Fruitful Labor

“Mike Madison writes from a place of knowing that one acquires only through lived experience. The deep ecology he prescribes, which ‘advocates the rights and values of all species regardless of their utility to human enterprises,’ should be the central principle of food and farming systems. Akin to the creature in the crystal river in Richard Bach’s book Illusions, Mike stopped clinging a long time ago and let the current take him to a higher plane of thought and deed. Proof of this is sprinkled throughout Fruitful Labor.
“This book is a must-read for those embarking on their journey into farming and for all others who are remotely connected to food and farming, which is all of us.”―Sridharan (Sri) Sethuratnam, director, California Farm Academy

“Fruitful Labor is both an encomium to self-reliance and a testament to the analgesic effects of organized surrender. One chapter beautifully describes self-sharpening shovels as they pass through sandy soil; the next serenely concedes an annual percentage of fig trees to ravenous gophers. Yes, crops must be planted, the seasons attended and money made. But these urgencies are only revealed by reading between the lines. Calm prevails―the sort of composure that’s cultivated through a lifetime devoted to a greater cause.”—Wall Street Journal

“Fruitful Labor is a delightful book, full of practical advice and deep thinking about ecology and true sustainability. I highly recommend it for anyone interested in food and farming, but especially for young farmers looking to build their skills while gaining wisdom from someone experienced and respected in the field.”―Ben Hartman, author of The Lean Farm and The Lean Farm Guide to Growing Vegetables

“A good farming book―a book about the work of farming―shows a kind of narrative reluctance, an unwillingness to tell stories as if the main thing that matters is the way they end. Think of it as a Jeffersonian indifference to profit or the bottom line―a nonnarrative approach. What matters instead is the quality of observation, the details. From these things a sense of character will emerge. This isn’t just a conceit on my part. There are good models for this kind of writing…. But perhaps the best example I’ve ever found is a new book by Mike Madison called Fruitful Labor: The Ecology, Economy, and Practice of a Family Farm.”—Verlyn Klinkenborg, The New York Review of Books

“Mike Madison offers new and aspiring farmers a book outside the usual vein of small farm narratives and how-to tomes. Discontented with both formulaic prescriptions for the idealized family farm and mega-data studies that sacrifice particularities for trends, Madison instead digs deep into the three decades of farming history on the California plot where he and his wife raise more than 200 plant varieties, ranging from vegetables to flowers to olives―and no sacred cows. Madison puts nothing other than nature itself on a pedestal, and he questions his every decision by way of an ecological mirror that reflects back on him without embellishment or distortion.
“He confesses that he is not enamored with the current celebrations of mission statements, goals, and strategies. Rather, he describes the evolution of his family farm as a timeline without a road map―decision points on a long chronology, all informed by unhurried observation. His story is one of searching out hard-won possibilities through perseverance more than strategy.
“New farmers would be wise to take a day and travel with Madison through the course of his thirty-plus years, learning what lenses to use in examining each ecological, economic, and community-minded decision that all farmers face.”―Philip Ackerman-Leist, professor of sustainable agriculture and food systems, Green Mountain College, and author of A Precautionary Tale