Harvest: A Year in the Life of an Organic Farm

It was a dream of Jennifer Megyesi's to run a farm, and when she and husband, Kyle Jones, founded Fat Rooster Farm, it became a dream come true. By tapping into the public's desire for organic and artisanal food--and with lucky breaks, such as selling their milk-fed pigs to celebrated chefs like Mario Batali--they are finding some success.

The farm embodies both the newer and more traditional faces of farming. Megyesi and Jones are in their early forties, college educated with advanced degrees, well traveled, influenced by the environmental and social movements of the 1960s and '70s, and savvy in their use of marketing and Internet skills. But in the scale and management of their operation, they revert to an older, more pastoral ideal: sheep out at pasture, chickens that roam free, cows trailed by their calves, hand-gathered honey and maple syrup, their four-year-old son helping with the chores. They're big enough to grow and sell their own meats, eggs, and vegetables at a modest profit, and small enough to have strong ties to the community. It's a life worth living--and learning about.

GEOFF HANSEN is a photographer and editor at New Hampshire's Valley News and author of My Life As a Dog: The Many Moods of Lucy. His work has appeared in Newsweek, USA Today, The New York Times, and The Boston Globe. They live in Tunbridge, Vermont, with their daughter. You can learn more about the book at www.harvest-book.com.