Sunday, October 14, 2012

Just Jennifer

Harvest: an Adventure into the Heart of America's Family Farm by Richard Horan (William Morrow, September 2012)

The author of Seeds, a book that traced Horan’s quest to collect and plant the seeds of trees found at famous authors’ homes, visits ten America farms in an attempt to explore modern farming.  Horan assists in the harvest of many varied crops from wheat in Kansas to potatoes in Main, cranberries in Massachusetts, blueberries in New York and California grapes.  He describes each farm in great detail along with the uniqueness of the harvest of the varied crops, both of which are very interesting and will give pause to the next grape popped into your mouth or that quivering mass of ruby cranberries on the table this November.  Horan seems to have a love of detail and is a skilled observer wishing to impart every little detail he learned to the reader.  Horan’s opinions on immigrant field workers and possible prisoner rehabilitation as field hands are very strongly set forth and may be off-putting enough as to mar the enjoyment of the rest of the book.  

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