Product Description

A writer and photographer's adventures through small-farm California

Writer William Emery and photographer Scott Squire embarked on an adventure through California's Central Valley in search of a different way of life. They sought the secrets of people engaged in the production of their own food and drink.

What is life like for small-time farmers? Can they make a living off of what they produce? Do they enjoy what they do? And most importantly, does their food taste any better than what we find in supermarkets?

What Emery and Squire discovered was revelatory. In the pages of Edges of Bounty they sample produce that is nothing short of divine. They encounter melons so swollen that they burst open with one knife cut.

They are introduced to the sour flavor of cactus pads and the healing bitterness of Mien bitter balls. Emery catches his first fish in twenty years.

The beekeepers, cheese makers, butchers, fishermen, dairymen, fruit farmers, and other edibilists--the word Emery coins to describe them--who invited them into their homes take pride in their expertise and in nurturing what farmer Mike Madison at one point calls guerilla agriculture.

Thoughtful, quirky, and brimming with the color and anthopological depth of Squire's photography, Edges of Bounty delights us with a back-to-land narrative as fresh and tangy as homemade goat cheese.

Emery and Squire come away from the edible valley not just with bushels of produce but with faith in endeavors that are small and local and close to our hearts.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1179374 in Books
• Published on: 2008-11-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 224 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9781597141086
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

From Publishers Weekly
Upon his first taste of an exotic melon ("the flavor was a cathedral and liqueur") from a small farm in California's Great Central Valley, writer Emery came to an epiphany: "we do not eat real food." Inspired, he set out with documentary photographer Squire to uncover the hidden agricultural life of the Great Central (the combined Sacramento and San Joaquin Valleys), including biodynamic farmers, beekeepers, self-described "bubbas" and other characters keeping tradition and hard work alive in the face of encroaching factory farming and ever-rising demand for convenience and low prices. Stories of an abandoned roadside kiwi stand, a farmer's devotion to her goats and Portugese festas pack plenty of drama; unfortunately, Emery's text is tragically overwritten and saddled with a tiresome, know-it-all sense of false modesty: "My purpose in these travels is not, however, to be content. I'm looking for an aggregate of knowledge that I might carry with me into another life." Squire's crisp, brilliant photos do a far better job providing a sense of place and time, with insider views of community dinners, life on the farm and profile subjects. Those interested in California farming folklore, "slow food" and similar agricultural movements will find this handsome book illuminating, if overwrought. 90 color photos.
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About the Author
William Emery grew up on a small farm in the Smoky Hills of Kansas. He focused on Russian literature and religious studies at the University of Kansas and is a former editor at Heyday Books. He splits his time between the San Francisco Bay Area and Kansas. He is currently working on a novel, a collection of prose poetry, and a children's book.

Scott Squire is a documentary photographer working at the intersection of journalism, anthropology, and fine art. A fourth-generation son of the Pacific Northwest, Squire was educated at the University of Washington (anthropology) and the University of California, Berkeley (visual journalism). He is a principal at NonFiction Media, a social justice oriented multimedia production company based in Seattle.

Customer Reviews

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I was born and raised by a farmer of the central valley and grew up in the beautiful land. I wish I still lived there.

I was glad to see this book cover the farming and social aspect of farming, the food and how it gets from these hard-working americans to mouths all over the world.

The photos are amazing and the commentary is well-written and thoughtful. The only complaint that I have is I wish there was more about the San Joaquin valley (Lower half of the central valley), but that is just personal bias to my homeland speaking.

The agricultural community of California is one of the most important in food production in the entire world and if you are a fan of photo books of California, or just interested in the area, I recommend this book. It is a different perspective that has not been talked about quite enough.

I love it.

A fine survey of local food and those who farm, fish, hunt and change it
EDGES OF BOUNTY: ADVENTURES IN THE EDIBLE VALLEY comes from photographer Scott Squire and writer William Emery's journey through the back roads of California's Central Valley in search of those producing their own food. From a jam maker advocating 'nonviolent agriculture' to roadside medicine stands, this is a fine survey of local food and those who farm, fish, hunt and change it.

A visitors view of the great central valley of california.
This book, while trying so very hard to present a vignette of California's agricultural heartland, never loses that presumptive and smug sense of self that it would need to transport readers beyond the narrow mindset of the elite and exclusive... who all too-often swaddle themselves in designer-brand wrappings of the proletariat

Being born and bred in the Great Central Valley of California, I confess a distinct affinity for the places and people who make it their home... people who share a unique rural culture, a culture diverse and robust, which no visitor can ever hope to more than taste. The presumptive nature of the writing leads me to believe the author never really "gets" it. Through a lens so narrow and obstructed, the author has missed a forest for a single tree.

I wish this book had accomplished more depth and breadth into a true understanding of agriculture in California, rather than a heavy-handed "Organic MegaMarket end-cap of free sausage sample" version it portrays.