Hay Fever: How Chasing a Dream on a Vermont Farm Changed My Life

by Angela Miller, Ralph Gardner Jr.

Overview

The compelling, funny story of a high-powered professional’s life-changing journey from Manhattan big cheese to Vermont goat cheesemaker

In the tradition of food memoirs like Under the Tuscan Sun and A Year in Provence, Hay Fever tells the story of New York City literary agent Angela Miller and how looking for tranquility on a Vermont farm turned into an eye-opening, life-changing experience. Seeking solace in the midst of midlife strife brought on by family stress and a high-stakes career, Miller and her husband bought a farm in rural Vermont.

But what started as a part time “project” turned into a full-blown obsession and culinary passion that not only changed their lives forever, but also resulted in some of America’s best cheeses, prestigious awards, and media fame. Today, cheeses from Consider Bardwell Farm are featured at some of the country’s best restaurants, including Jean Georges, Daniel, and The French Laundry.

•    For cheese lovers and would-be farmers, it’s an inside look at the everyday operation of a successful and growing dairy farm
•    Author Angela Miller, literary agent in New York City, has won prestigious awards for her cheeses and has been featured in such publications as the Boston Globe, the New York Times, Travel & Leisure, and Martha Stewart Living
•    More than a memoir—the book includes recipes from the author and top food personalities like Mark Bittman and Jean-Georges Vongerichten

Hay Fever is an inspiring and entertaining memoir that will whet the appetite of food lovers and would-be farmers from coast to coast.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780470398333
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	04/12/2010
Pages:	304
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

ANGELA MILLER is a literary agent based in New York City and the owner of Consider Bardwell Farm in Vermont. Her cheeses are featured on the menus of some of the finest restaurants in the country, including The French Laundry, Per Se, Daniel, Blue Hill at Stone Barns, and Jean Georges. Consider Bardwell Farm has won several prestigious awards from the American Cheese Society. Read her blog at considerbardwellfarm.com and follow her on Facebook/ConsiderBardwellFarm and on Twitter/considercheese.

RALPH GARDNER JR. is a frequent contributor to the New York Times, New York magazine, and the New York Observer.

Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION: From Where I Stand.

ONE: Green Mountain High.

TWO: As Far as the Eye Can See.

THREE: Farm Team.

FOUR: The New Kids.

FIVE: Milk Maids.

SIX: What West Pawlet Needs is a Café.

SEVEN: Chasing the Cheese Maker.

EIGHT: The Little Farm that Could.

NINE: Husbandry.

TEN: The Way of the Cheese Master.

ELEVEN: Mating Game.

TWELVE: Is Anyone Tasting the Cheese?

THIRTEEN: Trimming Trees and Costs.

FOURTEEN: Guests at the Farm.

FIFTEEN: Sell, Cut, or Perish.

SIXTEEN: Accolades and Accusations.

SEVENTEEN: Endings and Beginnings

RECIPES.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS.

INDEX.

Editorial Reviews

For those with dreams of starting over again in a bucolic countryside setting, Miller's account of her double life as a successful literary agent and owner of a Vermont goat farm is a bracing dose of reality featuring hard work, frustration and financial straits. In painful (sometimes monotonous) detail, Miller welcomes readers into the barn with tales of her education in farming and cheese-making, introducing them to the kid-birthing process, the problem of bloated goats, and some of her favorite animals. The intricacies of milking and cheese-making, dealing with temperamental equipment, and day-to-day drama among employees should prove informative (and cautionary) to gourmands and dissatisfied office drones considering a move to the farm, but she spends far more time on minutiae than general readers will have patience for. Her warts-and-all account even includes details of her financial struggles, but, strangely, gives comparatively little attention to her two-year stint as the manager of a small-town cafe, a missed opportunity to expand on her tale of entrepreneurship.
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