PVF Reunion Weekend -- first draft
More than 100 people came to the reunion, and dozens of stories were shared in various venues, at breakfast, in big circles, in small circles. This first draft report cannot capture those stories yet -- this is going to be a report of what happened more than what was said. That will take much longer for me to process, and is really material for the book that I will one day get organized enough to write. Everyone who was here would have their own report of the weekend since there were so many different conversations going at the same time.
The high level summary -- the weather was crisp and cool and October glorious, the ground was dry, the food was delicious and plentiful, all the plans came true, and everyone got to immerse themselves in the joy of being together, even the organizers/workers. It was an epic gathering on two farms over 53 hours.
And I need to say it everywhere I can, I am eternally grateful to Sophia for her masterful skills -- moving furniture, making lists, setting up, making food, monitoring details, and getting all the dishes washed after each meal with the help of spontaneous volunteers. It was the smoothest outdoor event ever. And another huge thanks to Stephen for creating the space in the Pole Barn -- clearing out yet another collection of farm junk, building a dance floor, hanging the lights, and helping us to see that space as a party barn, not just a storage shed. He saw the potential years ago and has been working steadily to re-frame our relationship to that space. He was so incredibly right. And one more -- deepest thanks to Julia for leading and guiding our group conversations. Her open, gentle, curious, intelligent listening helped to get us all to tell stories. It is this team of three (Sophia, Stephen and Julia) who are working to take PVF to the next level of community building and sharing. Jon and I knew that huge parts of this event would be carried by that collective, and it was so.
And a separate thank you to Sarah's husband Dan for carrying a recording device to every conversation, capturing our voices and our stories. Yes, his name will be in the acknowledgements when the book is finally written.
For those who were not there and may never even have been to the farm, this event has long been in Jon's and my imagination. He always said that hundreds would come. I always said that it wouldn't be as big as he thought. We were both right. It was everything we could have imagined, and so much more. I finally decided it was time to make it happen when we learned of Sally Cooper's too-early death. It was a wake-up call to hear that this vigorous, loving, hard working, charismatic, hilarious person had died. She is one of us. So, in my mind, this reunion was dedicated to her memory. We really didn't talk about her in particular, but we remember her clearly and fondly.
The planning happened in about two brief meetings. We knew we had the infrastructure already, we had the various sites, we had all that we needed because of a history of creating events and gatherings, and because we had Blueberry Hill. We just had to figure out the food and the entertainment. Easy peasy. In one bean patch meeting, we listed all the food that would be easy enough for the cooks to make. We figured out who would be responsible for each meal -- Jon would take Friday night, I would take Saturday lunch, Sophia and Jon would do the big meal, Thea would take Sunday lunch and Isabel and Sophia and Jon would each cook pieces of the last meal. I decided where and when we would be, throughout the weekend. We tried to stick to the plan once we had one, just so we wouldn't need to talk about it again.
And we basically never did talk about it again, but there were follow-up emails. I gathered the guest list, Becky sent out the first invitation, I sent more invitations as we found more addresses. I sent one message asking for guest rooms and found enough beds for everyone who needed one. We live in an awesome neighborhood, as we all know. I should and could have sent reminders but life is really busy and I decided if people wanted to come, they would. During the week before, I made up a one page schedule and sent it to those who had replied. Only about 50 people were on the official list, but we knew that was not accurate.
Jon went shopping for all the non-farm food on Thursday. Sophia and Jess moved every table and chair on the whole farm down to the Pole Barn on Thursday afternoon. Stephen built the dance floor on Thursday because he was going to drive up to New York on Friday with his mom to fetch Jesse and Shalini and Jude. Jon started his part of the cooking on Friday morning. Laura and I arrived in the Common House on Friday afternoon and had to push our way into some counter space so we could make the quiches and the soup for Saturday. Many friends arrived to help with cooking as the afternoon went by. I left to continue my part of making sure the farm continued to function. Alissa came home from her work at the hospital, put on an apron and started making as many desserts as she could, all at once, for the next few meals.
