What do you think?
Rate this book
Hay Fever: How Chasing a Dream on a Vermont Farm Changed My Life
The compelling, funny story of a high-powered professional's life-changing journey from Manhattan big cheese to Vermont goat cheesemakerIn 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.
304 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2010
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 31 reviews
April 17, 2013
I had a hard time rating this book. Two stars is too much, one star is too little. Well, I decided to be generous and give it two stars, but I might change my mind.
To start out with, the book's undertitle "How Chasing a Dream on a Vermont Farm Changed My Life" is rather deceiving. It makes you think this book is going to carry you into the beautiful countryside of Vermont where it will let you indulge yourself in your own dreams of homesteading, growing your own veggies, tending to a little orchard, caring for a flock of endearing chickens, maybe even riding your own horse across blooming meadows--in any case living happily ever after, away from the hustle of city life. Well, I know, this is not exactly what this undertitle promises, but that's how most purchasers of the book are likely to perceive it. (And this is probably intended to be.)
The book does carry you into the beautiful countryside of Vermont, but this is it. End of dreams! All right, you might say, it was naive to have all these dreams about the joys of homesteading. You should have realized that there might be some labor involved. And this is true. But we are not talking about the to be expected labor of homesteading here. Before you know it, the book takes an abrupt turn, away from what one would call homesteading, and changes into an almost never-ending cheese-factory company report.
If you happen to be obsessed with the art of cheese-making, this may not bother you. But it surely bothered me. This is not what I was in for. Yes, cheese-making is an interesting procedure, and if it were fairly easy to do, I might want to try it, but as I well know from another book (namely, "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle", by Barbara Kingsolver), aside of making yoghurt and cottage-cheese-related cheeses, it's no use trying for a lay-person. So what's the point of laboring through a few hundred pages of mainly company report, featuring financial problems and bitching employees?
Oh, I almost forgot the adorable goats! Yes, they are sweet and lovable.
And now I think it is time to confess to you that I utterly dislike the author. How can anyone who claims to be an animal lover be so cruel and tear the newborn kids away from their agonized mothers when it is common knowledge that it is quite possible to leave the baby kids with the mother goats, at least, for part of the day, and without big financial loss.
Yet, this is not all. I have another beef with this author. She is a literary agent. She used to do this job full time, but now she doesn't. Ever since she runs her ever getting bigger cheese factory, she divides her time between the two businesses. Tuesday to Thursday: literary agent; Friday to Monday: cheese factory manager. All these years, her author clients are not supposed to know. And this for good reason. If I sign a contract with a literary agent, I expect him/her to be dedicated and work full time, and you, as an author, might, too.
I must say one thing, however. Something good came out of reading this book. It helped me make an important decision. I had been quite undecided if I should aim for traditional publishing, or if I should go ahead with self-publishing my own books. Halfways through reading "Hayfever", I found the answer. While I definitely realize that not all literary agents deceive their clients, I was reminded that some of them do. And these I would rather have making cheese than entrusting them with any of my manuscripts. So I'll stick with self-publishing.
Why on earth did I finish reading this book? I know I should have tossed it, but I very seldom toss a book. Maybe it is "deutsche Gruendlichkeit" (German thoroughness) that I sweat it out with iron strength, or maybe it is that I am an optimist and always hope until the very end that there might still be something worthwhile to be found in the remaining pages. Or maybe it is nothing but a bad habit.
As far as Angela Miller is concerned, I wish she would decide making cheese her only business--provided she can get herself to curb her financial greed and leave these poor kid babies with their mothers. In such case I wish her all the success in the world and many thousands of customers--less frugal than I am--ready and willing to dish out the money for her top-class cheeses.
To start out with, the book's undertitle "How Chasing a Dream on a Vermont Farm Changed My Life" is rather deceiving. It makes you think this book is going to carry you into the beautiful countryside of Vermont where it will let you indulge yourself in your own dreams of homesteading, growing your own veggies, tending to a little orchard, caring for a flock of endearing chickens, maybe even riding your own horse across blooming meadows--in any case living happily ever after, away from the hustle of city life. Well, I know, this is not exactly what this undertitle promises, but that's how most purchasers of the book are likely to perceive it. (And this is probably intended to be.)
The book does carry you into the beautiful countryside of Vermont, but this is it. End of dreams! All right, you might say, it was naive to have all these dreams about the joys of homesteading. You should have realized that there might be some labor involved. And this is true. But we are not talking about the to be expected labor of homesteading here. Before you know it, the book takes an abrupt turn, away from what one would call homesteading, and changes into an almost never-ending cheese-factory company report.
