Initially, readers may wish Lentil Underground were a memoir--Liz Carlisle boasts degrees from prestigious schools and is an accomplished country singer-songwriter who has opened for Travis Tritt, LeAnn Rimes and Sugarland. However, the inspiration for her agricultural exploration Lentil Underground struck when Carlisle was crisscrossing the United States, singing about rural America. As her fans described their lives, she realized she had been "lying" about the romantic agrarian life: "Big Food had all of middle America fooled into thinking that their folksy branded products were the protectors of the family farm and its wholesome values.... Farming had become a grueling industrial occupation, squeezed between the corporations that sold farmers their chemicals and the corporations that bought their grain." Carlisle decided to take a break from touring and tell the real story of farming in America instead.
She soon learned about a true hero's journey: Dave Oien from Conrad, Mont., revolutionized the farming practices of his home state with the use of legumes, which she calls the "Robin Hood of the dryland prairie" because they turn atmospheric nitrogen into rich fertilized soil and are remarkably drought resistant. Oien and a small group of committed neighbors created Timeless Seeds in 1987, a revolutionary organization that began as an experiment and became a million-dollar enterprise with products on the shelves of Whole Foods and on the tables of first-class restaurants. In Carlisle's capable hands, this story of how a few renegade farmers bucked the prevailing culture of Big Ag is riveting and inspiring. --Kristen Galles from Book Club Classics