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, Flavia Bacarella (Illustrator), Deborah Madison (Foreword by)

Overview

Now updated and expanded, a New York executive-turned-farmer shares his story and the hows & whys of running a small organic farm in 21st century America.

Keith Stewart, already in his early forties and discontent with New York’s corporate grind, moved upstate and started a one-man organic farm in 1986. Today, having surmounted the seemingly endless challenges to succeeding as an organic farmer, Keith employs seven to eight seasonal interns and provides 100 varieties of fresh produce to the shoppers and chefs who flock twice weekly, May to December, to his stand at Union Square Greenmarket in Manhattan—the only place where his produce is sold. It’s a Long Road to a Tomato opens a window into the world of Keith’s Farm, with essays on Keith’s development as a farmer, the nuts and bolts of organic farming for an urban market, farm animals domestic and wild, and the political, social, and environmental issues relevant to agriculture today—and their impact on all of us.

Includes a foreword by Deborah Madison and gorgeous new woodcuts by Flavia Bacarella

Praise for It’s a Long Road to Tomato

“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 that—without denying the sometimes harsh realities of the small producer’s life—leave the reader in no doubt of the joys that keep this small farmer on the land.” —Joan Dye Gussow, author of This Organic Life

“An enduring pleasure to read.” —Sally Schneider, author of A New Way to Cook

“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.” —Bill McKibben, author of Wandering Home and Falter

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781615191253
Publisher:	The Experiment
Publication date:	06/02/2021
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	347
File size:	11 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

For 18 years, Keith Stewart has been the proprietor of Keith's Farm, in Orange County, New York, where he grows, with the assistance of 6 or 7 seasonal workers, and under certified organic conditions, 100 varieties of fruits, vegetables and herbs. Stewart is one of the longest-standing purveyors at NYC's Union Square Greenmarket (Wednesdays and Saturdays—he's parked right in front of B&N), where his stand has a devoted following that includes many restaurateurs and food writers (Peter Hoffman, Savoy; Sally Schneider, A New Way to Cook ; Jessie Saunders, Not on Love Alone ), among thousands of others. Stewart has appeared on numerous TV and radio shows, including the Food Channel's "Follow that Food" and the Leonard Lopate Show, has been featured in publications including The New York Times and Gourmet , and over more than 6 years his writing has attracted legions of fans in The Valley Table , the Hudson Valley's only magazine devoted to regional farms, food and cuisine. Illustrator Flavia Bacarella, Stewart's wife, is an artist who teaches at Lehman College in New York.

Table of Contents

Foreword Deborah Madison xi

Preface to the Second Edition xv

A Change of Life: On Becoming a Farmer 1

Regarding Chickens and Their Eggs 7

Buy It at the Farmers' Market 15

An Apprentice Workforce 21

The Unpeaceable Kingdom 32

Thursday at the Farm 37

Wild Weather 43

Small-Farm Economics-Watching the Bottom Line 48

A Garlic Affair 53

Barn Swallows 61

Organic Certification and the United States Department of Agriculture 66

A Good Knife 71

In Praise of Herbs 76

Farm Dogs 86

Marriage of Body and Mind 93

It's a Long Road to a Tomato 97

The Price of Milk 103

The Hidden Cost of Farming 111

Winter Work 116

Growing Potatoes 123

Kuri Encounters a Porcupine 132

A Day at the Market 137

Brave New Vegetables 144

Putting it Back 151

The Driveway Rabbits 158

Sustainable vs. Organic-Who Loses? 164

Inner Sanctum-An Office with a View 170

A Reversal of Fortune 175

The Unweeded Garden 179

Farms on the Block 188

The Heart of Winter 195

On the Eve of War 203

A Man and His Tractor 205

The High Price of Milk 215

Working Man's Mesclun 222

Tiny Tim and His Bovine Harem 229

Farm Politic 237

Kuri-circa 1985 to 2003 246

Breakdown: Perils of the Truck-Farming Life 258

About Seeds 268

A Beaver before Breakfast 277

The Even Longer Road to a Tomato, or The Rain It Raineth Every Day (Midsummer 2009) 284

What Will Happen to the Land? 294

A Farm in Perpetuity 305

Epilogue 313

Appendix-Keith's Farm Bird List 317

Acknowledgments 319

About the Authors 323

Editorial Reviews

This is not another book of anecdotes encouraging city slickers to begin a pastoral life full of colorful characters. Instead, it is a thoughtful, candid account of one man's experience as an organic farmer. Stewart is no dilettante: he has farmed for almost 20 years and has commented on food issues and farming in the New York Times, Gourmet, and a regional magazine. His essays, written over the last eight years and sometimes recounting earlier stories, show the evolution of his farm and relate his experiences selling produce at New York City's farmers markets. Pieces on growing crops and the antics of animals intermingle with insights into political, social, and environmental issues. As in David Mas Masumoto's Four Seasons in Five Senses: Things Worth Savoring, each essay here works as a standalone; some of Stewart's comments also recall Michael Ableman's struggle to farm amid urban sprawl in California (On Good Land: The Autobiography of an Urban Farm). Nicely illustrated; recommended for all public libraries.-Bonnie Poquette, Boerner Botanical Gardens Lib., Milwaukee Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

