Converse and Hub City Writers Celebrate Year of the Goat
The Converse College Creative Writing program and Spartanburg’s Hub City Writers are co-sponsoring Margaret Hathaway Schatz and Split Creek Farms of Anderson, S.C. in a literary reading and cheese tasting at Hub-Bub’s The Showroom (149 S. Daniel Morgan Avenue). The Nov. 14 event, which is free and open to the public, begins at 7:30 p.m. and will feature a reading by Hathaway from her new book, “The Year of the Goat: 40,000 Miles and the Quest for the Perfect Cheese.” Split Creek Farms will feature a host of their goat milk products for sampling and purchase.
For more information, call (864) 596-9111 or send an E-mail.
“The Year of the Goat” is part food memoir and part picaresque travel narrative that details the venture Schatz and her husband Karl embarked upon to find an agricultural life beyond the hustle and bustle of New York City where Margaret managed the famed Magnolia Bakery and Karl worked as picture editor for Time.com. Their venture would last a full year and take the couple to goat farms throughout the breadth of the country, including a stop at Split Creek Farms.
“Like many people, we dreamed of a life of simplicity and freedom,” said Margaret from the couple’s farm in Maine where they tend to a growing herd of Alpine dairy goats. “We were really starting from scratch and had lots to learn…everything from how to milk goats to how to trim their hooves.”
The couple’s stop at Split Creek Farms is chronicled in Margaret’s book. “Our stay at Split Creek Farms was a wonderful experience for us,” she said. “Karl and I were most impressed with the integrity and care they show for their goats and the quality of goat milk products.”
Writing in Booklist, Gillian Engberg states “Hathaway pokes fun at her naive notions of rural life with a sly humor that nicely balances the naked earnestness of the endeavor. The details of animal husbandry and cheese production will intrigue those interested in food’s origins, and many readers, particularly city dwellers, will also be captured by the personal story of a young couple’s unusually thoughtful efforts to build a meaningful life together.”