WI Book Festival Author Event: Unpasteurized Inga: Recipes and Reflections on Food, Farming, and Finding Your Way Back (Inga Orth)

October 17th 12-1pm Madison Museum of Contemporary Art – Lecture Hall

Presented in partnership with the Wisconsin Book Festival.

Inga Orth’s memoir is not a straight line from beginning to end—it’s a mosaic of memory, resilience, and rediscovery told in her authentic voice. She begins not with childhood, but with the raw now: burnout, heartbreak, and the slow process of piecing herself back together. From there, she weaves through tangents that reveal the threads of her life—farm chores alongside her grandfather, thrift-store adventures with her grandmother, the sting of criticism that shaped her self-worth, and the sexism she faced as a young woman farmer and business owner.

Orth takes readers behind the scenes of her public life as host of Around the Farm Table, balancing the beauty of Wisconsin farming with private battles against self-doubt, unhealthy relationships, and the numbing pull of alcohol. Yet through it all runs her constant love of food, farming, and storytelling—the things that tether her to purpose.

Woven throughout are recipes tied to these memories and milestones—dishes that carry the scent of childhood kitchens, the grit of farm life, and the joy of rediscovering connection at the table.

At its heart, this memoir celebrates the courage to break cycles, the grace of chosen family, and the joy of rediscovering yourself in community, farming, friendship, and love. It’s a book for anyone who has ever felt unseen, silenced, or burned out—and is searching for a way home to themselves.

In conversation with Susie Apps Bodilly.

Check out more Wisconsin Book Festival & Wisconsin Science Festival partner events here!