Research With a Wedge of Gouda

Apr 24, 2014

Today I drove in the rain to meet Hetty of Armadale Farms in Roachville. She very generously gave me a few minutes out of her busy day to talk to me about her family’s immigration from The Netherlands , their dairy farm and the art of cheesemaking. She answered all my questions as I worked through the facts I needed to know to realistically write how my character Jen evolves from a city girl with no knowledge of a cow except that the milk in a carton comes from one somewhere, to a passion for farming and a desire to begin a business she can proudly run at home while raising her four children.I will now take what she told me and try to write that into my story in a believable way. This aspect of the plot is just a small part in the book’s big and complicated story which goes back to 1945 up to the present day telling the story of the lives of a family; lives intertwined with sadness, dysfunction, anger, resentment, heartache and blame which finally comes full circle to bring them back to the farm which could possibly be the place to bring healing and forgiveness. I am anxious to get to the writing as I work through how best to tell the story that keeps unfolding as I write it.That is what I love the most about writing, starting with the seed of an idea and letting it grow ,the many sprouts vining out and reaching in so many different directions. My mind is definitely heading to the gardening mode. The rain will stop, the ground will dry and the tilling and planting will get done. I will spend countless hours weeding, then harvesting the bounty of 2014.But today I write. Thank you Hetty and Armadale Farms for the help and for the Peppercorn Gouda .

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