8-22-10

WHERE WAS SMOKY THE BEAR?

As previously mentioned, Melody and Adam's apartment directly on Lake Champlain had a bit of a disaster last week. Their neighbor is the only cab driver in town, and apparently, he is a well known drunk. Rumor has it he likes to cook, and rarely cooks without several beers at his fingertips. He also saves his grease, since he believes cooking with old grease enhances the flavors of his food. Unwisely, he stores his grease in a pan on his stove, and when he accidentally turned on the wrong burner in an alleged drunken state, he started a grease fire. The grease fire quickly spread, swallowing up his entire apartment in fiery flames. In an almost unbelievable fire response time, less than three minutes, water hoses were soaking the fire engulfed apartment and the whole surrounding area to prevent spreading. Trouble is, Melody and Adam's apartment touched the neighbors apartment, and in the process of extinguishing the flames, the fire department poured 20,000 gallons of water into their place. The neighbors house was totally decimated, 2 pets in fact deceased, yet while this tragedy luckily left Melody and Adam unharmed, the fact remains: their apartment, where we were going to stay while WWOOFing here, is completely unlivable, many possessions soaked and/or ruined, and the place must be gutted to prevent mold damage. Yesterday we helped them move to another apartment instead of working on the farm. Shouldn't there be some sort of friend time prerequisite for helping someone move? But how could we not help? Everyone in town is helping them in their own way by donating furniture, funds, and physical labor on the farm. Adam's dad owns a defunct pizza shop with an apartment above in town, and the four of us are now living there. Anyone want to open a pizza shop in Westport? It's near Wadhams!

The rains started last night, and didn't let up all day. It is a thorough soak, and tonight, there seems to be no signs of it letting up. But just like the postal service, neither rain nor snow nor sleet nor...stands in the way of a harvest. At the farm, we bravedy the bugs and rain to harvest sun jewel melons, eggplants, zucchinis, okra, broccoli, yellow summer squash, peppers, tomatoes, spinach, salad mix, arugula, basil, and carrots for the market tomorrow. They participate in 3 markets each week, but will sell at a 4th until Labor Day. Some of the squash is starting to show early signs of powdery leaf mildew, and there is growing concern that some of their crop will be lost. In a conventional farm system, farmers would spray pesticides and fungicides preventatively so this disease wouldn't occur. But then when you eat the skin of the conventional summer squashes, you'd be a fool to think there are no traces of these chemicals found. Juniper Hill Farm, not wanting to employ such non-organic methods, is toying with the idea of spraying a copper solution, allowable under organic guidelines, to prevent the onset and spread of the mildew. We are interested in learning how this problem gets attention and is or isn't resolved.

Tonight, we went to a farmer potluck with live music and six, count em', six kegs. Farmers sure aren't like city folk. There were babies running around, people playing with fire, and of course, amazing organic food. It was really fun to mingle with the locals of the Adirondacks, something we never would have done, had we not signed up to WWOOF.