D.C.'s Premier Community Sponsored Agriculture Club delivering fresh, local produce direct to your door every Thursday.
This week
On the Subject of Getting a Peaceful Man's Goat and Its Inherent, Surprising Difficulty
Notes on deliveries for Sept 2 2010
New this week:
- Arugula from Shenandoah Farms
- Pears form Henley Orchard
Hello Arganicans,
We are still tweaking some issues with the new data managing tools. Our apologies for the rough transition. I have added a minimum of new items in until we smooth out some bugs.
Long ago when I was a student of morality under the watchful eye of ruler-wielding nuns, there was a saying that you could judge a man by how difficult it was to get his goat. The idea was that an innerly peaceful person with his own sense of compass was hard to rattle with a slight of word. This week, as I was in my truck heading to a meeting with a farmer deep in the country, my mind wandered back to that old phrase. We had met via the internet and he had given me directions to his family farm which he said was a bit south of Charlottesville. It was getting dark and the road kept getting longer and longer.
I began to get worried that I was lost until I noticed the stated turn. Though I had been in the area before I had never noticed the skinny gravel road that cut off the main drag and followed the Rockfish River. Even in the drought, the plants were thriving in this canyon of granite that seemed almost tropical in its lushness. Finally the rain washed road took a right over a swollen river. A skinny and rusty truss bridge with hardly a rail enabled me to see the water below. Even for a country guy like me it seems very remote. Finally at the named mailbox a thinning road turned by an ancient and empty cabin. I passed a trailer and I would have thought I was at the end of the trail but I remembered his word and kept going. Now the truck was smacking into brush as the path thinned to six feet wide and continued to worm through the dense foliage overhead.
At last the trees opened up to a beautiful farm that seemed more generous than the preamble of trail could anticipate. Clearly the farm was kept up with love and all was in order and well painted. These animals have the best of riverside grass and undisturbed views to the hills and mountains. Gentle dogs kept harm away from the flock. Who would ever think this a viable spot to build a home and have a regular connection with society?
I learned that this man, wife and family had cut this place out of the woods and made a rich life for themselves while remaining well-tied to all things urban. They knew every animal by name and cared for them deeply, though each creature had a fate they all knew. It was a thinking man’s homestead. There was two gallons a day of fresh milk from the Irish Dexter cow and the children all knew how to dispatch a chicken while texting their friends. As we pushed the last of the animals into the back of my truck I could not help admire this family and their hand wrought paradise so far from the world. You truly could judge this man by how difficult it was to get his goat.
Happy eating’s from Dominique, Rachel, Praggie Tom, Joe, Jamie and all the staff at Arganica.
PS -Lots of animals heading to the butchers and more animal shares than you can shake a stick at will be soon available.
