Organic: Farmers and Chefs of the Hudson Valley - Hardcover

Mastalia, Francesco

4.6

5 ratings by Goodreads

9781576877104: Organic: Farmers and Chefs of the Hudson Valley

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1576877108 ISBN 13: 9781576877104

Publisher: powerHouse Books, 2014

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The Hudson Valley, New York has become an epicenter for the local, organic, sustainable food movement. With its rich agricultural land, the awareness for sustainable living, and the growing demand for local, organic food, the farm-to-table, locavore movement has become a way of life in the Hudson Valley. Organic spotlights the Hudson Valley as a region at the forefront of this movement and features the portraits and words of the dedicated farmers who are committed to growing and producing food using sustainable methods, and the chefs who echo their beliefs and pay homage to the food they produce, including such notables as:

* Amy Hepworth of Hepworth Farms, works on a 7th-generation, family-owned farm
* Dan Barber, chef and co-owner of Blue Hill at Stone Barns was named one of the world's most influential people in 2009 in Time's annual "Time 100"
* Zakary Pelaccio, owner of Fish & Game, is famous for building Brooklyn's first gastropub and pioneering NYC's nose-to-tail culinary movement
* Ken Greene at the Hudson Valley Seed Library provides many local producers with heirloom and open-pollinated garden seeds and protects 15,000 years of agricultural history!
* Steffen Schneider at the 400-acre biodynamic Hawthorne Valley Farm has helped educate over 13,000 kids since 1972 as part of the farm's Visiting Students Program

The over 100 portraits of the farmers and chefs of the Hudson Valley were photographed using the wet-plate collodion process, a technique developed in the 1850s when the art of photography was in its infancy. With the use of large wooden cameras and brass lenses, glass plates are hand coated to produce one-of-a-kind ambrotype images. The amber toned images remind us of a time when the cultivation of land was a manual process that linked the farmer directly to the soil. "Organic" is one of the most misunderstood and often misused words describing food today. In narrating their own stories, the farmers and chefs share their philosophy about what it means to grow and live organically and sustainably.

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About the Author:

Francesco Mastalia has traveled the world, photographing tribal, religious, spiritual, and indigenous peoples. His book Dreads, published by Workman Artisan, is a photo documentary on the history of dreadlocks. The book is now in its seventh printing, sold worldwide, and includes an introduction by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Alice Walker.

Joan Dye Gussow, PhD, is known as the matriarch of the organic, locavore, small-farm movement. She is a mentor to today's leading food activists. She has wielded considerable influence in academia (as a nutrition and education professor at Columbia University), in government (as a member of the National Organics Standards Board), and in the advocacy world (serving on the Center for Food Safety's Advisory Board). She has written extensively, including, most recently, Growing Older: A Chronicle of Death, Life, and Growing Vegetables (Chelsea Green, 2010). She makes her home in the Hudson Valley.

Review:

" . . . for anyone who likes their locally-grown, pesticide-free carrots with a dusting of nostalgia, Organic is tasty indeed.
- TIME.com

"The very intimate portraits of the farmers and chefs of this beautiful and intensely personal bookreach out from the page as you gaze into their souls, looking for a place at the table."
- Examiner.com

"Organic: Farmers and Chefs of the Hudson Valley is a gorgeous tome (no doubt intended for your coffee table) that has no recipes, just stunning full-page photographs by Francesco Mastalia of the new rock stars: farmers."
- GOOD

"Francesco Mastalia's ambrotypes are among the finest being made in the world today."
- Sublime Magazine

"Part work of art, part tribute to farmers who love the earth they work, this new book deserves to be out where people can see it."
- Mothernaturework.com

"It’s a perfect marriage of process and subject, both using hands-on techniques to produce remarkable results. The amber toned images reflect that the cultivation of land was a manual process that linked the farmer directly to the soil.”
- Lenscratch

"What we love about the book is that you look through all of the beautiful portraits, you see a real patchwork of people from all different walks of life."
- Beekman 1802 Boys (on Cooking Channel)

"We hope you enjoy reading and admiring the beautiful photographs that Francesco's journey took him on."
- Organic Hudson Valley

"The result is less a last word on the term 'organic' and more of an elegant and provocative meditation on our connection to the land, our food, and our community."
- Edible Hudson Valley

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