Eat This Book

Jonah Raskin, an academic, former '60s radical, and biographer of people like Abbie Hoffman and Allen Ginsberg, spent a year on a farm in Sonoma. Why? Food is the new revolution, baby. No, seriously, food is the new revolution, battling the sins of corporate farms, fast food culture, and the unhealthy American alike. Plus, those guys doing the work? As close to a workable utopia as you can get (we recently dropped into Prager Winery & Port Works in St. Helena, and cried). For his part, Raskin spent a year at Oak Hill Farm, doing whatever he was asked, even following the food he grew to farmers' markets and restaurants. He also talked to everyone, from migrant workers (heavily underappreciated in organic food literature, until now) to locavore stars like Bob Cannard, the guy who keeps Chez Panisse in vegetables, and Craig Stoll, Delfina’s founder and chef. Then, he arranged it all into a book, Field Days: A Year of Farming, Eating, and Drinking Wine in California, which can carry you into the rest of your life. Just remember: It’s not a protest without Meyer lemons.
Thu., June 11, 7 p.m., 2009