Author goes to market to talk about her farmers market book

Friday, July 21, 2006

Author events have moved out of bookstores and lecture halls and into taverns, coffeehouses and other alternatives. But this weekend's events by Jenny Kurzweil may be one of the few times that a book author has appeared at local farmers markets.

This is no weird back-to-organics publicity ploy. Kurzweil's "Fields That Dream: A Journey to the Roots of Our Food" (Fulcrum Publishing, 179 pages, $14.95) is the first book to examine the phenomenal flowering of local farmers markets across the country, with more than 4,000 now in operation nationwide.

Almost all of Kurzweil's book is focused on farmers markets in Seattle, where she lived from 1995 to 2001 while a student at the University of Washington and later worked as a cook and manager of a small catering company. The University District Farmers Market is where Kurzweil often shopped and she decided to follow some of its farmers to their home grounds and examine their inspiring lives of toil and devotion.

"These people choose to work in small-scale farming, to be stewards of the land," the 31-year-old author writes. "In these pages, they tell what drives them to eke out a living from the soil, what they fight against, and what they believe in."

Kurzweil's departure from Seattle was caused by her impending parenthood.

"I totally loved Seattle," she said this week from California. "The only reason I moved was the draw of family. My family lives in Santa Cruz, so I was lured by that free child care carrot. Seattle still feels like home to me."

Jenny Kurzweil discusses "Fields That Dream" from 9 a.m. until 1 p.m. Saturday at the University District Farmers Market, Northeast 50th Street and University Way Northeast; from 10 a.m. until noon Sunday at the West Seattle Farmers Market, Southwest Alaska Street and California Way Southwest; from 3 to 4:30 p.m. Sunday at the farmers market outside Third Place Books in Lake Forest Park.

-- John Marshall

More headlines and info from Lake Forest Park, University District, West Seattle.