BRIDGEWATER , Maine — Wood Prairie Farm, a small family farm in Bridgewater specializing in raising certified organic seed potatoes, is featured in a new book by novelist and nature writer Richard Horan.
“Richard is good friends with the proprietor of Standard Baking Co. in Portland, one of our family-scale wholesale accounts,” said Jim Gerritsen, who co-owns Wood Prairie Farm with his wife, Megan, “and Richard had expressed interest in covering Maine potatoes. One day we got a call from Richard and he explained that he was participating in a range of different harvests and he was writing a book about his experiences. We told him that we begin digging our potato crop in September once the schools close down for harvest break and that he should come on up.”
“Harvest: An Adventure into the Heart of America’s Family Farms,” has been released by HarperCollins. Horan devoted a chapter of the insightful and oftentimes humorous book to his experiences from having helped the Gerritsen family harvest their organic seed potatoes.
In “Harvest,” Horan discovers and shares the quintessential authentic dynamic behind the country’s growing family farm movement. Traveling from one end of America to the other, he writes and takes part in gritty harvests ranging from Maine potatoes to Kansas wheat, Michigan wild rice to Cape Cod cranberries and even California walnuts.
“‘Harvest’ stands as a tribute to the institution of the family farm, the place that offers not only the good life, but the promise of healing for wounded souls and a troubled world,” said Gerritsen. “He generates a convincing narrative that rebuilding a sane world begins with the family farm. Family farms have now found themselves a new capable advocate.”
“Harvest” is available for purchase online from Wood Prairie Farm, as well as other leading booksellers. For more information, log onto www.woodprairie.com.
