Saturday, the best day of the week

Had a perfect saturday yesterday:

Woke up early to set up the farmer's market - Bruce couldn't be there so we were on our own - I had picked 75lbs of yukon gold and red potatoes from our plot so I was excited to market them. Setting up the market is kind of stressful but completely manageable...there's just a lot of hauling stuff, supplies, food, scales in and out of the PDC. Everything is coming on right now (corn, tomatoes, peppers, potatoes, onions) so it was the most successful market yet - tons of people, everyone in a good mood. What really made it was that we finally got some live music! Jess befriended Charlie at the tomato festival, a young newspaper reporter/musician from Indiana - we've been hanging out with him and he was psyched to play at the market. It totally livened up the scene and made it feel really festive...all the vendors were psyched and told us how much they liked having music. 

Met up with Alvin, who was selling his famous sweet corn, at the market. He wanted help with his bean combine and picking apples. He told me I could use his cider press if I picked his whole tree - it was breezy and sunny, perfect apple picking weather so I agreed. I don't think they can grow a lot of fruit out here, as in BIG fruit like apples and plums, berries are no problem but these apples were tiny. It was no Green Mountain orchard but they were still delicious. I picked from a couple hours and then went over to Alvin's cousin Neil's (kraut maker from a couple entries ago) and picked his crab apples. We hung out there for a while, juicing crab apples, looking a maps of Vermont and North Dakota and talking about the east and the west (this happens all the time, people get out maps to see where I am from, then we talk about our country a lot). Despite being a republican, Neil is a really great guy. (Alvin does this funny thing where every time I meet someone he whispers to me their political beliefs, he's like a political gossip queen) I just have never met so many pure, good hearted people - it's like this whole thing about "real america" is actually true! People ARE really nice! Americans DO help their neighbors and drink beer and shoot shit! 

Anyway, then we went out to get Alvin's bean combine out of storage. This combine is just for beans and the beans are coming on so it was time to crank it up. It was stored in some neighbor's shed and in order to get it to start they had to do a ton of mechanic stuff so I took a nap on some giant tractor tires. It was super beautiful out, not too hot, sunny, breezy - I lay on a tractor and fell asleep with the badlands all around me (I knew there was nothing I could contribute to their combine-fixing. Once they got it started up, I drove Alvin's truck back to the house so he could drive the combine. When we both got in I said to him, "Whew that was a big production," he turned to me and kind of laughed and said "That's just a part of farming, ya do this stuff everyday - move equipment, fix stuff, drive it around" I couldn't help but think about a certain ex-boyfriend of mine in that situation - trying to get something to start for an hour, trying to manuever a giant machine out of a garage by making small turns for 30 minutes - he would've been swearing and sweating and frustrated, totally not in control, impatient, and worse; ANGRY - Alvin was patient, calm, he wasn't angry or annoyed that the combine wouldn't start or that it was stuck in a garage, he just did what he had to do to move it. Simple. No short circuit temper involved. And when it was out, he was neither relieved nor emotionally exhausted, he was just glad he could start combining beans soon. Having a farmer's temperment is essential to farming, otherwise you burn out. I never thought about this before until yesterday. I don't know if I have that calmness, that solid quietness inside me. There might be too much fire...too much passion...

When we got back, I fed apples to the pigs and Alvin and Dena invited me to stay for dinner. Dena is a very interesting woman. While Alvin is talkative and fortcoming with any and all information, Dena is quiet and brooding - a very, very smart fiesty firey woman but it comes out in little spurts. They are quite an fascinating pair. I adore them. Dena is a phenomenal cook, I mean really amazing. She makes everything under the sun, relishes, james, cheeses, yogurts, just EVERYTHING. It turns out, you can make everything yourself and Dena does it. Anyway she made halibut that Alvin had caught in Alaska and fried okra and squash and cucumber yogurt salad and licorice icecream and homebrew. These people love food. In every way one can love food. Growing it, raising it, picking and preserving and canning and cooking and eating it. It's so wonderful. 

Alvin gave me some sweet corn for my neighbor Jessica Beacom, and he and Dena INSISTED on giving me jam, eggs, tomatoes, corn and even some Halibut - they kept asking me what else I needed; potatoes? Beets? flour? "Stop you guys, I'm fine! We can only eat so much!" "Oh please, we are looking after your well being"

Stopped at the Beacom's to drop off corn - ended up staying for an hour and half, getting a tour of their beautiful house that they are remodeling, looked at stunning photos of Jessica when she was pregnant with Lily, with Dean (her husband) resting his head on her stomach - they were such romantic, beautiful, loving photos I actually got emotional looking at them. They are such great people - I turned to Jessica and told her that looking at this album made want to have babies and build a house and be domestic, she just smiled.