We love this week’s NY Mag article by “locavore” Manny Howard, who planted a farm in his 800 square foot Brooklyn backyard. He grew vegetables and raised both rabbits and chickens, with the goal of using what he raised from March through July as his sole subsistence for the month of August.

His wife? Not so happy about the smell, the mess, the fact that her husband cut off his finger with a table saw. The farm animals? “My farm broke one of the inviolable rules of nature—my rabbits didn’t fuck like rabbits.”

Howard’s farm nearly got wiped out by the tornado on August 8, but survived. And he achieved his goal, while losing some weight in the process. The cost? $11,000. The conclusion: “I did learn something about food: Unless you really know what you’re doing, raising it is miserable, soul-crushing work. Eating food fresh from the farm, on the other hand, is delightful.”

Do you have a backyard garden? If yes, what have you raised successfully?