If you happen to be obsessed with the art of cheese-making, this may not bother you. But it surely bothered me. This is not what I was in for. Yes, cheese-making is an interesting procedure, and if it were fairly easy to do, I might want to try it, but as I well know from another book (namely, "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle", by Barbara Kingsolver), aside of making yoghurt and cottage-cheese-related cheeses, it's no use trying for a lay-person. So what's the point of laboring through a few hundred pages of mainly company report, featuring financial problems and bitching employees?
Oh, I almost forgot the adorable goats! Yes, they are sweet and lovable.
And now I think it is time to confess to you that I utterly dislike the author. How can anyone who claims to be an animal lover be so cruel and tear the newborn kids away from their agonized mothers when it is common knowledge that it is quite possible to leave the baby kids with the mother goats, at least, for part of the day, and without big financial loss.
Yet, this is not all. I have another beef with this author. She is a literary agent. She used to do this job full time, but now she doesn't. Ever since she runs her ever getting bigger cheese factory, she divides her time between the two businesses. Tuesday to Thursday: literary agent; Friday to Monday: cheese factory manager. All these years, her author clients are not supposed to know. And this for good reason. If I sign a contract with a literary agent, I expect him/her to be dedicated and work full time, and you, as an author, might, too.
I must say one thing, however. Something good came out of reading this book. It helped me make an important decision. I had been quite undecided if I should aim for traditional publishing, or if I should go ahead with self-publishing my own books. Halfways through reading "Hayfever", I found the answer. While I definitely realize that not all literary agents deceive their clients, I was reminded that some of them do. And these I would rather have making cheese than entrusting them with any of my manuscripts. So I'll stick with self-publishing.
Why on earth did I finish reading this book? I know I should have tossed it, but I very seldom toss a book. Maybe it is "deutsche Gruendlichkeit" (German thoroughness) that I sweat it out with iron strength, or maybe it is that I am an optimist and always hope until the very end that there might still be something worthwhile to be found in the remaining pages. Or maybe it is nothing but a bad habit.
As far as Angela Miller is concerned, I wish she would decide making cheese her only business--provided she can get herself to curb her financial greed and leave these poor kid babies with their mothers. In such case I wish her all the success in the world and many thousands of customers--less frugal than I am--ready and willing to dish out the money for her top-class cheeses.
April 17, 2011
A new homesteader, I pick up anything I can find on other people's accounts of homesteading. Not only are they informative, but they give me an idea of what I"m in for. However, for this book, while I mostly enjoyed it, there were a few things that made me a bit unsettled.
Angela Miller decides that being a literary agent is not enough. She wants to have a farm, and soon that extends into running and Artisan cheese making business. This requires the hiring of several employees and cheese makers (a common theme in the book) and developing a herd of dairy goats. Throughout this process the business has several ups and downs and Miller elaborates on them. She also tells of making cheeses and the process and then the animal husbandry side of raising the goats and dealing with their personalities as well. She doesn't just hint at the time consuming labors of the farm either, she lets you know just how it is and how hard of work it is.
For writing styles I had several problems with this book. For one, it was very very choppy and I would have liked the writing to be more linear. It seemed to bounce from place to place and if I didn't know any better I'd say it was written in several different parts and then mashed together as it was all over the place and some things were repeated constantly without there being a need. For a book written by a literary agent, I was surprised at this mish mash of writing. My next complaint would be with the tone of the book. In the first person from Miller's perspective it was a bit too prideful. There were constant instances of name-dropping and I'm not a big fan of that. I like a little humility in the books I read. In addition to this name dropping, she makes sure you know what these people do. Its not just Mark Bittman likes our cheese, every time it was "Mark Bittman, cookbook author and newspaper article writer" and the same applied for her making sure we knew she was a literary agent. It drove me mad to be quite honest.
Despite these criticisms though overall I did like the book. When she's not writing about the people, and instead focusing on the cheese itself and the animals, the book is quite enjoyable. Especially the sections on cheese. They made me want to go to the fridge, take out a wedge of whatever was in there and munch. If I ever have the opportunity to try Consider Bardwell Farm's cheese, I will, because they were so wonderfully described in this book. Miller too does a good job of explaining the personalities of her animals and instead of being one giant herd, they are distinct.
