It's a Long Road to a Tomato: Tales of an Organic Farmer Who Quit the Big City for the (Not So) Simple Life [Paperback]

A new edition of longtime farmer Keith Stewarts deeply personal and highly acclaimed book on the hows and whys of running a small organic farm in 21st century Americaupdated with five new essays, a foreword by Deborah Madison, and gorgeous new woodcuts by Flavia Bacarella Beguiling and enlightening. Keith Stewarts essays afford a fine way in to the compelling realities of life on a small organic farm in the twenty-first century. His writing is precise and evocative: immediacy bound with a strong meditative underpinning that is an enduring pleasure to read. Like all really good writing, it illuminates a great deal more than the subject at hand. Keiths writing reads with the force and love of natures elementsstrong, refreshing, beautiful, and true. Its as fresh as his delicious carrots, and as poignant as his incomparable garlic! Keith Stewart has been providing New Yorkers with magnificent vegetables for two decades. Now, as if to prove he can do anything, he provides all Americans with a compelling story about his own approach to farming. And at precisely the right moment, just as millions of people across the country are rediscovering the pleasure, and the importance, of eating close to home. To combat urban crowding, copies of Keith Stewart opens this engaging book by transforming himself abruptly from midlife executive into novice organic farmer. The twenty years that follow on an upstate New York farm are sampled here in true-life tales thatwithout denying the sometimes harsh realities of the small producers lifeleave the reader in no doubt of the joys that keep this small farmer on the land. Ever dreamed of living on a farm or growing your own food? Heres the clearest picture of what farm life really looks like. The romance of a pastoral life isnt shattered by Stewarts depiction of the gritty reality of farm life. They coexist, side by side, mirroring Stewarts organic and integrated approach to farming. Stewarts book is a gift to cooks. Nolã¥