Farmbrarian

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Jonah Raskin’s Field Days: A Year of Farming, Eating and Drinking Wine in California (2009) is a poetic love letter to Sonoma County. Readers will most definitely fall hard for the area’s agricultural history, idyllic landscape, hard-working people and fresh food as described by Raskin.

The memoir recounts a year’s worth of experiences traveling throughout Sonoma working on sustainable farms, most notably Oak Hill Farm in Glen Ellen, California. Raskin meets an array of people who are passionate about growing food that is healthy for us and the planet, and he eloquently shares each of their stories. The strongest aspect of the text is the focus on immigrant workers and the role they play in supporting our food system.

Raskin captures the romantic notions and realities of small-scale sustainable farming in a book the San Francisco Chronicle named one of the “50 notable Bay Area books of 2009.” Anyone who has felt a tug to escape a conventional lifestyle and connect with the land that sustains us will appreciate Raskin’s journey.

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Like those who went back to the land in the widespread movement of the 1970’s, more and more people are now attempting to live self-sufficient lifestyles in cities and countrysides alike. For anyone captivated by the idea of breaking with mainstream society to pursue an agrarian lifestyle, this book will greatly pique your interest.

In Back from the Land: How Young Americans Went to Nature in the 1970’s and Why They Came Back (2007), Eleanor Agnew skillfully pieces together her experiences and those of many others as they participated in the Back to the Land exodus. She tells of their aspirations, their many struggles, and the reasons why many eventually entered back into mainstream living.

For younger audiences, Agnew’s story will shed light on some of the often-ignored, more challenging aspects of homesteading; and for those that were part of the movement, the tale will likely provide a poetic avenue for reminiscing.

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“First make sure that your husband is doing the kind of work he enjoys and is best fitted for and then cheerfully accept whatever it entails.” –Mother

And thus begins the hilarious tale of Betty MacDonald as she recounts her time on the rugged coast of the Pacific Northwest where her husband decides to build his chicken ranch.

The Egg and I was originally published in 1945 and soared to stardom shortly thereafter.   The memoir provides readers with an entertaining glimpse into the joys, hardships and harrowing adventures of rural living before modern conveniences like electricity and running water.

Vary rarely will you find a story about farming that is as witty, captivating and beautifully written as The Egg and I. However, the book will appeal more to a female audience.

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David Mas Masumoto’s 1995 book Epitaph for a Peach: Four Seasons on My Family Farm won the Julia Child Cookbook Award for literary food writing; was a nominee in the writing on food category of the James Beard Foundation Awards; and received the San Francisco Chronicle’s Critics Choice Award. The praise is well deserved.

Epitaph for a Peach is a yearlong account of life on Masumoto’s family farm as he tries to find a market for his Sun Crest peaches. Through stories of his own attempts, Masumoto gives readers an inside look into the many challenges and rewards of sustainable farming. You’ll read about cover crops, the art of pruning trees, the purpose of a porch, forgotten fruit varieties, strong family ties, and much more. The story is eloquent and intimate, reading like an inner monologue of Masumoto’s thoughts as he roams his fields. You won’t find another like this one.

The folks at Point Reyes Books, located on the Northern California coast in Marin County, recommended the book. Like Masumoto, the store is committed to supporting “sustainable agriculture and living” through literature (Kinsella 18). Thanks for the recommendation!

Kinsella, B. (2006). “Peer Eye for Booksellers.” Publisher’s Weekly. 253 (14), 18-19.

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Gary Paul Nabhan’s book about his year long local eating experiment gives readers good insight into Nabhan’s personal life, but surprisingly little information about his local eating foray. For one year, Nabhan plans to prepare 80% of his meals using foods grown within a few hundred miles of his Arizona home. This is certainly a noble act, but I found myself continuously asking how he actually did it. Sure, he tells of gathering traditional food from a local desert, slaughtering turkeys he raised and eating peaches from his own tree. But we’re talking about a thousand or so meals, which would require a lot more local food than he discusses. This omission left a lot to be desired for me.

Aside from information about Nabhan’s wife and other local eating acquaintances, he briefly discusses food politics. Here the reader encounters some interesting information, but is still left thirsting for more.

Nabhan has good intentions, however the book is neither informative nor inspiring enough to be compared to other tales of local eating, such as  Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver.