Jerold W Apps

"This is the story of the logging era in Wisconsin, of lumberjacks and camp cooks, of log drives and log jams, of sawmills and lumber barons and the echo of the ax in the Northwoods as yet another white pine tree fell to the ground. Jerry also walks readers through the aftermath of the logging era, including efforts to farm the cutover, reforestation work, and the legacy of the state's lumber and wood products industry"--

When Jerry Apps was growing up on a Wisconsin farm in the 1930s and 1940s, times were tough. Yet most folks living on farms had plenty to eat. Preparing food from scratch was just the way things were done, and people knew what was in their food and where it came from. Delicious meals were at the center of every family and social affair, whether it be a threshing-day dinner with all the neighbors, the end-of-school-year picnic, or just a hearty supper...

"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...

An account of the fictional Struckmeyer family's move from Cleveland, Ohio to a rundown farm in central Wisconsin in 1938, told through letters exchanged by young George Struckmeyer and his grandmother.

One of the Midwest's best-loved authors tells the story of his land, from the last great glacier that dug out its valleys and formed its hills to his own family's forty-year relationship with the beloved farm they call Roshara. The author chronicles his family's efforts to restore an old granary, develop a productive vegetable garden, manage the woodlots, reestablish a prairie, and enjoy nature's sounds and silences. Color photographs highlight the...