The Friday night kick-off dinner was lovely. About 40 people came, little by little as they escaped the traffic on the I-95 corridor. Most of the Friday night crowd was made up of extended family and people who were staying over at Blueberry Hill, so most were from the olden days. There was a core group of long time friends from the late 1960s through late 1970s. It was so much fun to see everyone in one place. At the last minute, I had asked the Plancks if they had slides they could share, so they selected a relevant set from the time they were with us on the farm, and Lani was the only person in the world who still had a working slide projector. It all came together and we saw slides of Newcomb and Planck children as 2 - 12 year olds, workers in their 20s who are now in their late 60s, the front field before it turned into houses, draft horses in harness, and so many sheds under construction in the front yard.
The next morning that same core group gathered for breakfast at Anna and Gordon's -- the perfect hosts for any small or large gathering. It was like being at a conference or retreat, with a breakfast buffet laid out. They hosted us for both Saturday and Sunday morning and it was such a cozy and warm start to those days.
Meanwhile, invisible to most, the farm continued its usual work. The trucks got loaded on Friday, they went out without a single hitch at 6 AM on Saturday, vegetables were sold (but not that many because it was a holiday weekend and who wants mustard greens? NOBODY.), and on Sunday the next loads went out. The stands stayed open, the CSA rooms were ready for business. This is a testament to systems that work and people who know what to do. It felt pretty effortless. While there was a huge party going on, we brought home $11,000 over the weekend, selling Delicata and bok choy and beans and lettuce mix.
While my mother led a long, slow tour of historic PVF and current day operations, I picked some beautiful beans with Carrie and finished up getting lunch ready. Robert was at the stand cracking garlic so he took on the job of setting tables and cleaning up a little better than I would have. We had lunch behind the stand, one of my favorite party venues. So rustic and unpretentious. Our work space is perfect because there is a built-in buffet line where we usually pack the CSA bags, plenty of room for tables where we usually have carts full of vegetables, a walk-in cooler, running water. It's all right there. People came home from markets and joined us for lunch. There might have been 40 people sitting in the sunshine, having butternut squash soup and quiche and Gordon's delicious bread.
The next activities were all in Loudoun, so we moved everyone out there. Ellen and Ciara did the next tour, but Mom and Michael and Jon and I missed that because we had to race off to Adrian's wedding. We left very reluctantly since there was a huge different group of friends gathered but we had to go to this wedding and off we went. It was at the Salamander Resort, fancy fancy beautiful setting. We stayed only for the ceremony and hugs and then we rushed back to the farm. We had missed most of the big story circle that was led by Julia but I heard it was wonderful.
Dinner in the Pole Barn -- a whole new level of a party. Seating for 100, filled up. Food for 100, eaten. Furnace Mountain (Zach plays in this band, and they play old timey dance tunes. Superb.) set up by 8:30 and the dancing began. Olivia who is one year old danced every dance, mesmerized by the music. All the children danced every dance, mixed in with people of all ages. The dancing was surprisingly high level, partly because there were some actual dancers. I danced only the last dance, finally finding Jon after not seeing him for hours. It was huge fun.
The next day people started to leave after breakfast and CSA set-up (real work but not too hard, lots of people helped). The rest of us kind of forced ourselves to continue on to the next events, and were glad we did. Back to Loudoun for brunch and then an afternoon of shared work. Stephen had got the new barn (under construction) to a place where he could use some help from any number of people, and there were crazy men climbing all over those poles, drilling and screwing in beams, building a catwalk so he could stand on something way up in the air later, with a chain saw. It looked like an Amish barn raising. The rest of us picked overripe beans for the food pantry. I got to hold both 4- month-old Jude and 6-month-old Willa at the same time, one on each knee. A dream come true. Then we moved to garlic planting, and the first wave of planters were all actual full time farmers, which was not the point or the plan but we had fun planting together.
And for a last hurrah of storytelling, we moved into the newly created lounge in the Green Barn, sitting on couches and carpet, and talked about our present and our future, collectively. For the most part, the tone was hopeful and forward-looking, with a lot of talk about climate, belonging, the potential this farm has for transforming society, the work of farmers as it relates to everyone else, the beauty of what we all have.