"To combat urban crowding, copies of It’s a Long Road to a Tomato should be airlifted into major cities. The captivating charm of organic farming, so deliciously described in Keith Stewart’s essays, would surely have hordes of city dwellers packing their bags. Stewart’s stories transport me into the precious and full life of an organic farmer. I more than appreciate it; I now feel part of it."

Jeffrey M. Smith

"Keith Stewart’s 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."

Sally Schneider

"Beguiling and enlightening."

Booklist

"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 that—without denying the sometimes harsh realities of the small producer’s life—leave the reader in no doubt of the joys that keep this small farmer on the land."

Joan Dye Gussow

"Keith’s writing reads with the force and love of nature’s elements—strong, refreshing, beautiful, and true. It’s as fresh as his delicious carrots, and as poignant as his incomparable garlic!"

Leslie McEachern

"[A] heartfelt chronicle, sobering and amusing by turn. Although focused on the particular, it transcends Keith’s Farm and illuminates exactly what it is that we are putting on our plates, whether we shop at Keith Stewart’s stand in the Union Square Greenmarket or at a farmers’ market elsewhere. It’s a delicious read—but what makes it an important one is that it has so enriched the ongoing conversation about food."

from the new foreword by Deborah Madison

"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."

Bill McKibben

"Ever dreamed of living on a farm or growing your own food? Here’s the clearest picture of what farm life really looks like. The romance of a pastoral life isn’t shattered by Stewart’s depiction of the gritty reality of farm life. They coexist, side by side, mirroring Stewart’s organic and integrated approach to farming. Stewart’s book is a gift to cooks. Now, each time I cook with food from a farmer I know, I have a deeper and clearer idea of what really goes into growing healthy and delicious food and why our farmers are heroes."

Peter Hoffman

"Beguiling and enlightening"
—Booklist

"Keith Stewart’s 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."
—Sally Schneider, syndicated columnist and author of A New Way to Cook
 

"Keith’s writing reads with the force and love of nature’s elements—strong, refreshing, beautiful, and true. It’s as fresh as his delicious carrots, and as poignant as his incomparable garlic!"
—Leslie McEachern, owner of the Angelica Kitchen, New York City

"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."
—Bill McKibben, author of Wandering Home and The End of Nature

"To combat urban crowding, copies of It’s a Long Road to a Tomato should be airlifted into major cities. The captivating charm of organic farming, so deliciously described in Keith Stewart’s essays, would surely have hordes of city dwellers packing their bags. Stewart’s stories transport me into the precious and full life of an organic farmer. I more than appreciate it; I now feel part of it."
—Jeffrey M. Smith, author of Seeds of Deception

"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 that—without denying the sometimes harsh realities of the small producer’s life—leave the reader in no doubt of the joys that keep this small farmer on the land."
—Joan Dye Gussow, author of This Organic Life

"Ever dreamed of living on a farm or growing your own food? Here’s the clearest picture of what farm life really looks like. The romance of a pastoral life isn’t shattered by Stewart’s depiction of the gritty reality of farm life. They coexist, side by side, mirroring Stewart’s organic and integrated approach to farming. Stewart’s book is a gift to cooks. Now, each time I cook with food from a farmer I know, I have a deeper and clearer idea of what really goes into growing healthy and delicious food and why our farmers are heroes."
—Peter Hoffman, chef/owner of Savoy Restaurant, New York City

“[A] heartfelt chronicle, sobering and amusing by turn. Although focused on the particular, it transcends Keith’s Farm and illuminates exactly what it is that we are putting on our plates, whether we shop at Keith Stewart’s stand in the Union Square Greenmarket or at a farmers’ market elsewhere. It’s a delicious read—but what makes it an important one is that it has so enriched the ongoing conversation about food.”
—from the new foreword by Deborah Madison

From the Publisher

[A] heartfelt chronicle, sobering and amusing by turn. Although focused on the particular, it transcends Keith’s Farm and illuminates exactly what it is that we are putting on our plates, whether we shop at Keith Stewart’s stand in the Union Square Greenmarket or at a farmers’ market elsewhere. It’s a delicious read—but what makes it an important one is that it has so enriched the ongoing conversation about food.”—from the new foreword by Deborah Madison

"Keith Stewart's 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."
—Sally Schneider, syndicated columnist and author of A New Way to Cook"Beguiling and enlightening"—Booklist

Booklist