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

I totally agree with George. There is obviously a personal agenda with regard to the two people who belittled Angela Miller & her Husband's efforts to introduce and renovate a farm which had not been working for sometime, and bring jobs to the area. She certainly pays credit to those on her team, and sets out the reasons for having to let people go, or why they can no longer do business with her. I thought the book was interesting, and she allowed the reader to see not only her great business accumine, but also her weaker moments when dealing with her goats, who she obviously loves. I would like to compliment angela, her Husband, and her great team of workers for making this not only an informative book, but an insight into the workings of a small, but successful venture.

With a successful career as a literary agent in New York, this restless mid-life renegade follows her yearning to run a farm in rural Vermont. Despite being a novice to the farm fields, she impetuously responds to a calling to raise goats and to specialize in cheese making. This remarkable woman, a multi-tasker in the richest sense of the word, enters into the cheese making enterprise starting with the mud and sludge. She spends three days a weeks in Manhattan dealing with demanding clients, then makes the long drive to Vermont to tend to her goats and their milk. Meanwhile, the author is learning how to make gourmet cheeses that eventually become menu items at select restaurants and sell out at farmers markets. While she is managing all the details of her cheese industry, she opens a local town cafe, constantly hosts guests, and interacts with the fascinating individuals who share her passion for goats and cheese making. Here is a female role model displaying the courage, stamina, determination, and resolve to follow her dreams. Fortunately, she has a supportive husband and the financial security to realize her fantasy. Read the book and you too will be dreaming of cuddly goats and mouthwatering cheeses. Reviewed by Rita Hoots

Not many fancy city slickers would spend the night in their car between night shifts during kidding season! I met Angela many years ago in my little lampshade shop in Pawlet Village. She mentioned that she had just bought a farm on the other side of town and thought she would like to try making goats cheese. I had just meet Angela, but my gut instinct was that she would follow through with her dream. Miller and Glover have accomplished miracles with a big old dairy barn and lots of hard, hard work; you just wouldn't believe what they started with and how far they have come. I was amazed to learn how many variables there are to making world class cheese; I will appreciate their delicious cheeses even more. Those of us that live here are thrilled to have The Consider Bardwell Farm so close by and proud of their deserved success. Miller is a lady farmer in a place that is usually reserved for men, but life in the publishing world most likely prepared her for just about anything. A love of the land, appreciation of the past, and challenges ahead; hats off to Hay Fever.

Although I don't know much about goats or making cheese, I thoroughly enjoyed reading the journey that this author takes. I have a new appreciation for the work necessary to start this type of a business and found it interesting to read about all of the different aspects that I had never considered. I have to disagree with two other reviewers, as I found the book to be very well written. The thing that I found most interesting is Angela Miller's ability to juggle the responsiblities of two such very different occupations at the same time. If you ever dream about taking a chance and trying something completely new - this book will be an inspiration!

You don't have to love Vermont, or even goats--though you should care about cheese--to enjoy this book. The authors pull you into the complex inner workings of a small goat farm, and into Angela Miller's one-of-a-kind life as Vermont goat farmer and New York City book editor and agent. She comes through not as a visionary or miracle worker, but as a capable and vulnerable woman who is trying to bring to fruition one of today's favorite urban fantasies. She confronts the thorny issues of goat birth and goat death and goat sorrow. She writes about getting a frantic call--in the middle of lunch with an important client in a posh NYC restaurant--from one of her farm workers. Sobbing, the girl says she forgot to close the hen house door, and something got in during the night. Now all the hens are dead, and what should she do? As den mother to a flock of local teenage goat milkers and cheese makers, Miller writes candidly about personnel troubles, while communicating warmth and affection towards the people who work at the farm. Best of all, she turns her goat husbandry and award-winning cheese-making into a way of fostering community in the microscopic village where it all happens.