The Land of Milk and Uncle Honey

The Center for Rural Affairs welcomes nationally syndicated agricultural columnist Alan Guebert and his daughter Mary Grace Foxwell to Nebraska, where they will read from their recently released book The Land of Milk and Uncle Honey at several locations and dates across Nebraska starting next week. Published by the University of Illinois Press, the book is a collection of personal memories written over the past two decades as part of Guebert’s weekly Farm and Food File column. Each column recalls and reflects on the people, food, and values he learned on the 720-acre, 100-cow southern Illinois dairy farm of his youth in the late 1960s.

The Land of Milk and Uncle Honey was recently included on Bon Appetit Magazine’s 20 Food Books to Read This Summer, LA Magazine’s Top 10 Summer Books for Foodies, and Food Tank’s Summer Reading List.

“Uncle Honey,” explains Guebert, “was my great uncle who retired from his in-town job to ‘help’ my father on our farm. Several of the stories in the book center on how this gentle, quiet man—truly, a ‘honey’ of a guy—turned into a steel-bending, throttle-breaking terror as soon as he put any tractor into gear, without the use of the clutch, of course.”

Guebert’s co-author and daughter, Mary Grace Foxwell, conceptualized, compiled, and edited the book. She also wrote the epilogue which details her own memories of her father and lessons gleaned from her grandparents’ farm.

“While the majority of the book’s characters passed away long before I was born,” notes Foxwell, “I have often smiled and laughed hearing their stories, much like my father’s longtime readers. I wanted to honor those people and those values—hard work, honesty, and humility—for generations to come.”

Advance reviews describe the book as authentic, humorous, and astute. Eric Schlosser, author of Fast Food Nation, notes “Alan Guebert is one of America’s finest writers on the workings and the politics of our food system. This book eloquently describes a rural way of life that’s been lost. But the values of that world—family, community, social justice, a respect for the land—are timeless.”

Foxwell and Guebert, whose column appears in more than 70 newspapers across the U.S. and Canada, will read selections from The Land of Milk and Uncle Honey and answer questions. Copies will be available for purchase and signing at the event. The book contains 24 black-and-white photographs from Guebert’s youth on Indian Farm and is available for online purchase through various outlets including University of Illinois Press, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, as well as at bookstores nationwide, and as an e-book. Additional information, including future events and the authors’ contact information, may be accessed at www.farmandfoodfile.com.

Book Signing Locations in Nebraska: 

Monday, July 13  

2-4pm  The Bookworm, Omaha, NE

7-9pm  Indigo Bridge Bookstore, Lincoln, NE

Tuesday, July 14

7-9pm  City of York Auditorium, York, NE

Wednesday, July 15

6:30-8pm Norfolk Public Library, Norfolk, NE
“The Center for Rural Affairs is proud to help promote these events and we strongly encourage attending a nearby reading,” said John Crabtree of the Center for Rural Affairs. “And we encourage everyone to prepare for a free-wheeling discussion that promises to range from reminiscence of the good old days of hard work and simple pleasures on the farm to bare-knuckle debate over the future of rural and small town America… all with some good laughs. In other words, the kind of discussion that Alan Guebert is uniquely gifted to have and facilitate.”