Book Report: Field Days

Some weeks back Will lent me Jonah Raskin’s Field Days: A Year of Farming, Eating, and Drinking Wine in California, and told me to read it to get some background on the vineyard and his family.

Now I can see why.

Though he can go on for days on anything to do with farming, Will’s usually laconic when talking about himself. The book, written after Raskin spent a year getting to know the family and the farm, as well as other family farms in California, is a thoughtful memoir/history of the organic farming movement including the great story of Otto and Anne Teller. By interviewing the family, researching local history, and living and working on Oak Hill Farm he learns to “eat with your heart” in the birthplace of slow food in California. Inspired by the book, check out the delicious corn patch I spotted at Old Hill recently. Is this not the picture of summer and mindful eating? I would not mind eating a fresh cob with my heart. Not at all.