We stopped for tuna and turkey sandwiches at Amy Mclenithan’s Amy’s bright red Country Cooking kitchen trailer on the grounds of the Cambridge Livestock Auction. The cows serenade us while we eat.

We are falling in love with this place. Those are Amy’s cows we see in the pasture next door.

I was in a rush to get to my story reading workshop at the Mansion, we were sitting down and eating in six minutes. Maria had to get to work at the Food Co-Op.

In some ways Amy’s reminds me of Jean’s Place, it also bristles with the sense of community and character. Good fresh food, no bullshit.

Amy is by herself most of the time, and she was in the midst of a grueling day.

On Tuesdays, she stays open late to serve dinner to the hundreds of farmers who pull in with their trailers to sell or buy livestock right up the hill. The sounds of cows bellowing are close by while we eat.

Tonight, Amy has to be with her daughters, who are showing cows for 4-H. She’ll sleep at the fair. The campers where the farm families sleep during the fair are a beloved part of local culture.

I’m learning that community often forms around food and local ties. In a world where so many urban people isolate themselves at home on Facebook and Twitter, I think restaurants here have become the new town squares. These homegrown and surprisingly good restaurants are where people to go talk to each other and catch up.

They are the very antithesis of the chain and franchise corporate restaurants. Good for them.

Amy’s big red food trailer popped up suddenly off the road one day, we were surprised. Maria and I are gypsies, we have no family here and don’t do a lot of socializing. We wander all over the place, light nowhere but the farm.

People are (almost)  always nice to us, but we appreciate  community when we find it. When I walked into Jean’s Place for the first time, it felt like home. Amy’s feels the same way.

Everybody who shows up there, from the farmers to the town highway crew, seem to know each other.  If you weren’t born here, you are forever a local. I like being outside the tent, it’s my natural place. Sometimes, it does get lonely.

Amy is cooking from her trailer all day and into the evening, then heading to her camper at the Washington County Fair to be with her daughters and their show cows. Then the Schagitcoke County Fair follows this one. She will be there every day also.

Amy will be back tomorrow to cook breakfast in the trailer. In a couple of weeks, she will need to take a long nap. She probably won’t.

There are rumors of a building going up next to the trailer so people can order food and get in out of the cold when it comes. I half this image of Amy’s Country Place as being bigger and booming in a year or so, we’ll look back and remember when.

Like Jean’s Place,  good and fresh food – that helps – is served with talk, tall and short stories, local news and information.

And farmers from all over the region come to the livestock auction just a few yards away. Feels like a winner to me. Amy is tough and focused.

It’s just a trailer at the moment, but it is already more than that. It has that strong sense of place that Jean’s place has, it feels like home.

And her orange cranberry muffin was unspeakably delicious.

Maria and I both work at home, and sometimes, when we are working especially hard, as we are these days, it’s great to get in the car and go get something fresh and inexpensive to eat. It’s right down the road.

I ordered a tuna salad sandwich on wheat bread, it was great.

I told Amy she needed to stay open 24/seven. She just laughed. I love the character in her face, she is definitely joining my gallery of Strong Women.

In Amy, I’ve found yet another strong woman – Kelly, Robin –  who dares the camera to take her photo. She’s coming around (slowly) to the idea of portraits. Maria and I are very happy she’s just down the road, she will see a lot of us.

But we will save our oat bran pancakes weekends for Jean’s and Robin.

Strong women with character seem to gravitate to community and service. I am convinced they are taking over the world and will save it. And good for them and us.