Keith Stewart has been the proprietor of Keith's Farm, in Orange County, New York, since 1986. He is one of the longest-standing purveyors at New York City's Union Square Greenmarket, where his stand has a devoted following. He writes regularly for US magazine 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 painting and drawing at Lehman College of the City University of New York.
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
"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
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