impulse. Dennoch ist es sehr langatmig. Teilweise geht die Autorin zu sehr in den persönlichen Details der vorgestellten Personen verloren.Los casos prácticos de este libro inspiran a cualquier profesional del sector y es un gran libro para iniciarse en el movimiento slow food.