Unpasteurized Inga

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.

Inga Orth is a fourth-generation dairy farmer, licensed Wisconsin cheesemaker, author, and storyteller. She and her husband, Chance, own St. Isidore’s Dairy, a small grass-based dairy farm and creamery near Osseo, Wisconsin, where they craft seasonal clothbound cheddar from a small herd of grazing cows.

Many readers know Inga as the former host and co-creator of the PBS Wisconsin television series Around the Farm Table, where she spent nearly a decade sharing the stories of farmers, food producers, and rural communities across the state.

Through her writing, speaking, and advocacy work, Inga explores the connections between food, farming, healing, and belonging. Her work celebrates the people, places, and meals that bring us together while encouraging others to find beauty in everyday life.

When she’s not making cheese, writing, or wandering pasture fences, Inga can usually be found in her kitchen, tending her garden, baking something with too much butter, or sharing a meal with people she loves.

Unpasteurized Inga is her first book.