In a Pickle: A Family Farm Story - Hardcover

Apps, Jerry

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0299223000 ISBN 13: 9780299223007

Publisher: University of Wisconsin Press, 2007

Synopsis

The year is 1955. Andy Meyer, a young farmer, manages the pickle factory in Link Lake, a rural town where the farms are small, the conversation is meandering, and the feeling is distinctly Midwestern. Workers sort, weigh, and dump cucumbers into huge vats where the pickles cure, providing a livelihood to local farmers. But the H. H. Harlow Pickle Company has appeared in town, using heavy-handed tactics to force family farmers to either farm the Harlow way or lose their biggest customer—and, possibly, their land. Andy, himself the owner of a half-acre pickle patch, works part-time for the Harlow Company, a conflict that places him between the family farm and the big corporation. As he sees how Harlow begins to change the rural community and the lives of its people, Andy must make personal, ethical, and life-changing decisions. Best Books for General Audiences, selected by the American Association of School Librarians, and Outstanding Book, selected by the Public Library Association
   

About this title

About the Author:

Jerry Apps, born and raised on a Wisconsin farm, is professor emeritus at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and the author of more than fifteen books, many of them on rural history and country life. His nonfiction books include Every Farm Tells a Story, Country Wisdom, When Chores Were Done, Humor from the Country, Country Ways and Country Days, One-Room Country Schools, Cheese, Breweries of Wisconsin, and Ringlingville USA. He is also the author of the historical novel The Travels of Increase Joseph. He received the 2007 Major Achievement Award from the Council for Wisconsin Writers.

From Booklist:

*Starred Review* Apps, a veteran Wisconsin author of rural fiction and nonfiction, proves once again just how charming he can be. Set in 1955, this warmhearted novel tells the story of 25-year-old Andy Meyer, a veteran of the Korean War, who has returned home to Link Lake, where he works on his father's farm and, during the summer cucumber season, manages the H. H. Harlow Pickle Company's factory. Life in Link Lake has gone on pretty much the same for generations, but big changes are afoot: Harlow is encouraging local cucumber farmers to plant bigger fields, to use more modern equipment, and to enter into exclusive contracts with the company. When spot-rot hits a local cucumber farm and spreads to other, smaller patches, farmers are suddenly unable to sell their cukes; families whose heads are barely above water are in danger of sinking; and Andy finds not only his livelihood, but also his very way of life in jeopardy. This is one of those slice-of-life novels that utterly wins us over with rich characters, homespun dialogue, and a story that, although it takes place half a century ago, involves a subject that's still current: the elimination of small farms by big agribusiness. Apps, who was born on a farm and who managed a pickle factory in the 1950s, invests the novel with the kind of realism, precise detail, and local color that only someone who had lived the story could do. Pitt, David

About this edition

• Publisher: University of Wisconsin Press
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 0299223000
• ISBN 13: 9780299223007
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 256