the farmers' market

Jack and I head to our local farmers' market every Sunday morning.  He sits in his stroller, happy as can be, eating the fruit samples we get at each stand and watching and talking to people.  There is also usually some live music . . . our favorite is a little bluegrass band that is often there.  Having this music playing as we wander through the crowds and visit our favorite stands feels like a little slice of home.  I tell Jack that this music comes from the same region that his mama comes from.  

I have a few favorite farms whose stands I like to visit each week and chat with the folks who work there.  When Jack gets a little bit older I want to visit these farms with him.  I heard a wonderful discussion on NPR one day about building a sense of community for yourself and your children in this day and age when people are often far away from family and living in large, sometimes isolating, urban areas . . . I could relate to this dilemna.  One of my favorite points the author who was speaking made was to know the people you buy from . . . whether it be food or services . . . make a point to seek out local businesses and get to know the people there.  My favorite quote from what he was saying is:

"Practice random acts of loyalty daily."

I cannot think of anyone who lived by this adage more than my dad.  Not to mention that it pretty much defines life in a smaller community like the one I grew up in.  I miss this for Jack's sake.  So, visiting and buying from our favorite farms at the market each week is one of my random acts of loyalty.

When we are done shopping, we head to the children's end of the market, which has a big bouncing thing, a pony ride, train ride and a petting farm.  Up until this last week, we would just look in at the petting farm from the outside.  But since Jack is now walking on his own, I decided to venture into the chaos that is the petting farm.

Jack was not sure about being so close to the animals.  He liked the cow because it did not move much and in general he would pet anything that was not moving at the moment.  So, all total, he touched a small cow, a sleeping pig and a sleeping goat.  He loves to make animal sounds these days so there was a lot of that.  

The space is pretty crowded with parents, children and animals so I understand it being a bit overwhelming for the little guy.  He tended to hang out at the fence adjacent to the pony ride and watch the ponies.