In a Pickle: A Family Farm Story - Softcover

Apps, Jerry

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0299223043 ISBN 13: 9780299223045

Publisher: University of Wisconsin Press, 2008

Synopsis

In 1955, Andy Meyer, a young farmer and manager of the pickle factory in Link Lake, Wisconsin, and his fellow farmers are confronted by the arrival of the powerful H. H. Harlow Pickle Company, which uses heavy-handed tactics to force the locals to do things their way, threatening the rural community and its way of life. Reprint.

About this title

About the Author:

Jerry Apps, born and raised on a Wisconsin farm, is professor emeritus at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. His many nonfiction books include Every Farm Tells a Story, Country Wisdom, One-Room Country Schools, Cheese, Breweries of Wisconsin,and Ringlingville USA. He is also the author of a historical novel, The Travels of Increase Joseph. He received the 2007 Major Achievement Award from the Council for Wisconsin Writers.

Review:

" "In a Pickle" tells this poignant story of change, family, and heartache in a nostalgic, yet unforgettable way." -- Oscar Mireles, editor of" I Didn' t Know There Were Latinos in Wisconsin"

" "In a Pickle "is a many-layered pleasure delivered by a master craftsman who is also, like Studs Terkel and Howard Zinn, a passionate student of the people' s history. As Apps engages us in the coming-of-age saga of the pickle factory manager Andy Meyer, this is at once a lesson in rural Wisconsin sociology, a quietly scathing indictment of factory farming, and a great read." -- John Galligan, author of "The Nail Knot" and "The Blood Knot"

" In 1955, life on the nation' s traditional small family farms was on a collision course with industrialization and technology. Small cheese factories were closing, combines were replacing the threshing crew, and workhorses were put out to pasture. It also meant that farm families were facing the traumas of the future. Jerry Apps chronicles this dilemma of change through the lives of central Wisconsin farmers who existed by the sweat of their brows and the muscles in their arms. . . . I"n a Pickle" is a story you' ll read with relish and remember forever." -- John Oncken, syndicated agriculture columnist and radio commentator

"Apps draws from his own rural upbringing to paint a touching picture of farm life and pickle-making in the sands of Central Wisconsin."--"Wisconsin Natural Resources"

"It's not the first American novel to pit country wisdom against corporate sliminess, but when was the last time a good story taught you this much about the pickle-curing process?"--"The Onion"

"Apps, a veteran Wisconsin author of fiction and nonfiction, proves once again just how charming he can be. . . . 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."--"Booklist"

“"In a Pickle "is a many-layered pleasure delivered by a master craftsman who is also, like Studs Terkel and Howard Zinn, a passionate student of the people’s history. As Apps engages us in the coming-of-age saga of the pickle factory manager Andy Meyer, this is at once a lesson in rural Wisconsin sociology, a quietly scathing indictment of factory farming, and a great read.”—John Galligan, author of "The Nail Knot" and "The Blood Knot"

“"In a Pickle" tells this poignant story of change, family, and heartache in a nostalgic, yet unforgettable way.”—Oscar Mireles, editor of" I Didn’t Know There Were Latinos in Wisconsin "

“In 1955, life on the nation’s traditional small family farms was on a collision course with industrialization and technology. Small cheese factories were closing, combines were replacing the threshing crew, and workhorses were put out to pasture. It also meant that farm families were facing the traumas of the future. Jerry Apps chronicles this dilemma of change through the lives of central Wisconsin farmers who existed by the sweat of their brows and the muscles in their arms. . . . I"n a Pickle" is a story you’ll read with relish and remember forever.”—John Oncken, syndicated agriculture columnist and radio commentator

About this edition

• Publisher: University of Wisconsin Press
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 0299223043
• ISBN 13: 9780299223045
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 248