Heirloom: Notes from an Accidental Tomato Farmer by Tim Stark

Heirloom: Notes from an Accidental Tomato Farmer Reviews

• 
  David MacTavish

  Tim Stark is a wannabe writer, who ends up growing tomatoes when a career as a writer just isn't happening. Success at growing tomatoes, and the popularity of the heirloom movement puts Stark in the perfect position to tell us an insiders view of growing and selling heirlooms at farmers markets in NYC. And what do you know, he becomes an author as well. While the book is okay, I think he's probably better at selling heirloom tomatoes than he is at writing. Sure, there are some interesting stories and characters to discover in his book, but it just isn't engaging, you want to be reading a Cherokee Purple, but it tastes more like a Florida fast food slicing tomato. He never goes into the financial details very much, I wouldnt want all my customers knowing how much money I make selling tomatoes either, but it's a must have flavor that's missing from his story.
• 
  LeAnn

  I was interested to read this book after I heard about Mr. Stark on NPR. It was an easy read that I mostly enjoyed, but he goes into long stories about other farmers and how they came to be, which wasn't that engaging to me. I would often skip several pages to get back to the story of Mr. Stark and his farm. Also, if you are like me and don't know much about the culinary scene in New York City, it can get dry during those stories as well.
• 
  Jennifer Miera

  I skipped around reading bits and pieces. And though I liked how Stark became a farmer in a rather haphazard fashion, I couldn't stomach parts - like where he needlessly drowns a groundhog after catching it in a humane trap. Put the book down after that one. I know farm life can be harsh, but I guess I've maxed out on reading books on city slicker turned farmer...for now.
• 
  Michelle

  I heard a review of this book on NPR and, as someone who has sometimes daydreamed about becoming something like an "accidental tomato farmer" myself, decided it would be a good book for me to read. It had its moments, but overall was pretty disappointing.
• 
  Jen

  I fell for the pretty cover, but the book itself was uninteresting and did not have a cohesive story.
• 
  Sue

  Best thing I can say about this book is that the cover is lovely.
• 
  Rogue Reader

  Start at the cover and gaze with wonder at the perfect globes of fruit, in all colors of the natural world. Stark's work to reinvent heritage seed is incredible especially as he had no idea what he was doing at first. And then to build relationships with Manhattan chefs and other growers to create a larger heritage agriculture community is amazing. He works so so hard. Wish I could taste his tomatoes.
• 
  Erika

  my friend tim wrote this book...its amazing! if you've ever visited me, or even not, you've heard me talk about his tomatoes...its not just about farming, this is an amazing book.
• 
  Ashley

  Alright. Quick read.
• 
  Sherry

  I'm conflicted about this book. Yeah, sure, parts of it are luscious. Other parts--most it--not so much. This is supposed to be a memoir about how Tim Stark came into heirloom tomato farming after living in NYC as a writer / management consultant. However, most of the essays include convoluted details that have very little to do with his journey as a reluctant farmer. For example, if you want a short history about the schism between Mennonite and the Amish? Well then, read this book. It's supposed to be a memoir, but really, it reads like a collection of loosely related essays. In fact, I wonder if he shared these essays in other publications first and then retrofitted them to be memoir-esque, including name dropping high profile chefs and fancy restaurants in the last essay to increase his word count. I skimmed huge swaths of this book just to plow through the details (yes, pun intended here). In the end, the book ended on such a vague, dour note that it left me feeling feckless.
• 
  Jennifer Rilstone

  I read this book for obvious reasons--obvious to anyone who knows me between the months of March and October. The writing is not great, and I struggled to stay engaged. This is a shame, because he's giving invaluable insight into one of my passions. I can only say that his casual mentions of Taxi ripening earlier than expected, or that amazing Striped German that thrilled me through 2016 like no fruit ever has, made me feel a little less alone in this vast world of people who think tomatoes are red.
• 
  Lindsey

  I’m not sure how Tim Stark did all of the hard work of tomato farming and still managed to sound like and utter East coast snob, name dropping and waxing endlessly about really uninteresting trips into New York City. I suppose I was expecting all the time spent with Amish and Mennonite families to humble him a bit. In fact the only parts of the book that I enjoyed were when he detailed the farm and the time spent in the Amish/Mennonite community. So meh, some was good. But a good deal was written for an audience that was not Midwestern farm country America.
• 
  Blythe

