For Immediate Release            Press Contact: Vincent Smith
September 26, 2005                       805-967-7369


Local Farm and Education Center Celebrates Fall Harvest and New Book with Community Festival    

In the face of a fast-food nation, a growing community of farmers and food artisans are producing sustainable nourishment that is respectful to the land and rich in heritage, flavor and commitment. Come join Michael Ableman and the board and staff at the Center For Urban Agriculture at Fairview Gardens to honor these individuals and to celebrate local food and the land.

The October 9th event will launch Ableman's new book, Fields of Plenty: A Farmer's Journey In Search of Real Food And The People Who Grow It. Renowned chef and friend of the farm Alice Waters of Chez Panisse restaurant called Ableman's new book “a timely and powerful portrait of the new agrarian movement that is sweeping this country.” Author of the bestselling Botany Of Desire, Michael Pollan describes it as “a book of rare beauty and hope.” Kirkus Reviews called it “an engaging hybrid of travelogue, cookbook and discourse on the new American agrarian movement with prose as ripe as the summer tomatoes he describes.”

The Center will celebrate the fall harvest and book release on Sunday, October 9th.  The festival will feature live music, a reading and signing from the new book, a children's festival, farm tours, tasting, and a traditional Mexican feast.  Music will be provided by Anthony Blea Y Su Charanga, a renowned San Francisco-based band combining the traditional Cuban charanga (violin and flute) with a driving horn section.  Local organizations will take part in the festival with information tables and demonstrations.  Food artisans will prepare tamales, rice, beans and handmade tortillas over an open fire.  Admission to the festival will be by donation. 

The Center for Urban Agriculture at Fairview Gardens is a 501 (c) 3 not-for-profit sustainable farm and education center situated in the midst of a growing suburban community in coastal southern California, surrounded on all sides by tract homes, shopping malls, and suburban thoroughfares. On their twelve and a half acres, they produce a hundred different fruits and vegetables, feed approximately five hundred families, and employ over thirty people.  They also nourish the community in less tangible ways, through cooking and gardening classes, workshops, farm festivals, tours, lectures, apprenticeships, and outreach and consultation to schools and communities nationwide. 




Vincent M. Smith
Education Coordinator
The Center for Urban Agriculture at
Fairview Gardens
805-967-7369