Tailgate

The local Tailgate Market opened last Saturday.  We have gone religiously every Saturday May through October since David was in utero.  Generally, we get there early, and stay for the whole thing.  I pick up vegetables, sometimes a chicken, sometimes other sustainably and humanely raised meat, and eggs.  In the spring, I can get starts.  And I can always get advice--the farmers there are remarkably generous about sharing their gardening knowledge with me, sometimes at great length.  It's great fun in the beginning, saying hello to people we haven't seen since the market's closing in the fall, seeing how much our children have grown, and sharing news from the winter.

The kids just run around the big open space like wild things.  We give them a dollar each, and usually they buy a cookie.  Everyone knows them, and they run around on the wide grassy spaces, eat peas from my basket, and climb in and out of the farmers' trucks, while Jesse and I shop and chat.   Also, it makes me realize how much my children have grown.  Today, when I went to talk to one of my favorite vendors, a sweet older couple who raise chickens, lamb and heirloom turkeys in Fairview and have grown children my age, they were wondering where my "appendages" were.  (They do know Elsa and David's names.)  Last year, I usually still had David on my hip or on my back as I shopped, as he was overwhelmed by the crowd.  This year, he is off, doing his own thing, playing with a posse of other little boys, while Jesse or I watch from afar.  Anyway, as we were chatting, they got to talking about a goose they had that would chase cars (he got hit eventually) and were telling me about how they needed some turkey hens.  They have one tom (the others ran off to the woods to nest and got eaten by coyotes), and as Susan, the wife said, he needs a girlfriend.  Apparently, he is in love with her Subaru--there are peck marks all over it.  It just makes me think how much I love where we live...it's not that you can't find community wherever you are, it's just that it takes time, and I am enjoying the benefits of the time we have put in.