Fairview Gardens’ annual fall harvest festival will do double duty this year.

Starting at 1 p.m. on Sunday, the Gardens will offer not only farm tours, tastings, live music, and their children’s festival, but will celebrate the return of founder Michael Ableman to read from and sign copies of his new book, “Fields of Plenty: A Farmer’s Journey in Search of Real Food and the People Who Grow It.”

Fairview Gardens is more than a produce stand, of course — more, even, than a highly productive farm cultivated according to the most rigorous organic and natural techniques. It is the flagship of a movement, as its full title attests: “The Center for Urban Agriculture at Fairview Gardens.”

Ableman farmed Fairview Gardens from 1981 to 2001, an experience he eloquently recounts in his previous book, “On Good Land.” During that 20-year period, despite the occasional challenge from neighbors who caught the occasional whiff of manure from the fields, Fairview Gardens has become a treasured institution in Goleta. In the words of the “Fields of Plenty” Website, the farm is now “an important community and education center and a national model for small scale and urban agriculture, hosting as many as 5,000 people per year for tours, classes, festivals, and apprenticeships.” Under Ableman’s leadership, the farm was saved from development and preserved under one of the earliest and most unique active agricultural conservation easements of its type in the country.”

Ableman also has started food gardens at the Santa Barbara AIDS Hospice, an 11-acre farm at the Midland School, and a market garden at the Jordan Downs housing project in Watts (Los Angeles). His work as an educator and consultant has helped to inspire dozens of projects and initiatives throughout North America. He is currently farming on an island in British Columbia with his wife and two sons.

“Fields of Plenty” is also the name of this year’s fall harvest festival at Fairview Gardens, which begins at 1 p.m. with tours and talks and tastings. At 3 p.m. the live music begins at the farmhouse, provided by a 7-piece Cuban salsa band, “Anthony Blea y Su Charanga.” The welcoming speeches and Ableman’s readings begin at 3:45 p.m., the book-signing takes place as the live music resumes, at 4:30 p.m., and the Festival comes to a close at 6 p.m. There is a children’s festival going on at the same time.

The culinary adventure this fall will focus on traditional Mexican cooking. The menu will include handmade tortillas while you watch, beans and rice over an open fire, tamales (chicken or vegetarian), farm fresh salsas, and drinks served all day.

For more information about Fairview Gardens or Michael Ableman, call 967-7369, or visit the Website at www.fairviewgardens.org

PHOTO BY MICHAEL ABLEMAN