Guest Blogger: Ben Hewitt

This week, thanks to Cabot author Ben Hewitt for contributing. Ben will be launching his new book, The Town That Food Saved: How One Community Found Vitality in Local Food, at The Galaxy Bookshop on Tuesday, March 16, at 7 p.m.

When Linda and Sandy asked me to write a post on the upcoming launch
of my book, The Town That Food Saved, I almost said no. After all, I’d just written 70-something thousand words on the Hardwick area; I figured I’d stuck foot (pen?) firmly in mouth plenty of times, already. And then, ever the glutton, I decided what the hell: A time or two more can’t hurt.

I spent about a year writing this book. The process was by turns
exciting, dispiriting, confusing, and affirming. I’d naively sold the
book on a simple premise: That Hardwick needed saving, and that a
localized food system was just the thing to make it so. It didn’t take
long to determine that it would be vastly more complicated than that,
and the book began to turn on my struggle to understand these
unanticipated complexities. I’d say more, but of course then you
wouldn’t need to buy the book.

In the weeks following this launch, I’ll be spending a lot of time
talking about the book (and by extension, Hardwick) in communities
throughout the northeast. The degree of interest has far exceeded my
wildest expectations, and it feels incredibly important that I carry
with me the news of Hardwick, particularly as it relates to the
region’s evolving food system. I want to know how you feel about the
goings-on about town, the boom in food-based enterprises, and the
ensuing media coverage. Are you inspired? Disheartened? Or merely
indifferent? Is Hardwick really the town that food saved, or does it
need another agricultural enterprise like it needs a snowstorm in
September? (To be sure, both will probably happen)

So I invite you to come to the Galaxy Bookshop on the evening of March
16. I’ll read a little; I’ll probably talk a little too. But mostly, I’ll be there to listen.

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The Town That Food Saved is already receiving praise from reviewers around the country:

Times Argus

Publisher's Weekly (seventh title down)

School Library Journal (about two-thirds of the way down the page)

Los Angeles Times