Unpasteurized Inga (Recipes and Reflections on Food, Farming, and Finding Your Way Back)

Part memoir, part cookbook, and wholly heartfelt, Unpasteurized Inga is Inga Orth’s story of farming, family, healing, and finding her way back to herself—one meal, one season, and one hard-earned truth at a time.

For years, Inga (Witscher) Orth invited viewers into her Wisconsin farm through public television, sharing recipes, stories, and a way of life rooted in the land. But behind the camera, she was carrying burdens she didn’t yet have words for.

In Unpasteurized, Inga tells the story she never expected to write.

Part memoir and part cookbook, this deeply personal collection follows her journey through farming, marriage, family estrangement, friendship, loss, healing, and the slow work of learning to trust herself. From a barn wedding and a creamery fire to farmers’ markets, cheesemaking, and life with a herd of Jersey cows, Inga reflects on the moments that shaped her—and the meals that sustained her along the way.

Woven throughout are nourishing recipes inspired by the rhythms of farm life: simple breakfasts, soups, salads, suppers, and desserts meant to be shared around a table. More than recipes, they are reminders that food can comfort, connect, and help us find our way home.

Honest, wise, and deeply heartfelt, Unpasteurized Inga is a story about returning to what matters most: good food, meaningful work, chosen family, and the courage to become yourself.