Customer Reviews

Fields of Plenty: A Farmer's Journey in Search of Real Food and the People Who Grow It

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This superbly written book, with its poetic descriptions and fascinating stories of the different farmers the author visited and interviewed throughout the country, had me dreaming about owning my own organic farm one day! Also, the wonderful recipes are definately a plus! What a wonderful read!

Writing this book from an organic farmer's point of view, Ableman gives one a sense of respect for the earth, the intricacies involved in its cultivation, the many different varieties of fruits and vegetables that exist and can be grown on small organic farms (as compared to conventional/commercial growers who use very few varieties), and the tender care involved by these family farmers.

One learns about the different herbal concoctions that some of these farmers use to feed their crops, comparable to the attention given when feeding a child. The nutrients in these soils are uncomparable to the conventional corporate farming, and organic farms do not use pesticides and chemical fertilizers. One can taste the difference in the organic produce. They are bursting with flavor.

One learns about sustainability and organic farming, about the many flavors, the exotic colors, and how the different animals cohabitate with the farmers, so that nothing is wasted. I particularly liked the descriptions of the sections on the
melons that emitted intoxicating musky smells, and blackberries that were so irresistible, the author went and gorged himself eating them in the patch. Yumm! We went and bought organic blackberries after reading that section!

One also learns that eating is an intimate relationship, and establishing a relationship with the local farmers in our communities is a wonderful way to learn where our food is coming from. These great farmers are feeding us, and what better way to eat food, then to establish a relationship with the persons who are growing it for us. One way to do that is visit a local farmer's market and sign up with a local farm that is a member of CSA (community shared agriculture). We did, and we love it!

Also, eating seasonal foods is a new concept for me. We're so used to finding any fruit and vegetable in any season in the supermarket, that the idea of something not being available at a given time is foreign to us. But once we start asking - where did these fruits and vegetables come from - and we see Brazil, or Argentina, etc. then things start changing in our minds. The transportation, the distance, the regulations... Hmmm. Canning and freezing fruits and vegetables when in season has become a pleasant option.

After reading this book, I'm also keen on working on my garden with my family next summer, of watching the different vegetables grow, and of tasting the fruits of my labor. I can't wait!

I recommend this highly to everyone!!

I love the text of this book, go ahead and buy it, I think it should be said that this book suffers from its format. The extra heavy pages and stiff hard binding are like those in a coffee table book and would be well deserved, if the publisher had included more photographs. As it stands, there is a scant one photo per farm profile, far too few in my opinion, especially having been visually tantilized by Ableman's beautiful descriptions. This leaves one mostly text, valuable and well written and worthy of your attention, in a book that is physically difficult to handle and read. I am hoping that publishers will read this review and remedy the problem in subsequent editions. Either add more "art" to justify the art quality of the book, or else make the book easier to curl-up with and read. I know folks who have put down the book, and not picked it up again, although they were enjoying it, and I believe that the book's physical attributes are to blame.

I had the privilege of spending Thanksgiving with the author and after a great meal we coaxed him into reading from his new book. He told a story about going back to his great grandfather's farm and general store in Delaware. A journey he made with his Father and son. He unfolds the story with vivid detail that draws you in and makes you care. He tells about the loss of our agricutural heritage and the impact that urbanization has had on our diet. This great book with wonderful illustrations. Read it and buy copies for your friends.

Ableman journeys across North American visiting small farms and the people
who work them. Every visit helps me learn about how food is produced, or in this
case, lovingly grown by people with a spiritual attachment to their land.
The photos are lovely, and I can't resist books with recipes.
This is a book worth having and sharing with teens hooked on fast food
burgers and pizza.

Great book on a vanishing life style in America... Met the author, great guy tells a wonderful story both in person and through his works.

What a gorgeous book! The pictures of the crops and the farmers are breathtaking, but better still are the descriptions of the many ways to approach farming while taking care of the land and being in control of how the crops are planted, grown and harvested. Only a fellow farmer could travel the country with appreciation and respect for his compatriots who fill the farmers markets with food.

"In the quiet and repetition of field work, the mind has a chance to expand, the imagination to loosen. It's in those moments when our hands are busy bunching or hoeing or pruning that the essence of our work reveals itself. It comes in small and subtle revelations, like discovering how a certain insect or wild plant has been contributing to the well-being of the farm, or finding one tomato or carrot among thousands with unique qualities worth propagating, or hearing music in the mundane and repetitious work of filling boxes or burlap bags."

My connections to this book are strong. I buy vegetables from Harmony Valley at the Madison Farmer's Market every summer. Better still, my husband and I have a CSA share in the amazing Future Fruit Farm from which we are savoring all but lost varieties of pears and apples every other week deep into the fall. Both farms are described in the "Classical and Jazz" section.

We also just returned home from the annual Prairie Festival at The Land Institute in Kansas where we too listened to the thoughts of Wes Jackson and Wendell Berry. We brought home a small bag of Kernza, a perennial wheat developed and grown at the Institute. Ableman shares his visit with Wendell and Wes, "Here, among colleagues I have admired for years, I'm reminded of the broader tribe I still belong to.".

Remarkably readable, high density information, exquisite quality content and book-paper, photos. Makes compelling reading > action for life on a small planet for locavores, opens ideas for subscription food buying to support locally grown food. Hopeful and realistic - also opens ideas for alternatives to mainstream anxiety (natural and media generated). Everyday people w/ a passion for their unique talents "stay the course" in the best sense of the idea.

Absolutely FANTASTIC! A great tabletop book that will be picked up by everyone! Stories about small scale organic farmers in America that give an inside view into their lives. We should all know more about the sources of America's BEST food- this book tells that!

With vision and humor the reader travels with the author from his beloved Salt Spring Island off the west coast of Canada through an amazing and very encouraging variety of farms. The adventures verge on the poetic (though the author refrains from actual poetry.) I found myself looking at grain mills to make my own flour and ordering heirloom beans for new adventures in eating. Anyone who is horticulturally inclined or a "foodie" can identify with the timely observations, conquests and defeats of the wide variety farmers encountered along the way. While problems and dangers for the future of small farmers are explained, it is not in a heavy handed depressing way. More often I found myself giggling because I had been doing something of the same things that make the farmers and their families quirky at times. The deeper peeks into individual lives is engaging, often moving. The recipes and their formatting are interesting and I fully intend to try a good number of them.

I can agree with one reviewer to the effect the book is physically heavy and unwieldy. And yes, certainly more of the very excellent photography would be wonderful, but then if I had my wish, the book would be twice as thick! Ah well! I highly reccommend this book for anyone who's interested in their food and it's quality and who like to be entertained to boot.

American agriculture is being re-created and re-defined by farmers and the people who grow our food, and Michael Ableman's journey to different farms blends a memoir of a farmer and photographer with a travelogue of his survey of others who are making a difference in the food world from across America. The different visions and experiences of farmers blend with discussions of politics, growing, and even with recipes for using fresh produce, making Fields Of Plenty an abundant gathering of crop wisdom and agricultural insights. Scholarly enough for college-level collections on agricultural studies yet accessible enough for public library holdings, Field Of Plenty: A Farmer's Journey In Search Of Real Food And The People Who Grow It is an excellent pick.