I think the biggest saving grace for this book though was the recipes included in the back. There's no better way to make me an enjoy a book than to throw a few recipes in it for me to use. Especially since one of them involves making actual cheese. I'll definitely be trying these recipes out and possibly reading the book again as in between the writing that makes me cringe, there are some gems in this book.
Hay Fever
Copyright 2010
275 pages
Review by M. Reynard 2011
Angela Miller decides that being a literary agent is not enough. She wants to have a farm, and soon that extends into running and Artisan cheese making business. This requires the hiring of several employees and cheese makers (a common theme in the book) and developing a herd of dairy goats. Throughout this process the business has several ups and downs and Miller elaborates on them. She also tells of making cheeses and the process and then the animal husbandry side of raising the goats and dealing with their personalities as well. She doesn't just hint at the time consuming labors of the farm either, she lets you know just how it is and how hard of work it is.
For writing styles I had several problems with this book. For one, it was very very choppy and I would have liked the writing to be more linear. It seemed to bounce from place to place and if I didn't know any better I'd say it was written in several different parts and then mashed together as it was all over the place and some things were repeated constantly without there being a need. For a book written by a literary agent, I was surprised at this mish mash of writing. My next complaint would be with the tone of the book. In the first person from Miller's perspective it was a bit too prideful. There were constant instances of name-dropping and I'm not a big fan of that. I like a little humility in the books I read. In addition to this name dropping, she makes sure you know what these people do. Its not just Mark Bittman likes our cheese, every time it was "Mark Bittman, cookbook author and newspaper article writer" and the same applied for her making sure we knew she was a literary agent. It drove me mad to be quite honest.
Despite these criticisms though overall I did like the book. When she's not writing about the people, and instead focusing on the cheese itself and the animals, the book is quite enjoyable. Especially the sections on cheese. They made me want to go to the fridge, take out a wedge of whatever was in there and munch. If I ever have the opportunity to try Consider Bardwell Farm's cheese, I will, because they were so wonderfully described in this book. Miller too does a good job of explaining the personalities of her animals and instead of being one giant herd, they are distinct.
I think the biggest saving grace for this book though was the recipes included in the back. There's no better way to make me an enjoy a book than to throw a few recipes in it for me to use. Especially since one of them involves making actual cheese. I'll definitely be trying these recipes out and possibly reading the book again as in between the writing that makes me cringe, there are some gems in this book.
Hay Fever
Copyright 2010
275 pages
Review by M. Reynard 2011
February 6, 2020
Well, I now know more than I could ever imagine about running a goat and cheese farm. I thought this book would be about so many other books where the city slickers talk about their foibles when they started farming, but actually this was more like a how-to manual. The book description says it is funny, but I didnt really find it to be humorous. This book started out interesting, but about half way through it started to sound the same and I lost interest. One good think was that I do not think I would want to move to Vermont and start a goat farm!
November 29, 2010
Can I give this one 3 1/2 stars instead of 3 or 4? 3 1/2 because it's about goat farming. May not be as great for everyone else. Not 4 because as someone who owns goats, it just seems like she's got a lot of hired help for the hard work, yet talked about how much hard work it is.... am I missing something? I know people who have as many goats and do it without much help at all. Of course, that's necessity, maybe they would hire out more help if they could bankroll the "lifestyle" like the author can. Also on the negative side, I felt like the author brought up some points about the "realities" of dairying, but then didn't actually evaluate all the options. For example, it is not an either/or option to take baby kids off the moms. You CAN leave them on the mom and then bottlefeed them part of the day when you want to milk the mom, thereby sharing the milk with the baby while still having some for cheese making. Also, I' not 100% sure why the bred the goat that was so weak? Why exactly would you do that?
On the writing side, her writing is clear, concise, etc. all the kinds of qualities yuou want as a reader of this kind of book.
On the writing side, her writing is clear, concise, etc. all the kinds of qualities yuou want as a reader of this kind of book.
June 29, 2015
I really wanted to like this book. I've been enjoying many others in the same genre lately, but this one just fell flat. For someone who works in the publishing business, Miller seems to be oddly unaware of what makes a book a great read. Droning on about problems with your employees is not part of that model. And I was really hoping for more tales about the day-to-day running of the farm, rather than what felt at times like a play-by-play report on her cheese business ups and downs. She needed (ironically) a good editor to point out where extraneous details could be culled (do we need to know the whole list of which Christmas present she bought for each person?) and where to elaborate (tell us more about the goats!). She spent much of the book being either defensive, whiny, or judgmental, which became increasingly annoying. it's a shame, because there were actually some very interesting parts scattered here and there. But they were nearly lost amid the negativity and lack of a cohesive story arc for the book.
