Brilliant Encounter

Overheard in the Orchard by Linda Hoffman & Ellen Harasimowicz

ISBN 978-0-9742474-0-3

Copyright © 2025

Linda Hoffman is an artist, writer, and orchardist in Harvard, MA, and photographer Ellen Harasimowicz is a “visual storyteller” in the Boston area. 

Rumi writes, “Keep a green tree in your heart and perhaps a singing bird will come.” The poet Gary Snyder names “intensely focused trees” that were accepted in premodern China as elemental in the “realms of purity and selfless beauty and order.” These lofty perceptions are not out of place in our response to an extraordinary new book of “conversations and photographs.” The publication arises from time spent relating to one Golden Delicious apple tree living, growing, and producing among the family of trees at Old Frog Pond Farm in Harvard, Massachusetts.

This is imagination and illustration in bound pages. What can we know about a tree in our midst, any tree in its life, possibly pre-dating us and destined to outpace us? It takes humility to not only listen closely but to go beyond—to give shape to what might be expressed in transcendental form. The writer and image-maker take us to the interior life of a companion organism in the orchard.

We learn about the roots, literal roots of the Golden Delicious. We live through the seasons, the quiet, the buds, the fruit in fulfillment. There are so many memorable exchanges, the talking to and the giving voice to responses. These are set among exquisite black-and-white photographs recording the orchard world: branches spare and full, the plump insects and a bird’s nest with speckled eggs. Near the end is a surprise spread of color portraits of various apples on the farm.

We can read to learn things, we can look to appreciate details, we can savor, we can pause anywhere we choose. This is an invitation to take our time and let the encounter flow over us.

–Paul Marion

How to get this book:

The price is $45 plus $5 for shipping. Signed copies can be purchased online at www.lindahoffman.com or on the farm’s website www.oldfrogpondfarm.com

Books are available in Linda’s studio at Old Frog Pond Farm, 38 Eldridge Rd, Harvard, MA 01451 or by writing to lindahoffmanstudio@gmail.com or texting 978 660-0363. Linda will inscribe a personal note if requested.

Copies are also available at Five Stones Gallery, 32 Main St,  Concord, MA.