  I did not finish the book. This is almost unheard of for me to not stick with a book. Not sure what went wrong because it had all the signs of a book I would like; food, cultural and family history, a small business makes good plot. But I never felt pulled in or engaged. Finally I put it down and just stopped.
• 
  Colleen

  Like any book of essays, some of these are strong and more interesting than others. Personally, I could have done without the essays on groundhogs but generally enjoyed hearing about the market & runs into the city and the fields, themselves.
• 
  Christy Laub

  Amiable, enjoyable because it is set near where I live, but descends into rambling by the end, possibly because it's a collection of essays ad not a cohesive book.
• 
  Lanette

  This was not my favorite. I was hoping for more information about the tomatoes themselves. What I got was disjointed stories and a lot that had nothing to do with tomatoes.
• 
  Betty Loven

  3.5, Tim is a bit all over the place but that's what makes it appealing. Just a scattered tomato farmer doing his best and I love that.
• 
  J.

  Tim Stark is living my dream. For the last year, my husband and I have been throwing around the idea of getting a little farm- blueberries though because as much as I love, love, love tomatoes, my last few years of attempts have resulted in either A. Lots of green unripe tomatoes on frostbitten vines, or B. One nice tomato per vine that my baby picks and eats. Tim's success with tomatoes had me wishing I could be"the neighbor" (the real one hates the tomatoes and their messy, disorganized fields.)
  
  I loved reading about the restaurants he provides tomatoes for and the mouth watering creations they serve. He makes having a twenty hour work day worth while if it means feasting on delicious fresh and unique meals through out the delivery route.
  
  I was in sympathy with his dilemma about the groundhog- I always was one to live with a little less production from my garden in exchange for wildlife in my yard. That is, until this spring when a bunch of squirrel hoodlum punks decided to eat the tips of every single bean, pea and sunflower seedling and then uproot the rest of my seedlings in search for seeds I might have hidden from them. And then chewed on every single piece of my brand new five piece wood patio set. I asked my husband to go buy a gun but then found out we actually have a squirrel hunting season where we live and it's not until the winter.
  
  Again his comments about organic farming, the ups and downs, struck a chord. I want my yard to be pesticide free but what do I do about the fire ants that take over, driving out native species of ants and then bite my children when they go out to play.
  
  Overall I actually learned a lot about growing tomatoes and small scale farming. Tim's story added a dose of reality to my dreams of owning a farm some day but didn't turn me off of the idea. In fact it makes me feel confident that I too could turn my dream into a reality.
• 
  Christina

  I liked Heirloom a lot because I buy 95 percent organic food so I'm impressed with the dedication and hard work it takes to bring produce to a Greenmarket.
  
  Along with Heirloom, I recommend It's a Long Road to a Tomato by Keith Stewart: also a veteran of the Union Square Greenmarket.
  
  The book I'm set to read now is From Farm to Fork by Emeril Lagasse.
  
  I wholeheartedly embrace the locavore's eating plan and I also embrace buying any kind of organic food even it's not always locally grown.
  
  You have to admire a guy who goes from growing tomatoes from his apartment in Brooklyn to setting off for a farm and making it work.
  
  Tim Stark's labor of love and for money and his memoir Heirloom are as rich as the soil, as evergreen as the seasons.
  
  What's not to love about a tale of hard work and devotion to a healthful lifestyle?
  
  Heirloom planted in me the seed to buy organic food. The book deserves an attentive read.
• 
  Kat

  Some of the essays were definitely better than others, and overall, it was an easy, enjoyable read. I liked the author's voice, though I would lose interest when he would talk about his youth/the farmer who tended his land when he was a child, as I wanted to read about HIS tomato farm, not history from 50+ years ago (even though he grew up in my area of PA!).
  
  I loved reading the stories of his farm, all of the insanity that they went through especially in the early years, and all of the history of the farmer's markets in NYC. I also liked the addition of some NYC culinary history; I think it's awesome that his tiny farm because so well loved by chefs whose food I'm dying to try!
  
  Read this book if you are interested in some of the ins and outs of organic farming, the Greenmarkets, and the higher-end NYC culinary scene.
• 
  Kate

  This book stirs my famished peasant heart!
  
