Common Ground Country Fair

Yesterday, we bombed up to Unity, ME in Emily's grandma's car, the car her family made her give up because she's now too old to drive it. We stopped to take photos of wind turbines past the fields and farms along the way. We parked and walked through the trails, past the composting toilets and into the fair laid out in concentric circles. We got there in time to hear the keynote speaker, Gary Nabhan, talk about the loss of heritage breeds and species and the importance of organic farming on a small scale. He read two poems. Arch had sticker shock from the price of the food at the stands, and though some of it looked good, it didn't taste all that great. The falafel I had was bland, even with the tahini sauce and hot tomato and cilantro salsa. It made me miss Mamoun's on MacDougal.

It was a great fair though, with interesting people, exhibits, music, livestock & vegetables. I bought some local wildflower honey from a vendor. She said they haven't seen a drop in bee population this year, and I wondered if Maine had somehow avoided Colony Collapse Disorder that is panicking the food industry across the country. The honey is delicious...

We spent a good amount of time checking out the "tables" - the different organizations who table and give out information and promote themselves. We saw the Maine Socialist Party, Peace Action, Maine Public Library, Pagans, Planned Parenthood, community radio, Veterans Against the War, etc. One table I had never seen before, but I had heard of the organization: Project Laundry List, which promotes using clothes lines instead of dryers. That's something I can get behind.