Simple Goin's On.
I baked bread with Karin until three in the morning on Friday, and helped her out by being her salesman at the market in Bennington on Saturday morning, so I've got a chunk of extra cash to bring to the fair and to maybe get real campsites if they're worth it (they definitely will be in Acadia). I met up with Meredith at the farmer's market, and Paul and I brought her back to Manchester for the evening. We wandered around the countryside, picked up twenty dollars and a dead monarch butterfly, made my grandmother's pasta sauce from fresh tomatoes, discussed youth conferences and the possibility of bussing across Canada instead of the South...
We took a hike down to the country ice cream stand - about two miles south of town. The ice cream stand is run by some members of the Wilcox family - who used to have a huge dairy farm operation, but when their barn burnt down, they could not afford to purchase all the equipment again and were forced to stop everything.
They were offered something like six million for the land soon after it happened. One brother, whose passion was making ice cream, wanted to take the money and give up farming, but the other, who was proud to be a farmer, would not see his farm give way to development for city folks' second homes. The farm continues to operate at a basic level, but because the brother who wants to keep the farm cannot buy the other brother out (in order to own all the land), the farmer operates an ice cream stand on the property to make ends meet. He sells ice cream made at a family farm in Pennsylvania (not the ice cream his brother makes at a factory in Massachussetts) - so everyone in town who supports family farming makes a point of buying ice cream from their stand.
After settling down at the farm for two weeks, I'm definitely ready for a little bit more adventure. I'll be leaving Tuesday morning for Bennington, then maybe Marlboro or as far north as I can manage. The sure plan is to get to Unity, ME by Wednesday night. I give that plan a thumbs up.
We took a hike down to the country ice cream stand - about two miles south of town. The ice cream stand is run by some members of the Wilcox family - who used to have a huge dairy farm operation, but when their barn burnt down, they could not afford to purchase all the equipment again and were forced to stop everything.
They were offered something like six million for the land soon after it happened. One brother, whose passion was making ice cream, wanted to take the money and give up farming, but the other, who was proud to be a farmer, would not see his farm give way to development for city folks' second homes. The farm continues to operate at a basic level, but because the brother who wants to keep the farm cannot buy the other brother out (in order to own all the land), the farmer operates an ice cream stand on the property to make ends meet. He sells ice cream made at a family farm in Pennsylvania (not the ice cream his brother makes at a factory in Massachussetts) - so everyone in town who supports family farming makes a point of buying ice cream from their stand.
After settling down at the farm for two weeks, I'm definitely ready for a little bit more adventure. I'll be leaving Tuesday morning for Bennington, then maybe Marlboro or as far north as I can manage. The sure plan is to get to Unity, ME by Wednesday night. I give that plan a thumbs up.
posted by tank at 6:34 PM
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