Thursday’s taco supper gave many of us in the farm community a chance to bask in the glow of the awesome abundance of August. Sky, mountainsides, fields and flowers echoed the beauty of the buffet. Happy hen “I laid an egg” sounds punctuating great conversations.
Babies, elders, foodies, farmers, neighbors and New Yorkers gathered with appetites for great food and companionship. Once again the barnyard was abuzz as we shared stories and lattes on the hoof and enjoyed multi-sensory, deep nourishment.
Awesome yes. Troublesome too. Farmers themselves become pressure cookers as the weights of fruits harvested skyrocket up and night temperatures start tracking down. Meanwhile weeds too feel the stress and start setting seed obnoxiously close to the ground in a last effort to thwart our team’s great efforts to keep our gardens clean from what might slow next season’s harvest.
Thanks to Ed, we made it into the New Yorker!
Amidst the excitement of Thursday’s festive gathering Ed Koren humbly passed us an envelope saying something like “I did this for you guys”. Another neighbor had mentioned that we were in the New Yorker earlier in the week and sure enough, Ed had subtly penciled us in to his submission.
Hopefully lots of our distant readership had gathered the subliminal messaging to come up soon and support our efforts! For those of us on the farm the satisfaction is simple and immediate. The message we hear from Ed and our community is “I see you”.
Thanks Ed and all of you who encourage our farm team and support this farm’s experiment. Despite widely held optimism and excitement about Vermont’s new wave of small farm successes, the truth is it is marginal business and that adds to the frayed nerves of August. But together we answer the question which can’t yet be supported with statistics. With exhuberance we are collectively saying that Vermont hill farms can thrive growing food whose costs and benefits are held right here. We pay higher prices – starkly different prices than for industrial food. The investment in the difference takes intention but the rewards are rich – awesomely and abundantly rich.