Fields of Plenty
Fields of Plenty—a farmer's journey in search of real food and the people who grow it
Reviewed by Steven Hightower, Sonoma County Master Gardener
Michael Ableman, author, photographer, visionary organic farmer, winner of accolades and awards for his work, is a colossus of the sustainable organic agriculture movement. He originally made his name at the renowned organic farm Fairview Gardens near Santa Barbara, which he ran for many years, and where he waged and won a David & Goliath battle to save the farm by founding the Center for Urban Agriculture to purchase and preserve it from encroaching development.
Fields of Plenty, his latest book, chronicles a journey with his teenage son Aaron in a beat-up VW bus to innovative and iconic sustainable farms from Maine to Mexico. On this quixotic voyage of small, quality agricultural exploration, they encounter fields of intensely flavored poblano chilies that ascend out of the New Mexican sand, a melon grower who is "militant about flavor", an urban refuge of tomato plants on two chain-link fenced acres bordering a Chicago low-income housing project, sheep-milk cheese producers who have built their own mold-culturing caves, and many more passionate, committed organic farmers dedicated to the combination of sustainable, low-impact farming and deep, real flavor. Ableman is a gifted writer (and photographer) and the book is eminently readable, as well as beautifully illustrated—a winning amalgam of travelogue, cookery book and discourse on the new American agrarian movement.
Ableman,right,son Aaron,c in conversation with Mary Risley
While not a gardening book, Fields of Plenty will be of interest to any gardener engrossed with sustainable, local, quality agriculture. Ableman says: "People can make a very good living doing this work. It requires a different type of creativity, a different instinct than the current industrial model, and it requires a high level of artistry."
Michael and his wife Jeanne-Marie recently bought Foxglove Farm, an 118 acre piece of heaven nestled in the old growth madrone, douglas fir and red cedar next to the largest lake on, and halfway up the south peak of Salt Spring Island in the banana belt off Vancouver, BC. We visited last year with Tante Marie's cooking school owner Mary Risley, and stood among golden, waving knee-high grain-stalks at the top of a swath of meadow-grasses and wildflowers, under the brow of Mount Maxwell, the highest point on the island listening to Ableman describe how it will become a patchwork of organic produce plots—fruit trees and table grapes at the top, several parcels of alternative grains, like amaranth, kamut and millet in the middle, and rotating plots of seasonal vegetables down the gentle slope. As we as we stood transfixed in that glorious mountain meadow, he outlined their ambitious plans for an organic farm, conference center, and educational facility which will house interns, host conferences and festivals, and teach the precepts and concepts of modern organic sustainable farming, while simultaneously proving their feasibility and providing a living for his family. After such a tour, to read Fields of Plenty before a crackling fire that night in the farmhouse B&B owned and run by the author gave powerful significance to the book's message.
Other reviews:
"The chronicle of a farmer's journey to the frontiers of American agriculture today, Fields of Plenty is a book of rare beauty and hope. American agriculture is in the process of being reinvented by the farmers Michael Ableman introduces us to here, and to overhear these pioneers in conversation with one of their own is exhilarating."
- Michael Pollan, author of The Omnivore's Dilemma
"This is a timely and powerful portrait of the new agrarian movement that is sweeping this country. Michael Ableman's compelling stories and exquisite photographs tell a story that we too often forget; that the richness and beauty of our food is inextricably connected to a community of innovative and passionate farmers and to the land that they nurture."
- Alice Waters, Chez Panisse restaurant