It’s a Long Road to a Tomato by Keith Stewart, with illustrations by Flavia Bacarella, 2006, Marlowe and Company, $16.95. Available at bookstores or online booksellers.

Keith Stewart is a well-
known member of the market farming profession. Since he left a corporate job in New York City to start an organic farm in 1986, Stewart has stood as a model of what’s possible in this business. His stand at the Union Square Greenmarket grows in popularity each year, his vegetables are featured on some of the best menus in the city, and he has trained scores of apprentices on his farm in Orange County, New York. He has appeared on numerous TV and radio shows and been featured in many publications including Gourmet and The New York Times. For more than seven years, he has written regularly for The Valley Table, a magazine devoted to regional foods in the Hudson Valley of New York.
Now his essays on organic farming are collected into a new book with the big title It’s a Long Road to a Tomato: Tales of an Organic Farmer Who Quit the Big City for the (Not So) Simple Life. Drawn together, these essays create a holistic picture of life on a small farm, a picture that is at once gritty and romantic. For the farmer, these essays are full of practical, helpful details (such as the essay on garlic excerpted here). For the chef and consumer, they are a window into the beauty of the farming life. Stewart writes about growing herbs, tomatoes, mesclun; he writes about farm economics and GMOs, about farm chickens and dogs, about his customers at market and the young people who work on his farm each summer.
Every chapter presents a slice of life that is likely to ring true for Growing for Market readers. Stewart’s writing is wonderful—clear and unpretentious while capturing the essence of his life as a farmer.
Stewart’s explanation of why he left his city job to start a farm is particularly well spoken. “I had little affection for the work I was doing and seldom experienced any feelings of pride or fulfilment,” he writes.But after becoming a farmer, his health and outlook on life improved greatly. “My life now is more full, more varied, and more interesting. Often it is more demanding and exhausting, but it is always more real. I’ve never for one moment thought of going back to the old days.”
The book is illustrated by Flavia Bacarella, Stewart’s wife, a well-regarded artist who teaches painting and drawing at Lehman College of the City University in New York.
With this lovely book, Keith Stewart does the profession proud.