Open Hands, Open Hearts

     

note: internet and cell reception had been pretty slim lately, so I'm posting much more slowly than I'd like to. My apologies to the three of you who follow this blog.   

 By now, you know we arrived in Northfield, Minnesota on Monday, June 27th. Northfield doesn't have a National Park, Monument or Historic Site. What it does have is Open Hands Farm, the seventeen-acre organic vegetable farm/CSA created and run by our dear friends Erin and Ben (as requested, I cropped out Erin's muddy pants)😄.

    But before we get to Northfield, let’s stop over for a second in Madison, WI, to visit another one of our old AmeriCorps buddies, Anthony.

    This guy gives the best hugs and has a super-contagious laugh, not to mention an amazing vinyl collection (which I’m bummed I didn’t get a pic of). We just stopped by for thirty minutes or so, but it was an energizing and refreshing visit. And I have to laugh when I see this pic because when Anthony and I met, we both had scraggly beards and dreadlocks hanging down our backs. Oh, how times have changed.

    Back to Minnesota. If you look at that second photo and wonder where you may have seen Erin before, AND you were at our wedding way back in 2003, you may recognize her as the officiant:

    And faithful readers of the blog will recognize Ben as the guy who saved the day and fixed the Buffalo. All to say, Erin, Ben and their daughter Allia are good and dear people to us, ones we don't get to see nearly enough. We limped in, tired and bedraggled and left...still tired, to be honest, but that's because we had such a great time there.

        Our visit included ice cream, homemade pizza, a wood-fired sauna, lots of giggling and belly laughs, fresh veggies and strawberries, great conversation, silly fake commercials made by the kids, trampolining, four very friendly cats, and a jam session with Alyssa, one of the talented workers at the farm. I’ll let the video here do the talking, but let me say it was a joy and honor to play with her.

    As Olive said, it was very cool to see how a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture, akin to a local subscription service for fresh vegetables), like the one we are members of back home, works from behind the scenes. You’ll be hard-pressed to find a more dedicated crew. They even got blessed with some long-awaited rain while we were there, a boon for all of their crops, especially the 1.5 MILLION (!) carrots they planted that were just popping up while we were there.

    Of course, I can’t let this post end without mentioning our trip to Valley Fair, a fabulous amusement park that has seriously good roller coasters and rides, and as a bonus, plays lots of Prince on loudspeakers all over the park. Minnesotans are serious about Prince.

It was truly sweet sorrow to be leaving them. We were all very excited for the next leg of our journey which would take us to South Dakota and Badlands, but we didn’t want to leave. I’m not sure when we’ll see them again, but I am very grateful for the days we were able to spend together.