Organic Passion Portraits

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In Author Michael Ableman's Fields of Plenty, Farming Is a Labor of Love

Writer and photographer Michael Ableman knows a thing or two about farmers. He's been one for some 30 years. For his latest book, Fields of Plenty (Chronicle Books, 2005), he took a summer off from farm chores and circled the United States in a beat-up VW with his son, Aaron. The two of them visited dozensof farms and discovered an abundance of local farmers growing sustainable crops with an astounding variety of methods. If American agriculture is sick -- from poisonous inputs, monoculture methods, and overproduction -- these folks have the remedy: local production by men and women who know and love the land. You can meet some of them on the following pages, and more of them in Ableman's book (www.fieldsofplenty.com). -- The Editors

Mary and David Falk
Wisconsin

Like many of the farmers we visit, Mary Falk has already apologized in advance, telling me over the phone that they've run out of time to do any mowing around the buildings and that we should have seen the place in June. In a note sent prior to our journey, she had written, somewhat officially, "In order for you to feel comfortable here, you will need to be able to tolerate: lots of testosterone (I am the only female besides the dogs and the sheep), dogs and sheep, llama, the smell of mold in a cheese cave, the smell of mold in a wet basement, the smell of a farm, popcorn, cheese, eating late at night, puppies, a cat, a few birds."

When we finally pull up to the farm, all the warnings seem to be accurate, but the sum total is pleasant and welcoming, and we're immediately charmed by Mary's openness about the life she and David have built here over the last eight years.

Ask anyone around here what to farm and they're likely to tell you corn or milk cows. No one would ever suggest sheep, and if they did, it certainly would not be for milk or cheese. So, when Mary and David launched their sheep-dairy operation, their families and neighbors thought they'd lost their minds.

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