Not cherry. Not pear. Here's a hint: I took these photos as the sun came up in Patterson, California. What does that have to do with it? Read on. More

Here we are with the food news roundup! Read on ... More

Next week in San Francisco, there are three food-related events at the Commonwealth Club that look very interesting. Check them out! More

Reading the New York Times Magazine yesterday, we were struck by the quiet beauty of these photographs by Gareth McConnell. They are all portraits of female farmers in the Northeast, stunning women devoted to the hard work of planting, harvesting, milking, foraging... See more below. More

Lo and behold... There were farmers in flannel shirts and coveralls on the front page of The New York Times Sunday Styles section yesterday. Turns out there's a crop (yep) of young city dwellers leaving their jobs and apartments to start small farms. More

Reader Ashley recently wrote to us with a snapshot of her visit to Red Sun Farm, a grass-fed beef and poultry operation near Cincinnati, Ohio.

This is so inspiring to us! As the weather warms and the earth gets softer, take a trip out of the city and find a farm to visit. When was the last time you saw cows up close and personal? Here's Ashley - read on for a bunch of great pictures from her visit to the farm. More

Cut Plum by Duane Keiser

So much depends upon food and farm in our favorite poems by William Carlos Williams ...

Have you ever hoarded a bit of special cheese or the perfect heirloom tomato? But when you return to the kitchen ready to cook with your closely held ingredient, it's missing. Later, you find out that your mom, your love or your little brother got to your stockpile first and ate it all up.

We've so been there.

We get a little bit angry when that happens, but we also feel a sense of joy over picking something so delicious our family member couldn't wait to gobble it up ... More

Last week we asked you to support a farmer through Kiva, joining us as we loaned him money to help grow his farm in Nicaragua.

Here's an update... More

One hundred percent of Americans eat food, but less than 2% of Americans actually grow or raise food.

Farming as the primary source of income has decreased so rapidly over the last century that unless you've deliberately visited a farm as an "agro-tourist" you might be missing out on the most delicious food stories - not the ones about cooking, but the ones about growing.

Field Notes is a chance to hear from the people who knew your food before your oven did. Meet James Birch of Flora Bella Farms and say hello to his bears... More