Harvest: a year in the life of an organic farm
by Nicola Smith,
with photographs by Geoff Hansen

Harvest is an improbable book. It's thick and heavy, weighted by the slick paper commonly used in coffee table photo books. About one-fourth of the 274 pages are full-page photographs, so most of the book is text. That's an unusual ratio for a slick photo book.

The topic is unlikely as well. The entire book focuses on a year of operations of the Fat Rooster Farm in South Royalton, Vermont, and the lives of the family that lives there: Jennifer Megyesi and Kyle Jones, and their four-year-old son Brad.

Fat Rooster is a small organic farm, surviving by selling vegetables, eggs, and meat raised carefully and methodically.

This book could have been a sentimental stroll through the farm's flower-filled meadows, but instead is a realistic, honest, and surprisingly intimate portrait of a well-educated and well-intentioned couple who chose this organic path for all the right reasons.

Life at the Fat Rooster is difficult. The stress associated with not enough money and too much work piles up as the year goes on. Their winter planning session finally devolves into a discussion of the d-word - divorce.

Throughout the book, Smith's prose draws the reader onward. Even more than the photos, the words tell the story of their difficult lives and difficult choices. This is a fascinating book for anyone who cares about organic agriculture, or really for anyone who eats."

Review by Bill London