February 14, 2014
At times, this book was interesting and informative. However, it was ironic that the author, a woman working in the publishing field, appeared to be oddly tone deaf when it came to her own writing(sometimes very pompous, critical, and condescending). This was especially true when she recounted her treatment of farm employees, cheese makers, and well, even her own husband. Not to mention the poor animals. If she had focused more consistently on recounting the work of the farm and cheese making and less on critiquing the performances, decisions, and personalities of others, this would have been a far more successful book. I won't even get into all the shameless name dropping which also grates. Upon finishing it, I found myself most impressed with a feeling of sympathy for the people in this woman's circle. It afforded none of the lingering satisfaction I've savored after reading other books in this genre like Brad Kessler's Goat Song.
August 18, 2010
starting the farm and the description of the cheese making process was ver interesting especially as it came with a sense of fiscal costs. I did not enjoy the personnel admonishments and sense of self rightousness that came through. it detracted from the cheese making tale.
January 5, 2011
While I learned a bunch about cheese making and goat husbandry, the author came across as distinctly unlikeable and totally full of herself.
http://www.magpiemusing.com/2011/05/f...
http://www.magpiemusing.com/2011/05/f...
May 26, 2012
It was just okay. It took me an inordinately long time to read it. In some places the book was very dull. Learning about goat farming and cheesemaking was interesting for the most part, but it tended to run on too long, getting bogged down in details about the business that made my eyes glaze over.
February 7, 2019
I thought this would be a really interesting book, but it was not that great. Angela Miller and her husband Rust just seem like gluttons for punishment and wasting money. He is a successful architect and she works in the publishing industry in New York City. They want to find a new rural "get-away" and come across Consider Bardwell Farm in Vermont and immediately both love it. Almost right away Angela wants to bring it back as a working goat farm and make cheese - but she knows nothing about raising goats or making cheese. So basically they throw money at the farm and hire a ton of employees to run things while they both continue to work full time and split their time between NYC and the farm. I understand running a working farm is very hard and it's very hard to be successful financially, but they just seemed to have more money than sense. I just really didn't like them and after awhile I just got frustrated with the book and all her complaints about employees and money problems. There are other much better farming books out there - don't waste your time on this one.
One quote I really disliked:
"As a matter of fact, the farm has triggered a talent I didn't know Rust had: landing government grants. That can be as important to the survival of today's family farm as producing children to provide free labor was in the past." (p. 133) Any business dependent on subsidies or government grants is NOT successful - just talk to Joel Salatin, Ben Hewitt, or Forrest Pritchard and read their books.
One quote I really disliked:
"As a matter of fact, the farm has triggered a talent I didn't know Rust had: landing government grants. That can be as important to the survival of today's family farm as producing children to provide free labor was in the past." (p. 133) Any business dependent on subsidies or government grants is NOT successful - just talk to Joel Salatin, Ben Hewitt, or Forrest Pritchard and read their books.
August 1, 2021
Angela is right: buying artisan goat cheese comes with a fantasy of bucolic spleandor. This book busts those myths. It's also the story of a driven, Type-A personality with big dreams for her farm. This is not a "we left the Big City and bought a Vermont Farm and became self-sustainable homesteaders" story in any way. I enjoyed the book but would not read it again - hence the 4-star rating.
October 5, 2021
Horrible! She gives the first and last name of employees who worked for her and why they no longer work for her! There's a graphic description of how they chose to end an animal's life and it was not in a kind way. That alone was so off-putting.
Also, the book uses a professional writer and she's an agent but the book's writing is all over the place. Baffling.
Also, the book uses a professional writer and she's an agent but the book's writing is all over the place. Baffling.
May 1, 2018
Interesting look at how a city woman learns to run a goat farm and make quality cheeses. It takes outside money to fund this type of operation.
August 12, 2019
very enjoyable book about what it's REALLY like to buy and run a dairy farm/cheese factory
January 5, 2016
Angela Miller is a literary agent who decided to take up dairy farming. She and her architect husband fell in love with an acreage in Vermont and decided to restore it to its former glory, naming it (and the cheese-making enterprise that came soon after) Consider Bardwell Farm. Both Angela and her husband decided to retain their full-time jobs and both commute back and forth from the city (New York), which made their lives extremely hectic, but the costs of running the farm (employees, animals, maintenance, etc.) were much more than anticipated (at the writing of the book they had yet to break even). Still, they found their “project” fulfilling in unexpected ways and they managed to produce several award-winning cheeses! Neither has a farming background, so they’ve had to learn a lot of skills along the way, and they’ve been able to hire people to run various aspects of the business (they have a professional cheese-maker on staff, for instance), and learn from them along the way. While this may not help the folks who want to chuck it all and live off the land, it’s still an inspiring story that offers a realistic look at what it takes to run a working farm/business.
