Synopses & Reviews
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
Review
“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
Review
“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
Review
“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
Review
“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“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 “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
Synopsis
The year is 1955. The H. H. Harlow Pickle Company has appeared in the small town of Link Lake, using heavy-handed tactics to force family farmers to either farm the Harlow way or lose their biggest customer—and, possibly, their land. Andy Meyer, 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.
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.