3-day weekend.

though it's only saturday morning, i feel like my weekend's half over. i had a delightfully farmer-ific day yesterday. first, i had a field trip to a dairy farm in labanon, ct about and hour and a half away. i got to see the cows being cleaned and milked and fed and got licked by a couple who weren't afraid of us. and i learned a little about storm water and nutrient management on farms while i was there. lebanon was absolutely beautiful, especially since it's the second week of october, and the leaves were nearly perfect. it was brisk and breezy and smelled so wonderfully farmy. i drank farm fresh milk with a cookie before we left and enjoyed a nap in the van on the ride home. then i went to the yale farm (which is between my house and school) for a pre-winter workday and helped tie scallions for the market and spread compost on the furrows for the winter veggies. (my abs and hips are feeling that today.) before i left, i picked some basil to bring home so abby can show me how to make pesto, and a snagged a small slice of pizza from the brick oven that stands in the little yard above the farm. most of the materials are reclaimed: the big slab in the middle from the courtyard of one of the colleges that was renovated a few years ago, tongue-and-groove floor planks from an old munitions factory make the roof beams, and the roof itself is a section of old-growth boardwalk from hammonasset state beach about 20 miles from here. i learned the difference between sustainable and organic so don't be fooled by the label - it's subject to strong lobbying from earthbound and other major organic companies. go for local sustainable first, then local and so on... i plan to make this a regular friday afternoon activity (the farming, not the pizza - well, both i guess). anyway, good times and good people. support your local food.