Heirloom: Notes from an Accidental Tomato Farmer
 | Average Customer Rating: Recommend Situated beautifully at the intersection of Michael Pollan, Ruth Reichl, and Barbara Kingsolver, Heirloom is an inspiring, elegiac, and gorgeously written memoir about rediscovering an older and still vital way of life.Fourteen years ago, Tim Stark was living in Brooklyn, working days as a management consultant, and writing unpublished short stories by night. One evening, chancing upon a Dumpster full of discarded lumber, he carried the lumber home and built a germination rack for… Product details and pricing info |
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10 Customer Reviews Posted
- Takes a pretty grim turn...
- Let me preface my review by saying that I only finished about 2/3 of this book (I'll get to that in a minute) so I'm basing my comments on that part. I agree with pieces of the other reviews. I found this book to be entertaining at times but certainly a bit meandering and repetitive in others. But still I was finding it to be an enjoyable memoir overall until part way through I came to the chapter on groundhogs. Up until this point I had found the author to be humorous and likable. Then I get to the part where Tim catches a rogue groundhog in a Havahart trap and then THROWS THE TRAP IN THE POND and lets the groundhog drown. As an animal lover I found this to be really upsetting and any affection I had for the author totally disappeared. I tried half-heartedly to finish the book but just couldn't bring myself to do it. So.... I guess I would say that if you can manage to get past the wanton animal cruelty you might find this an enjoyable read. As for me, I really couldn't.
- 2008-12-26, 0 of 3 people found this review helpful, Rated:
- Worthwhile and surprising read
- This is a memoir by a man who quit a lucrative career in business to grow heirloom tomatoes and other gourmet produce on his own farm in Pennsylvania.
This was a fun read. I liked learning about the trials and tribulations of trying to grow produce without any use of pesticides. Tim and his friends more or less had to do everything by hand, including picking off all the bugs and toiling frantically into the night to pick the tomatoes as they ripened and roar off off to New York City with them to sell them at their peak. It was also very interesting to learn how the author's perfectionism and Type A personality followed him from consulting to the tomato business.
The author is funny and interesting. I did wish he'd given some insight into why he changed careers and what he really thought about it now, when it's obvious he didn't actually escape his problems. This book is worth reading whether you're interested in tomatoes or you need an antidote to escape fantasies about alternative careers!
Reviewer: Elizabeth Clare, co-author of the historical novel "To the Ends of the Earth: The Last Journey of Lewis & Clark" - 2008-12-16, 0 of 0 people found this review helpful, Rated:
- Exploits of crazy, for gardeners/foodies who need to know
- Heirloom is perhaps best served in the hands of obsessed foodies who crave behind-the-scenes tours of small organic farms, beyond what Food & Wine magazine teases. For gardeners, Heirloom is welcome and amusing company of crazy.
Without pretense or rehearsed narrative, Stark recounts his humble initiations into organic farming (and supplying top chefs in NYC), knowing very little about it, other than what his obsessions demand. His misadventures amuse. It's not perfect writing, yet it is exactly those imperfections that endear this find.
Detours from the narrative will surprise and delight. Unexpected passages include how Mennonite neighbors coach Stark in farming, auction etiquette and small engine repair. (The last paragraph in that chapter is especially moving.) And vignettes give depth and color to an unlikely cast of characters who help Stark plant, pick, sell and save his crops. Best of all, Stark unearths a family history that gives context and perhaps motivation to his madness. While it is all true, it reads like fiction, a story that you'll surely recommend and remember.
A fantastic late-summer read and welcome winter remedy for gardening/foody obsessives that crave the first signs of Spring. - 2008-09-30, 2 of 2 people found this review helpful, Rated:
- A Good Read
- I enjoyed this book. It's a quick read, well-written, very personal. If you're interested in knowing more about the reasons a person might become an heirloom tomato farmer when the economic indicators for such a major life change are all negative, read this book. The perils of small-farming are apparent, but somehow, so are the joys. I read the book on a day when I should have been working my own tomatoes, but we've had a rough year and I needed a break. This was it, so I have to say "Thank you Tim!"
- 2008-09-28, 3 of 3 people found this review helpful, Rated:
- Requirement: be a Foodie....
- Chances are, you'll find this book a disappointment if you're not a Foodie. I'm borderline, so the book had it's moments for me. It's fairly repetitive, as if the author wrote chapters independent of each other without making any references back to previous writings. If you live in the NY Metro area (which I do), you'll have a deeper appreciation for the locales and events. You can only mention the Newtown Pippin apple so many times.....
- 2008-09-18, 1 of 2 people found this review helpful, Rated:
