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laurieb755 's review for:
Keith is the proprietor of Keith's Farm in Orange County, NY. He is also from New Zealand, married to Flavia, and an early vendor at the Union Square Market in NYC. He "quit" the city life and his desk job back in the 1980s for a chance to stake out a life in farming. Flavia, his wife and book illustrator, struck my fancy purely for her Italian name – as in Flavia diStefano Iain Pears heroine in his Art History mysteries.
Somewhere along the line Keith turned his farmers eye to writing essays and vignettes about farm life. He paints what I feel is an honest set of portraits about tilling the land, becoming part of the farming community, and making it all work. He is a proud organize farmer, with a tough love approach. Every since 1989 he has taken in teens and twenties to intern for the farming season of 7 to 9 months. They are his only help – he trains them each year, and they provide labor in exchange for room, board and moderate wages.
He writes about his dogs, especially his old friend Kuri, who came to stay as a stray and remained for 18 years until his death. He writes a bit – a little bit – about some of his neighbors, and relays the sad story of a milk farmer who died due to a freak accident at the young age of 46, while clearing fallen trees from his land. It's clear Keith loves what he does.
Yet, to my ear, there's definitely a bit of the taskmaster in him, at times not very compassionate sounding. I guess, though that these certain qualities stand hi in good stead as an organic farmer trying to make it in these days of big agribusiness. And we are certainly grateful that he and farmers like him are willing to practice sustainable organic farming and share their produce with us all.
Somewhere along the line Keith turned his farmers eye to writing essays and vignettes about farm life. He paints what I feel is an honest set of portraits about tilling the land, becoming part of the farming community, and making it all work. He is a proud organize farmer, with a tough love approach. Every since 1989 he has taken in teens and twenties to intern for the farming season of 7 to 9 months. They are his only help – he trains them each year, and they provide labor in exchange for room, board and moderate wages.
He writes about his dogs, especially his old friend Kuri, who came to stay as a stray and remained for 18 years until his death. He writes a bit – a little bit – about some of his neighbors, and relays the sad story of a milk farmer who died due to a freak accident at the young age of 46, while clearing fallen trees from his land. It's clear Keith loves what he does.
Yet, to my ear, there's definitely a bit of the taskmaster in him, at times not very compassionate sounding. I guess, though that these certain qualities stand hi in good stead as an organic farmer trying to make it in these days of big agribusiness. And we are certainly grateful that he and farmers like him are willing to practice sustainable organic farming and share their produce with us all.