LITERATURE

The Call of the Farm: An Unexpected Year of Getting Dirty, Home Cooking, and Finding Myself

by Rochelle Bilow
Experiment. 2014. 288p. ISBN 9781615192144. pap. $15.95; ebk. ISBN 9781615192151. MEMOIR
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When classically trained cook Bilow accepts an assignment to write about a "full-diet" farm in the Finger Lakes region of New York state for a local food magazine, she has no idea that a day of volunteering will turn into a yearlong stint as a farm cook. But after the author feels a spark between herself and a shaggy-haired farmer in the horse barn, she finds an excuse to follow up and spend more time there. What takes place next is her speedy descent into the throes of farming. She describes adventures in the kitchen churning butter and rendering lard as well as wrangling horses, growing vegetables, and managing the farm stand. With love scenes that will make some readers blush, Bilow embarks on a relationship with the farmer that is riddled with codependency and her own self-doubt.
VERDICT Foodies and wannabe farmers will love this memoir and will root for Bilow as she answers her own call of the farm.
Reviewed by Staff , Nov 06, 2014
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