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| View Larger Image | It's a Long Road to a Tomato: Tales of an Organic Farmer Who Quit the Big City for the (Not So) Simple Life | Paperbackby Keith Stewart (Author), Flavia Bacarella (Illustrator)
| List Price: | $16.95 | |
| | Binding: | Paperback | | Publisher: | Da Capo Press | | Edition: | illustrated editionth Edition | | Page Count: | 288 Pages | | Publication Date: | March 13, 2006 | | Sales Rank: | 170,477th |
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EDITORIAL REVIEWS |
Product Description
Already in his early forties and not entirely content with his lot, Keith Stewart traded life in New York’s corporate grind for an upstate farm. Starting as a one-man operation, short on experience and with modest expectations, Stewart soon found that the agrarian life, despite its numerous challenges, suited him well. His new business flourished. Today, he has a crew of six to eight seasonal workers and grows about one hundred varieties of vegetables and herbs. What began as a yearning—"to live on a piece of land, closer to nature; to work outside with my body as well as my brain; to leave behind the world of briefcases, computers, corporate clients, and non-opening windows"—has become a life "more full, more varied," often "more demanding and exhausting," but "always more real." Stewart sells everything he grows directly to consumers and restaurateurs, and in doing so has developed loyal and growing ranks devoted to his Rocambole garlic, varied herbs, heirloom tomatoes, and other organic produce. Now, in It’s a Long Road to a Tomato, Stewart presents interlocking, complementary essays, addressing his mid-life development as a farmer; some of the nuts and bolts and how-tos of organic vegetable growing and selling in an urban market; humorous and philosophical stories about domestic and wild farm animals; and insights into the political, social, and environmental issues surrounding agriculture today and why they matter to all of us. |
CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 4.5 based on 25 reviews)
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Wish I hadn't... by S. Richey (Tallahassee, FL United States)  1 Stars
June 14, 2009
I'm an avid reader of fiction and fact but I've never read a book I wish I hadn't... until now. I was expecting quaint heartwarming stories of the struggle to farm independently and the ultimate accomplishments of one man over nature. Those are there, buried deeply between self serving political opinions, anti big business sentiments and stories of gut wrenching animal horrors. Don't expect to learn anything about the life of an organic farmer however. Overall, it was an unsettling story and not in an enlightened way but in the sense that I truly wish I had never read it.
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Amazing farmer by Ellen Kirouac (St.Augustine, Florida United States)  5 Stars
November 24, 2008
Recently I read IT'S A LONG ROAD TO A TOMATO: TALES OF AN ORGANIC FARMER WHO QUIT THE BIG CITY FOR THE (NOT SO) SIMPLE LIFE by Keith Stewart and so was engrossed that I neglected of my work. As a vendor at my local farmers market in St. Augustine, Florida were I sell herbs I have an inkling of the work that a farmer does, or at least I thought I did. This marvelous book tells it as it REALLY is. Keith writes with passion and truth about the trials and tribulations, joys and rewards that he and his interns face while farming organically in upstate New York. He's been a passionate, sustainable farmer who has been farming for more than 20 years. His beautiful words, his descriptions of his farm, the informative portrayal of what he does from writing about barn swallows that he welcomes into his barn in the spring to the business of how he feels about the environment create a moving book. One needs to thank Keith for writing this amazing book. I for one didn't want the book to end. I for one wanted to bite into more words and some of the glorious produce Keith raises on his farm.
IT'S A LONG ROAD TO A TOMATO is touching and filled with Keith's love of life, of farming, of the earth. I intend to pass it on to my like minded friends as I know they will enjoy it as much as myself.
You will miss out if you don't read this book!
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great story and some good advice by Rachel E. Kelly (Pomona, CA)  4 Stars
August 27, 2008
I consider this book a sort of motivational speech for those who are interested in gardening. I really enjoyed it and it is humurous and easy to follow. There is some great advice in there and I wish there had been more but overall I have no regrets about purchasing it.
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The Soul of a Real Farmer by Deborah F. (New York) 4 Stars
August 18, 2008
If ever you wanted to feel a real and unadulterated vista into the heart, soul and core of a farmer, this is it. The guy who slammed it (and proceeded to "trash" it and cover it in dog poo not only exemplifies the wastefulness and unrealisticness of PETA-fanatics, but totally misses the point). As humans, we live within a cycle of life. This book shows it, no holds barred, in a poignant, funny, and utterly real fashion. You can almost feel the gritty earth underneath his fingernails, and it made me want to go get some dirt underneath mine, too.
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good winter reading by Justin Ralph Schlawin (Bowdoinham, ME) 5 Stars
July 31, 2008
This book makes wonderful winter reading-- as the fields lay buried in snow, we are reminded that warm weather and fresh food are not too far off.
Word of advice-- do not read prior to placing your seed order, or you may become too ambitious.
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