  
  "When the sun is burning holes through the afternoon, the tomato plants soak up light until they are limp with molten exhaustion. At night, all that suffering transfers to the fruit, turning the tomatoes every shade of the sun- off-white, pale yellow, dusky purple, blazing orange red. Come morning all those colors are hanging from the plants like gifts from some summertime Santa. By midday, the brightness and the weight of all the humidity leave you standing there, shadowless, the bare fact of yourself. You can either leave the field, as most would, or you can join the activity orbiting the two sources of magnetism: the tomatoes, softening as fast as you can pick them, and the jubilant sun.I am always amazed at how the crew will stay out there until the last of the fruit is picked." -Tim Stark
• 
  Sarah

  Tim Stark is a crazy person, I think. But he has a beautiful writing style, and I have nothing but respect for the type of passionate madness that makes someone scratch out a living growing amazing tomatoes. The book is both touching and humorous.
  
  Stark seems to choose his words with the same kind of intuition that lets him pick a ripe tomato at its ideal moment. His writing has a rich fullness that had me reading some passages out loud to myself in appreciation. This book will make you salivate if you have even the slightest appreciation for a really beautiful fresh fruit or vegetable. It reads a bit more like a collection of essays than a book written in one chunk, and a couple of the sections have appeared in other venues, but everything flows very nicely without necessarily being chronological or carefully segued.
• 
  Mbarkle

  This book is a series of essays mostly about tomato farming. I lost interest at the point he discusses the Amish/Mennonite version of baseball (the farm is in Pennsylvania Dutch country). It includes an essay published in Gourmet magazine about a woodchuck that keeps raiding his garden, which apparently caused some controversy. I had to laugh because my grandmother made my Dad shoot anything that threatened her garden, including beavers, possums, and snakes.
  
  The author supplies very fancy restaurants in NYC and the stories about the chefs and their vegetable requirements were interesting.
  
  I also recently bought Amy Goldman's Heirloom Tomato book, which was more what I was looking for. It includes photos of all the varieties, info on growing habits and history.
• 
  Laura

  I found this generally interesting, though I think the author is better suited to being a farmer than a writer. Not that he's a terrible writer, just not the best, in my opinion. Being passingly familiar with some of the chefs he mentions, I was suitaby impressed, though a little put off by the name dropping. I found his adventures within his own farm more interesting than his bragging about the chefs who rely on him for produce. Some of the back history was a little dry to me, but I can see it being appleaing with those who have a general interest in history. It did make me very interested in exploring seed catalogs when we eventually find a place to live with enough room for a garden. I'd love to try an orange eggplant.
• 
  BookBec

  I wanted the subtitle to be "The Story of an Accidental Tomato Farmer," with a greater focus on Tim Stark and his farming journey, but it was actually "Notes from an Accidental Tomato Farmer," which was more accurate. The first couple of chapters are strongly connected, but succeeding chapters meander all over. This is a book of essays on a range of subjects that tie in to Tim's farming on some level. When the last chapter became Tim's homage to other NYC Greenmarket farmers, he really lost my interest way out in the Pacific Northwest. Maybe his farmer friends were thrilled to be complimented in print, but it wasn't very useful info for a wide reading audience. Overall, there are some interesting stories -- just be ready for the essay format, not one cohesive tale.
• 
  Lisa

  I've always loved eating tomatoes, and reading this book brought back to me memories of picking tomatoes at the Ben Shemen Youth Village near Lod, Israel, too. Reading this book at the height of tomato season gave me new appreciation for this fruit and piqued my curiosity, too. Who knew that there were over 100 varieties of heirloom tomatoes?! Read this book if you: (a) love tomatoes, (b) have ever eaten in a NYC restaurant or any restaurant that emphasizes local food, (c) if you're in the mood to broaden your horizons on how our food is produced. Warning--you will probably develop an uncontrollable urge for eating heirloom tomatoes after reading this book!
• 
  Desiree

  This was great! Not just another book about getting back to the land, but a fantastic family story with history woven in, including a detailed examination of the historic origins of religious sects in the PA area ("what is the difference between Amish and Mennonites?" explained!) Enjoyable, informative and important reading for anyone interested in sustainability, locavorism, or, you know, the future of us and the planet. Also superbly-written; Stark refers to himself as a writer/farmer and then suggests farmer/writer might be more appropriate, but he is skilled in the craft of storytelling, for sure.