Books

The internet is responsible for some astounding connections. This book in my hands is one of them. In January, I attended an InstaMeet at the Wisconsin State Capitol. I met some other local creatives, and then went on my way. In February, I re-connected with Gracie on Twitter, one of the people responsible for helping to put together the January event. We met for coffee, discussed a mutual love of reading and how we try to fit writing for ourselves in amongst all the other life stuff these days. Gracie’s big project at the moment was finalizing the edits on a manuscript where she and her father worked to compile a few dozen of his newspaper columns where he has written about the family farm over the years. We’ve grabbed a couple more cups of coffee since then, and in June I was able to purchase my very own copy of Gracie and her father’s labor of love: a beautiful tribute to life as it used to be, as we once lived it on the family farm.

Alan Guebert (pronounced GEE – bert) has been writing his column, The Farm & Food File, since 1993. His education of having lived on – and worked on – a dairy and crop farm throughout his youth, combined with a journalism degree from the University of Illinois, uniquely prepared him to tackle topics like agricultural legislation. But every now and again, Alan gave himself – and his readers – a bit of a break with a humorous anecdote from the “southern Illinois dairy farm of [his] youth.”

The stories told in The Land of Milk and Uncle Honey: Memories from the Farm of My Youth remind me so much of the few summers I got to spend on my grandparents farm. Even more so, it echoes the stories that my father and his siblings have told over the years – of injuries acquired from ti-corner metal milking stools to those garnered by hay hooks; to the summer canning marathons my grandma would rope them all into each August.

Favorite Quotes:

“Howard was special because he was so un-special.” – p. 5

“How did they do it?… a key part of it, I suspect, was just doing it; getting up every morning and just moving forward with life and work and family.” – p. 5

“We cleaned, canned, and complained every day of our young childhood.” – p. 6

“Its every acre remains in my marrow, its people in my heart.” – p. 11

“The river was in God’s hands, the cows in ours.” – p. 23

“Menfolk in the summer kitchen wasn’t an ego-busting event, either. It built respect, mostly for my mother and the hard work she did every day.” – p. 55

“Honey simply never looked back. Honey, as I’ve reported here before, never looked back and never stopped.” – p. 77

“Santa always came to our farmhouse Christmas Eve afternoon. Such a clever fellow; he knew to come between milkings.” – p. 115

Alan and Gracie’s book celebrating life on the family farm is both nostalgic and current, joyous and reflective. It reminds us of how we all used to be connected to the land just a little more – and how maybe that’s a connection we should crave a little more of these days.

Have you read The Land of Milk and Uncle Honey? What other books have you read where the land or location is just as important as any other character?