GOAT SONG
A Seasonal Life, a Short History of Herding, and the Art of Making Cheese
by Brad Kessler
Novelist Kessler (Birds in Fall, 2006, etc.) chronicles the time he and his wife spent among dairy goats in rural Vermont.
Burned out from the daily grind of New York City, Kessler and his wife Dona purchased a 75-acre parcel of land to establish a working goat farm. The author details their foray into pastoral living with all the imagery and polished word choice one would expect from a practiced novelist. From the daily challenges and rewards of acquiring, shepherding, breeding and milking Nubian goats and birthing young kids, to their first experience with cheese-making, Kessler’s account serves as a user-friendly how-to manual on goat farming. The author also delves into the foundations and history of goat keeping, the predator/prey relationship (as he tracks the coyotes that are frequenting his barnyard) and man’s quest for a spiritual connection with other creatures and the land that sustains him. The book is more than just a story of escape from urban monotony; it’s also a detailed diary of the transformative effects of a new beginning. Because the entries don’t always cohere as a chronological narrative, the chapters are short, conclusions are somewhat choppy and the material, while interesting, is exceedingly quiet in tone. Nonetheless, Kessler pleasingly echoes the work of Annie Dillard and Georgeanne Brennan’s A Pig in Provence (2007).
A hushed, meditative tribute to the nearly forgotten value of living off the land.