Field trip adventures!

This past weekend 10 out of the 12 interns and 2 apprentices from the small farm went up to the Chapel Hill area to do some exploring of all the cool sustainable-relevant organizations in the area. Our first stop was the Durham farmers market where we were greeted with a large group of people doing yoga next to the sidewalk. I ended up getting some smoked cheese (not a huge fan upon tasting) and other miscellaneous things that you could only find at a farmer's market. We then blasted to the Carrboro Farmer's market which is one of the best in the country and got to wander around for a bit. We then made our way to the Lantern restaurant on Franklin Street and talked to the owner who is big into using local foods in her meals. She was a very interesting person and it was obvious she had a strong passion in the local food movement. It was good to hear from someone in the restaurant business about the local food movement because so far we have only been interacting with small scale farmers, so speaking with someone in the restaurant industry gave another perspective. We had some free time in Chapel Hill afterwords so we hung out in Weever Street market and went to sample Locopops before we had to leave. After a quick stop at John O'Sullivans house we went to Maple View farm for some tasty ice cream and then headed over to the Solstice Party outside of Hillsborough. What an interesting event. I have to say this is probably the closest I have come to a "hippie party" but it was a great cultural experience to say the least. The party happened on the property of Ever Laughter Farms and included live music, an entire cooked pig (head and all), lots of local brewery beer and even more free love and attitudes. I'm a fan to say the least.

The next morning we met up at a grocery co-op in Chatam county and had a tasty brunch while listening to the manger talking about how co-ops are set up and how they work. After the brunch we went to the bio fuel plant in Pittsboro which was the highlight of the trip for me. I had no idea a huge plant was right down the road from me and what kind of work they actually do. This plant takes different types of cooking oils and refines them into bio fuel which they actually sell to individual families as well as gas companies which incorporate it into their fuel. It was good to learn the economics behind it too because although a gallon of bio fuel costs $3.50, in a couple of years the cost of petrol might well be higher (it already is in most places around the world). They also do some vermaculture on site, which I really want to learn more about, and they even grow their own bananas! Our last stop was the Peregrine Farm, a well-known small scale farm that uses intense crop rotations to plant 3.5 acres of land with a variety of crops. The farm also incorporates turkeys into their plots as a source of fertilizer and meat for the market. So guess who was asking him tons of poultry-related questions...The owner and his wife are both part of the CEFS board which we will get to meet soon. Whew, enough writing for now, I promise to put up pictures as soon as I get the motivation to do such.