Publishers Weekly, March 20, 1995
This tape should carry a warning label: viewers may be infected with a sudden, overwhelming urge to move to the country. The producers spent a year with Bessette family at Elgin Spring Farm, a dairy operation nestled in an amazingly charming Vermont valley, and their efforts paid off in a superior live-action video that will have even the most jaded viewer riveted to the screen. Rarely has farm life appeared more intriguing and fun (despite all the obviously hard work, including those 4 a.m. milkings). Viewers accompany Mac Parker, the "hired man" and host, who explains and participates in the seasonal round of chores -- from feeding and milking cows to "sugaring off" maple syrup, planting crops, haying, and so on -- dispenses and enormous amount of fascinating information (one cow for instance, can produce a whopping six gallons of milk each day) and highlights some of the fun to be had (sledding in the winter, swimming in an old quarry in summer). Parker is a likable fellow (winning instant admiration from the younger set when he gamely steps in a cowpat for comic relief), and he carries the action along effortlessly on his flow of chat. From the calves cavorting through the dairy barn to the huge John Deere tractors crawling through the fields, this is farm life at its most picturesque.
