Overview

The world of farming--one that is disappearing quickly--informs every aspect of our modern culture, from the food we eat to how we use and preserve the land we live on. Most of us have never set foot on a working farm, however. Now, through insightful prose by journalist Nicola Smith and photographs by Geoff Hansen, readers can enter the life of a couple who believe in the importance of the land and its harvest. It was a dream of Jennifer Megyesi's to run a farm, and when she and husband, Kyle Jones, founded Fat Rooster Farm, it became a dream come true. By tapping into the public's desire for organic and artisanal food--and with lucky breaks, such as selling their milk-fed pigs to celebrated chefs like Mario Batali--they are finding some success. The farm embodies both the newer and more traditional faces of farming. Megyesi and Jones are in their early forties, college educated with advanced degrees, well traveled, influenced by the environmental and social movements of the 1960s and '70s, and savvy in their use of marketing and Internet skills. But in the scale and management of their operation, they revert to an older, more pastoral ideal: sheep out at pasture, chickens that roam free, cows trailed by their calves, hand-gathered honey and maple syrup, their four-year-old son helping with the chores. They're big enough to grow and sell their own meats, eggs, and vegetables at a modest profit, and small enough to have strong ties to the community. It's a life worth living--and learning about.

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9781592288878

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Reviews

Life on a farm is not always a field day - that's made strikingly clear in Nicola Smith's fascinating account of a young couple's experience tending a 20-acre plot in Royalton, Vermont. -- Organic Style Nicola Smith's lucid prose and Geoff Hansen's wonderful photographs have brought us not just a year in the life of an organic farm but a love story and an inspiring portrait of modern farm life. --Julia Alverez, author of How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents Smith presents a true-life farm narrative to pain you and entertain you, but mostly to enlighten you. The youngish husband-wife Vermont farm team--idealistic, headstrong, haphazard, relentless--barter but don't borrow, quarrel, work their pants off, plan by impulse and make mistakes. They grow good food, and they make a good yarn, and Nicola Smith has gathered this harvest with rare skill. - - Ronald Jager, Author of Eighty Acres and The Fate of Family Farming This remarkable account is unsentimental and realistic, and also profoundly moving; I know many people living this life, and every page in Nicola Smith's book rings true. Peel a local apple, cut a few slices of farmhouse cheese, and settle in with this adventure story. -- Bill McKibben, Author of The End of Nature, and of Wandering Home Smith writes an intimate, unsentimental portrait of the couple's stresses...and it's this close-up view of the private, painful, and real negotiations necessary to keep the farm running that, along with Hansen's fine photographs, may resonate most strongly with readers. -- Booklist Numerous vignettes, illustrated by Hansen's appealing pictures, pile up a wealth of detail about this small organic establishment, which raises both livestock and produce. More than most writers on farming, Smith is attuned to the people who do it: Megeysi may be one of the most vividly drawn farm women since Letters of a Woman Homesteader -- Publisher's Weekly Nicola Smith chronicles the lives of two Vermonters living a rural and picturesque life - something often misleadingly called the simple life. 'Harvest' tells the story of two Vermonters, Jennifer Megyesi and Kyle Jones, as they plow their time, money and energies into an organic farm, where all the hard work of a modern farm is compounded by giving up many of the modern chemicals and conveniences of conventional farming. Organic farmers in rural America are forging strong bonds with organic consumers - many, in highly urbanized settings - in the rapid emergence of this vital new market that is benefiting family farms in Vermont and from coast to coast. -- U.S. Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), Vermonter, father of the national organic standards and labeling program, and member of the Senate Agriculture Committee. Given its unique and personal focus, this fascinating book will appeal to a wide audience, especially those considering organic farming. -- Library Journal . . . covers the hard reality and endless work as well as the simple pleasures of life on a farm. - -Times Record

Life on a farm is not always a field day - that's made strikingly clear in Nicola Smith's fascinating account of a young couple's experience tending a 20-acre plot in Royalton, Vermont. -- Organic Style Nicola Smith's lucid prose and Geoff Hansen's wonderful photographs have brought us not just a year in the life of an organic farm but a love story and an inspiring portrait of modern farm life. --Julia Alverez, author of How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents <br> Smith presents a true-life farm narrative to pain you and entertain you, but mostly to enlighten you. The youngish husband-wife Vermont farm team--idealistic, headstrong, haphazard, relentless--barter but don't borrow, quarrel, work their pants off, plan by impulse and make mistakes. They grow good food, and they make a good yarn, and Nicola Smith has gathered this harvest with rare skill. - - Ronald Jager, Author of Eighty Acres and The Fate of Family Farming <br> This remarkable account is unsentimental and realistic, and also profoundly moving; I know many people living this life, and every page in Nicola Smith's book rings true. Peel a local apple, cut a few slices of farmhouse cheese, and settle in with this adventure story. -- Bill McKibben, Author of The End of Nature, and of Wandering Home <br> Smith writes an intimate, unsentimental portrait of the couple's stresses...and it's this close-up view of the private, painful, and real negotiations necessary to keep the farm running that, along with Hansen's fine photographs, may resonate most strongly with readers. -- Booklist <br> Numerous vignettes, illustrated by Hansen's appealing pictures, pile up a wealth of detail about this small organic establishment, whichraises both livestock and produce. More than most writers on farming, Smith is attuned to the people who do it: Megeysi may be one of the most vividly drawn farm women since Letters of a Woman Homesteader -- Publisher's Weekly <br>

Life on a farm is not always a field day - that's made strikingly clear in Nicola Smith's fascinating account of a young couple's experience tending a 20-acre plot in Royalton, Vermont. -- Organic Style Nicola Smith's lucid prose and Geoff Hansen's wonderful photographs have brought us not just a year in the life of an organic farm but a love story and an inspiring portrait of modern farm life. --Julia Alverez, author of How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents<br><br> Smith presents a true-life farm narrative to pain you and entertain you, but mostly to enlighten you. The youngish husband-wife Vermont farm team--idealistic, headstrong, haphazard, relentless--barter but don't borrow, quarrel, work their pants off, plan by impulse and make mistakes. They grow good food, and they make a good yarn, and Nicola Smith has gathered this harvest with rare skill. - - Ronald Jager, Author of Eighty Acres and The Fate of Family Farming<br><br> This remarkable account is unsentimental and realistic, and also profoundly moving; I know many people living this life, and every page in Nicola Smith's book rings true. Peel a local apple, cut a few slices of farmhouse cheese, and settle in with this adventure story. -- Bill McKibben, Author of The End of Nature, and of Wandering Home<br><br> Smith writes an intimate, unsentimental portrait of the couple's stresses...and it's this close-up view of the private, painful, and real negotiations necessary to keep the farm running that, along with Hansen's fine photographs, may resonate most strongly with readers. -- Booklist <br><br> Numerous vignettes, illustrated by Hansen's appealing pictures, pile up a wealth of detail about this small organic establishment, which raises both livestock and produce. More than most writers on farming, Smith is attuned to the people who do it: Megeysi may be one of the most vividly drawn farm women since Letters of a Woman Homesteader -- Publisher's Weekly <br><br>

Author Information

NICOLA SMITH, a freelance writer, holds an MFA from Columbia University. GEOFF HANSEN is a photographer and editor at New Hampshire's ""Valley News"" and author of ""My Life As a Dog: The Many Moods of Lucy."" His work has appeared in ""Newsweek,"" ""USA Today,"" ""The New York Times,"" and"" The Boston Globe."" They live in Tunbridge, Vermont, with their daughter. You can learn more about the book at www.harvest-book.com.

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