We stopped at the Farmer’s Market again today and were happy to see the big crowd there. Their new site seems to have pulled in new people and many townspeople who didn’t seem to know there was a Farmers Market just outside town. The community lives, and I feel it there.

Markets like this are a powerful way for people to meet and see each other without getting online.

That makes a huge difference.  The market is the opposite of tense.

The people in town got the message; there were lines everywhere.

For me, the market’s success is personal. We get a lot of things we need there, from soap to flowers to vegetables. But there is a natural feeling of community now that I didn’t feel before. I rarely feel like I belong in the sense of community; I love living here but am an outsider.

I don’t feel that way at the market. I feel like I’m seeing my community come together and make something work, and I can be a part of it.

I have several good friends who sell their worlds at the market. You know one of them by now, Cindy Casavant, a/k/a the Goat Lady from Caz Acrez Farm, who sells lovely goat cheese and pies and muffins. I have just discovered her new oatmeal soap and love it. She makes the only soap I will use, I’m spoiled, and she is beginning to make it wholesale and sell it everywhere.

In the age of AI, the market is personal, cozy, and very comfortable. We are getting to know people we have never seen, and the range of things sold is rich and useful. I don’t have to go to a supermarket between the food co-op and the market all summer. The music played there is very good.

I hope she never stops coming to the county fair. We love catching up with her and learning about the struggles of running a goat farm. It is not an easy life. I am very fond of Cindy; she is genuine, honest, and an increasingly sharp businesswoman.

I think her soap business is taking off. She’s going to the Schagaticoke Fair in a week or two and is afraid she’ll sell out in the first few hours; many people are at that fair; a friend sold five hundred bars of soap there a few years ago.

I hope she doesn’t get too big for the farm market. Like Cindy, the vendors are a pleasure to deal with, polite, fun, and patient. Farmers have a strong attachment to the things they make and sell; supermarkets define the idea of impersonal. It’s refreshing to go there. Trees and beautiful old buildings surround the new site. It just feels good to go there.

The muffins and cookies are great, the goat cheese is amazing and the vegetables are inexpensive and fresh.

America is still a place where skill and hard work pay off. It’s a pleasure to see her challenging work is so successful. Cindy is a friend now, and she gave us some duck eggs. Maria is trading for a potholder in exchange for some goat cheese. She and Cindy made a deal. Bartering is a big country thing.

I imagine she’ll sell out right away there. You can follow her life and buy soap here.

Maria pulled a big zucchini out of the garden yesterday; we will cook a zucchini pancake together tonight. I think we did this once before.

We bought some fresh eggs from Joint Venture Farm; they sell bacon, pork, and eggs. We are planning to cook zucchini pancakes tonight; our hens took the day off. The Joint Venture people were taking a break; they were busy all morning. I’ll get their names next week.

I’m grateful to Anne Moss of Hickory Wind Farm; I’ve purchased some of the next flowers in my bed from Anne, who is very serious about her flowers, her family has been growing flowers for generations, and it shows. I bought the Coreopsis she is holding. Maria will get that when I have to shut down my garden in the fall.

She’s impressive and really knows flowers. She has been a real gift to my gardens this year. I love to get to the market and see what she’s brought. I love all of it.

With the onset of the vegetable season, Erwin’s Long Days Farm tent has tripled in size. He and his daughter have the best vegetable design anywhere. When we arrived, the line was long and eager. If we don’t get there early, many things are gone after an hour. The Farm Market has a new location in the middle of town; seeing it so successful is sweet. Community lives.

No AI talk here. It’s all human to human.