When Jeanne Nolan, a teenager in search of a less materialistic, more
authentic existence, left Chicago in 1987 to join a communal farm, she
had no idea that her decades-long journey would lead her to the heart of
a movement that is currently changing our nation's relationship to food.
Now a leader in the sustainable food movement, Nolan shares her story in
From the Ground Up, helping us understand the benefits of organic
gardening-for the environment, our health, our wallets, our families,
and our communities. From the Ground Up chronicles Nolan's journey as
she returned seventeen years later, disillusioned with communal life, to
her parents' suburban home on the North Shore as a single mother with
few marketable skills. Her mother suggested she plant a vegetable garden
in their yard, and it grew so abundantly that she established a small
business planting organic gardens in suburban yards.