Book: Hit By A Farm

As you'll come to learn, I'm a huge reader. I finished Hit By A Farm by Catherine Friend this morning, a memoir by a Twin Cities writer who moved to southern Minnesota to help her partner fulfill her lifelong dream of becoming a farmer. The book read quickly: a warm, funny series of vignettes from their first year of farming. What stood out the most was the authors' honesty. It was the exact opposite of those idealized paeans to nature for which the author expresses skepticism in the beginning of the book. She details the nitty-gritty of taking care of animals and very candidly reveals the strains this undertaking put on the author and her relationship with her partner. All while being absolutely hilarious.

She spoke at my library tonight, and was even more charming than I'd imagined she might be. She was asked how the small town of Zumbrota felt about the book, with it's frequent references to women's underwear and animal testicles and openness about her sexual orientation. She said the town was very supportive of her success with the book and related a story about the local book party that many townsfolk attended. A farmer in the community walked up to her partner Melissa during the party and told her how brave she was for allowing Catherine to reveal so much about their life. Melissa, of course, started thinking about her underwear size and she and Catherine's therapy sessions. But the man continued, "I would never have let anyone publicize that I had let a tractor's oil go dry!"