My latest visit to Free Earth Farm was in the thick of harvest time. I’d leave the garden with a fistful of basil and a skirt heavy with heirloom tomatoes every few days. (Insalata caprese, anyone?) Not to mention the pole beans! Those suckers grow relentless.
- In Your Face!
No large projects like the garlic harvest on this go around, though there was one little miss piggy who would not stay put. She’d show up in front of the house rubbing against the deck, leaving mud stains and a cursing Tony in her wake. One pig out is a pain but she also kept sneaking in with the boars only to lead them through an invisible hole in the fence and on to some grand adventure. Tony separated the sexes in an effort to prevent boar taint in the meat – I never knew such a thing existed – but princess porker was feeling some major separation anxiety.  So, we spent a large part of our time wandering the fields and mountainside calling ‘Hey Pig’ (one morning it was for three hours) and rescuing the neighbor’s grass from the unending furrowing of snouts. We also burned through many minutes standing next to and walking along the faulty electric fence line scratching our heads, blaming this and that, and daring each other to touch test its zapping strength until we finally decided on fortifying a smaller area. After a couple weeks of sanity, girlfriend found her way out again…seems electricity is no match for raging sow hormones. Looks like this little piggy is going wee wee wee all the way home earlier than expected, if you catch my drift.
- Fine Swine Mine (at the State Fair)
In more vegetarian friendly news, Free Earth Farm’s first season at the local farmer’s markets has been a success story in motivation for farmer T. Below is a snap of his setup at the farmer’s market in what was coincidentally named 2011’s “Coolest Small Town in America”  (touted by Budget Travel) – Lewisburg, W. Va. It’s also the nearest receptive community (about a half hour drive from the farm in Sandstone) save Hinton in which to hawk his wares.
Tony decided to take the plane ride home with me to Denver for a short getaway from the farm and he had sense to bring part of the land back with us. We stuffed a carry-on 1960s vintage suitcase we purchased at the Loaves & Fishes thrift store in Hinton with a stockpile of beets, cherry tomatoes, green peppers, basil, potatoes, beans, carrots, and cabbage. The best thing about transporting country crop contraband was that the security guard at the Lewisburg airport upon opening our case was not the least bit shaken by our initiative to bring a week’s meals with us on our excursion. Seals the deal on that coolest town award.
- Lewisburg Farmer’s Market with Free Earth Farm