Localvores - Day Two
DAY TWO - TUESDAY
Still without a sufficient amount of produce in the house, I awoke thinking 'How am I going to find the time today to allocate to my quest?' Still many steps away from being self sufficient, Sean and I work away from our homestead at varied intervals in order to assure steady cash flow. I have two per diem positions at a local mental health facility and Sean travels far and wide as a freelance cinematographer. Today was my day to get up early, get the girls to school and then ride towards the sunrise for an 8 hour work day. Sean was planning to move snow around with the tractor. Since I was working in our metropolis (Brattleboro, VT, population 7400), I figured I'd shop after work and see what I could find. Sean, ever the more rational-minded, said he would drive the 15 minutes to our two local markets (River Valley Market and Blue Mountain Produce) and let me know whether or not he found anything. His perspective was that if I had trouble finding local produce that late in the day, we'd be in trouble for dinner. Smart man. Later in the day, Sean texted me later that dinner was all set and that he'd cook. Good man. He found cabbage, carrots, onions and Ivy's chosen avocadoes. Kale and garlic are still being elusive, but no need for me to stop and shop, we can feast on what Sean found.
Almost home, driving through a small snowstorm and dying to know what Sean was cooking, I was stopped cold at the base of Whites Hill by emergency vehicles. Not able to tell me what was happening, an uniformed man stated I could try to get to my house but I may get turned around because the road was closed further up. There are only 12 houses that use Whites Hill as an access road and mine was one of them. I followed a small emergency truck as it climbed the snow-covered hill. It drove past my driveway, meaning my house was safe. I got home and told Sean what I had seen. He immediately got in his truck and drove up the hill. His text came 10 minutes later: 'Becky & Pete's barn gone. ' I immediately drove up and joined the neighbors in consoling Becky and Pete. She lost 10 piglets, 4 pigs, 1 chicken and an ewe with her twin lambs. The heat lamp used for the lambs was the source of the fire. Devastated, we watched the flames take the rest of the barn as the snow accumulated around us. The fire department couldn't save it. Two hours later, we came home, told the girls the sad story and had a quick dinner of pasta with local tomato sauce.
Menu for Day Two:
Pasta with Tomato Sauce
Pasta - already in house
Tomato Sauce - Dell'Amore Marinara, Colchester, VT
Pulled Pork - with BBQ sauce - leftovers