August 31, 2013
(Nonfiction 2010) Angela Miller, a Manhattan professional, and her husband buy a country home in Vermont, to enjoy the "simple life" and relax from their busy lives in New York. From this decision comes a tale of learning to run a farm, and then to developing artisanal cheeses to sell to an increasing number of New York restaurants. She has to learn how to raise the goats, how to feed them to get the best flavor in the cheeses, how to cure cheese ... it goes on and on, as does her job in New York. There are recipes included for the adventuresome. A fun read and for me, a primer on what NOT to do (go into the goat cheese business).
January 10, 2015
You know the saying "those who can't do, teach"? This book seems to be a case of " those who can't write, publish". I really wanted to love this book. I love the subject matter, the location, and the concept. Unfortunately this book was wildly disorganized and alternated between too much detail (of what famous people the author knows) and a real lack of storytelling in the moments when it could have been truly meaningful. I enjoyed the nitty gritty about the ups and downs of business, but I feel that overall this book fell short of its goal and ended up reading like the longest promotional brochure ever.
June 3, 2014
At first, I wasn't sure I'd like this book. The first several chapters deal with the author's dual life as a New York City literary agent and beginning diary goat farmer. Miller and her husband are quite wealthy, and I couldn't really relate. But as the author wrote more about her actual farming and cheese making experiences, I found myself enjoying the book.(Although I must note I was astonished - in a bad way - at how much money her small farm receives in the form of taxpayer funded grants...)
April 14, 2011
I enjoyed this book, though I don't know how many others would. I heard an interview with the author on the radio and became interested in how an NYC literary agent could go to part-time gourmet goat cheese farming in Vermont and make it work. I'm happy that I bought the hard copy, because there are cheese recipes in the back. I successfully made the queso fresco and will want to refer back to it.
August 24, 2010
I'm loving this book. Angela and her husband have a farm where they raise goats and make cheese from the milk.
My grandfather had goats when I was a child, and I loved them. So interesting to read about this sweet creatures, and the work and money that goes into making a farm/cheesemaking business work.
My grandfather had goats when I was a child, and I loved them. So interesting to read about this sweet creatures, and the work and money that goes into making a farm/cheesemaking business work.
March 26, 2013
I read this one awhile ago and could have sworn I already reviewed it, but I guess not. This is not at all the finest 'homesteading' book I've read. Instead, I remember it being a personal vendetta against all the disgruntled employees she hired/fired... probably a good read for those with goats and wanting to make cheese, but not for me.
March 2, 2011
The story is a little disjointed and jumps back and forth in time. It is an eye opening look at what it takes for a city person to start a farm dairy business and just what a non-stop job farming is. Not the best non-fiction I've ever read, but I really enjoyed the subject matter.
February 17, 2013
About an urban professional who made a midlife switch to farming - goats! and making wonderful cheese!
I liked it very much and loved learning about goats! She was a very compassionate goat farmer. . . .
I liked it very much and loved learning about goats! She was a very compassionate goat farmer. . . .
February 25, 2013
I was pleasantly surprised by this book. It was packed full of interesting information and very entertaining. When I finished I had to look up the farm website, now I just want to order some good cheese.
April 25, 2016
Lots of name-dropping and self-importance in this book. Most of what I thought about while reading was how difficult it would be to work for this woman. It's not surprising that she has trouble keeping employees.
April 15, 2010
I enjoyed it. I learned alot about making cheese, terroir and the various artisanal cheese makers in Vermont. The writer has a breezy style, and I enjoyed reading about the sheep.
July 31, 2010
Really enjoyed the sneak peak at what goes into owning and working a goat farm and making cheese. Fun for the foodie in me.
December 8, 2011
Quick read; fairly interesting.
January 26, 2014
Made me want to work on a goat farm in Vermont and make cheese - real escapist non-fiction. Can't imagine how Angela Miller held down a full time job in the city and ran the Vermont farm.
July 24, 2015
Typical city-slicker farmer: she spends 2 million to make 1 million. I love goats, though!
Displaying 1 - 30 of 31 reviews