Blithe Tomato

Mike Madison; Foreword by Deborah Madison; Drawings by Patrick McFarlin

An insider’s wry look at farmers’ market society

Across America, people are escaping fluorescent-lit grocery store aisles to rediscover the fresh, seasonal offerings of the farmers' market. A new and thriving culture has sprung up as thousands gather each weekend to pinch, poke, smell, and probe the produce—and at times each other.

Reviews

"Madison writes beautifully. He is a master of atmosphere, and creates imagery that the reader will want to linger over."—San Francisco Chronicle Book Review

"Mike Madison is a rare find: a person who possesses both the pragmatism required of a farmer and the keen eye for flawed human nature required of a humorist. [Blithe Tomato] is proof that it's an irresistible combination."—Saveur

"[Madison's] short, sharp pieces draw readers into psychological landscape of a small-scale farmer, but they also reflect his observations of his customers: the people who swoon at the scent of lilacs, a colorful character he calls the Old Basque, and a man with a faraway look and a jittery woman (who finally appear grounded after Mr. Madison notices them hand in hand)."—The New York Times

"With a Chekhovian eye for detail, Mike Madison has assembled a fascinating group portrait of the fellow growers—endangered individualists all, eccentrics, recluses, dreamers, anarchists—who work the land of his extended neighborhood. Madison makes us appreciate not only how much mankind's labors form landscape but also how much the land molds character—for better and worse."—Stanley Crawford, author of A Garlic Testament

"Mike Madison is one of us—farms with humility, a fool to work so hard, hands with calluses while scratching out a good life in the earth—all the while musing about life passing before our fields."—David Mas Masumoto, author of Epitaph for a Peach and Letters to the Valley

About the Author

Mike Madison lives with his wife, Dianne, in Winters, California, where they operate a small truck farm in the Sacramento Valley. His previous book, Walking the Flatlands, is available from Heyday Books.