Blue Shadows Farm: A Novel

Blue Shadows Farm: A Novel

Fans of Jerry Apps will delight in his latest novel, Blue Shadows Farm , which follows the intriguing family story of three generations on a Wisconsin farm.     Silas Starkweather, a Civil War veteran, is drawn to Wisconsin and homesteads 160 acres in Ames County, where he is known as the mysterious farmer forever digging holes. After years of hardship and toil, however, Silas develops a commitment to farming his land and respect for his new community. When Silas’s son Abe inherits Blue Shadows Farm he chooses to keep the land out of reluctant necessity, distilling and distributing “purified corn water” throughout Prohibition and the Great Depression in order to stay solvent. Abe’s daughter, Emma, willingly takes over the farm after her mother’s death. Emma’s love for this place inspires her to open the farm to school-children and families who share her respect for it. As she considers selling the land, Emma is confronted with a difficult question—who, through thick and thin, will care for Blue Shadows Farm as her family has done for over a century? In the midst of a controversy that disrupts the entire community, Emma looks into her family’s past to help her make crucial decisions about the future of its land.     Through the story of the Starkweather family’s changing fortunes, and each generation’s very different relationship with the farm and the land, Blue Shadows Farm is in some ways the narrative of all farmers and the increasingly difficult challenges they face as committed stewards of the land.     Finalist, General Fiction, Midwest Book Awards “Jerry Apps unravels a family secret that arcs across three generations and delivers a surprising answer for one descendant.”—Philip Hasheider, contributing author to Seasons on the Farm “Jerry Apps weaves a good tale through three generations of family life, strife, and the fabric of the rural landscape that holds them together.”—David L. Sperling, editor, Wisconsin Natural Resources magazine Terrace Books A trade imprint of the University of Wisconsin Press Jerry Apps, born and raised on a Wisconsin farm, is professor emeritus at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. His many nonfiction books include Every Farm Tells a Story , Country Wisdom , One-Room Country Schools , Cheese , Breweries of Wisconsin , Old Farm , and Ringlingville USA . He is also author of the novels In a Pickle and The Travels of Increase Joseph . Apps received the 2007 Major Achievement Award from the Council for Wisconsin Writers. Blue Shadows Farm A Novel By Jerry Apps University of Wisconsin Press Copyright © 2009 Jerry Apps All right reserved. ISBN: 978-0-299-23250-4 Contents Prologue-November 2000.............................................3Part 11. Ambush-March 1865...............................................92. New Orleans Hospital-March 1865.................................133. Limited Duty-April 1865.........................................16Part 24. Nature Hike-October 2000........................................235. Sophia-May 1866.................................................276. Accident-May 1866...............................................327. Cabin Building-May 1866.........................................378. Olaf Hanson-May 1866............................................429. Sophia's Garden-May 1866........................................4710. Attack-October 1866............................................5511. Gardening-October 2000.........................................62Part 312. School Board Meeting-October 2000..............................7113. Memories-October 2000..........................................8014. Snowstorm-December 1866........................................8615. Wolfgang and Amelia-December 1866..............................9216. Housekeeper-December 1866......................................9817. Kitchen Stove-January 1867.....................................10318. Opportunity-October 2000.......................................106Part 419. William Steele-October 2000....................................11520. Blue Shadows-February 1867.....................................11921. Mixed Thoughts-May 1867........................................12622. Wedding-July 1867..............................................13023. New Baby-February 15, 1868.....................................13724. Elsa-April 1872................................................14225. Increase Joseph-Summer 1872....................................14926. Going Home-August 1872.........................................15527 Modern Nature Educators, Inc.-November 2000.....................160Part 528. Modern Nature Educators II-November 2000.......................16729. Greed-Summer 1874..............................................17230. Borrowed Hay Mower-Summer 1874.................................17731. Tornado-August 1875............................................18232. Silas and the Arrowheads-Summer 1876......................