Filmmaker Roger Sherman and Saveur founding editor Dorothy Kalins on Patty Gentry and ‘The Soul of a Farmer’

They both start with seeds: those planted in soil and those rooted in creative inspiration.

And while few love stories feature dirt and tomatoes, or go on to inspire documentaries shown at The Hamptons Film Festival, Roger Sherman’s “The Soul of a Farmer” is a portrait of Patty Gentry’s love of the earth, its bounty, and how that love is shared with those around her.

On land rented from Isabella Rosellini in Brookhaven Hamlet, Gentry participates in a growing movement to improve farming techniques and food standards through cultivation, education, and research. And, as Sherman’s documentary shows, the seeds of success rarely thrive without hard work and determination.

Gentry’s ”Early Girl Farm” (the name comes from a variety of tomato she favors as well as her workday) began as a small, organic venture on a rented plot off Woodlawn Avenue in East Moriches, where Sherman and his wife, Dorothy Kalins, were living before the pandemic. And “Early Girl Farm” is where their story begins.

“We fell in love with Patty, the way everyone falls in love with her,” Sherman explained.  “She’s so passionate about farming, about what she grows, and about how incredibly delicious it is.”

A documentary filmmaker, Sherman and best friend Ken Burns each have produced outstanding PBS documentaries since 1976.  Kalins, his wife, is a celebrated magazine editor and creator of Saveur, a magazine that revolutionized print media’s approach to culinary stories.  “Everything I know about food came from Dorothy,” he said.

Over time, their friendship with Gentry grew beyond quick conversations at her vegetable stand. They learned she’d trained as a chef. But when a colleague’s question challenged her to consider the source of her produce, the answer led to a personal evolution, from chef to organic farmer.

Any chef faces hard work and long hours, often under stress. But few would trade their challenges for the grueling, often back-straining labor and economic uncertainties of organic farming.

The East Moriches plot was part of her transition and might have remained a quiet, personal triumph, had it not been for the kind of serendipity that often touches the lives of artists.

Sherman had finished “In Search of Israeli Cuisine” (2016), his portrait of the Israeli people told through food and conflict and hosted by Michael Solomonov. “There was a sense of, what’s next?” he said. He began to consider a film about their friend.

“My films are all about portraits,” he said. “About telling a person’s story. Someone who’s really passionate about what they’re doing. With Patty, it was a gradual process of getting to know her, thinking, and talking to Dorothy about what a great subject she’d be.”

The film, which premiered at the Westhampton Arts Center in 2023 and featured the following month at The Hamptons Film Festival, is a beautifully packaged inconvenient truth.

And that, Sherman says, is by design.

A farmer’s life is precarious, filled with risk and uncertainty. A newly seeded field swept away in a storm.  Acres of crops scorched in a mid-season drought.  An abundant harvest devalued by fluctuating demand. Sherman is quick to point out the paradox he explores in the film.

“It bursts the bubble of farm-to-table. For those of us who can afford a CSA (community-supported agriculture) or shopping in a farmers’ market, it’s an incredible thing. For the farmer, it’s a constant struggle for survival.”

“And so there’s Patty, just so enamored with everything she’s doing. Working so hard. Passionate about what she grows and how delicious it is.  Her farm is a total extension of her. And yet, is she going to be able to survive and farm next year? She has a crisis of confidence each year, wondering, What’s it going to be? How are we going to do this?”

Kalins agreed.  “We’ve had the same conversation with her about this time, right before she opens, every one of the last 10 years. It’s such an uncertain life.”

And, as the documentary makes clear, there is an emotional investment as well.

“Her vegetables are like prized jewels. At first, she was selling mostly to high-end restaurants, to really top chefs. Because she’s worked in high-end restaurants, she prepares her produce to meet each chef’s particular vision, thinking about what the client will create, knowing it will be something interesting.  The vegetables arrive as a presentation, as if she’s plated them, free of imperfections or grit. The presentation is as much a part of the process as if she were serving a meal.”

“Roger’s done films on music artists, visual artists. Patty is in love with the process. It’s the same thing,” Kalins observed.

“On the other hand, she’ll stand on a Saturday, helping a woman CSA member who’s uncertain about what to do with arugula. And Patty will tell her, with patience and kindness. Because Patty, like the best cooks I know, is also a teacher. She wants people to get it, to inspire them.”

To make the film, Sherman followed Gentry for two seasons, first in 2016 and again in 2018, often rising, as she did, at 4 a.m.  Over time, the small plot in East Moriches became a 3-acre community resource in Brookhaven Hamlet, including a partnership with CM’s Hope House to help those in recovery. “Once it became a CSA, it was transformative,” Sherman said.