One last dinner and a dance party. We are all pretty tired by this time, but a new flush of young people arrived to keep dancing into the night. Stephen had Shaia on his shoulders the whole time. That child loves to dance. Everything is a dance party to her.
This is long, but it is the most bare bones account of what we all shared this weekend. There are many parts that stick with me, but the conversation I remember best is when Anna and I told Kathy A. that it was her presence in particular that made a huge difference to us (she worked here in 1970-71) because we haven't seen her for so long and her life has been full of amazing work in medicine and activism. She really touched our hearts by making this weekend her priority. She said that coming here, she felt "cherished." And she loved learning that she still belongs in this community, even though she has been gone a very long time. There are so many who belong, who are cherished, and who continue to do good work in the world, with PVF in their hearts and minds.
The link to the photo album so far is: https://photos.app.goo.gl/atsD
(Only those who read all the way to the end get to see the pictures. The black and white ones are from a worker in 1969. That's 8 year old Lani driving the tractor in the first photo.)
The high level summary -- the weather was crisp and cool and October glorious, the ground was dry, the food was delicious and plentiful, all the plans came true, and everyone got to immerse themselves in the joy of being together, even the organizers/workers. It was an epic gathering on two farms over 53 hours.
And I need to say it everywhere I can, I am eternally grateful to Sophia for her masterful skills -- moving furniture, making lists, setting up, making food, monitoring details, and getting all the dishes washed after each meal with the help of spontaneous volunteers. It was the smoothest outdoor event ever. And another huge thanks to Stephen for creating the space in the Pole Barn -- clearing out yet another collection of farm junk, building a dance floor, hanging the lights, and helping us to see that space as a party barn, not just a storage shed. He saw the potential years ago and has been working steadily to re-frame our relationship to that space. He was so incredibly right. And one more -- deepest thanks to Julia for leading and guiding our group conversations. Her open, gentle, curious, intelligent listening helped to get us all to tell stories. It is this team of three (Sophia, Stephen and Julia) who are working to take PVF to the next level of community building and sharing. Jon and I knew that huge parts of this event would be carried by that collective, and it was so.
And a separate thank you to Sarah's husband Dan for carrying a recording device to every conversation, capturing our voices and our stories. Yes, his name will be in the acknowledgements when the book is finally written.
For those who were not there and may never even have been to the farm, this event has long been in Jon's and my imagination. He always said that hundreds would come. I always said that it wouldn't be as big as he thought. We were both right. It was everything we could have imagined, and so much more. I finally decided it was time to make it happen when we learned of Sally Cooper's too-early death. It was a wake-up call to hear that this vigorous, loving, hard working, charismatic, hilarious person had died. She is one of us. So, in my mind, this reunion was dedicated to her memory. We really didn't talk about her in particular, but we remember her clearly and fondly.
The planning happened in about two brief meetings. We knew we had the infrastructure already, we had the various sites, we had all that we needed because of a history of creating events and gatherings, and because we had Blueberry Hill. We just had to figure out the food and the entertainment. Easy peasy. In one bean patch meeting, we listed all the food that would be easy enough for the cooks to make. We figured out who would be responsible for each meal -- Jon would take Friday night, I would take Saturday lunch, Sophia and Jon would do the big meal, Thea would take Sunday lunch and Isabel and Sophia and Jon would each cook pieces of the last meal. I decided where and when we would be, throughout the weekend. We tried to stick to the plan once we had one, just so we wouldn't need to talk about it again.
And we basically never did talk about it again, but there were follow-up emails. I gathered the guest list, Becky sent out the first invitation, I sent more invitations as we found more addresses. I sent one message asking for guest rooms and found enough beds for everyone who needed one. We live in an awesome neighborhood, as we all know. I should and could have sent reminders but life is really busy and I decided if people wanted to come, they would. During the week before, I made up a one page schedule and sent it to those who had replied. Only about 50 people were on the official list, but we knew that was not accurate.
Jon went shopping for all the non-farm food on Thursday. Sophia and Jess moved every table and chair on the whole farm down to the Pole Barn on Thursday afternoon. Stephen built the dance floor on Thursday because he was going to drive up to New York on Friday with his mom to fetch Jesse and Shalini and Jude. Jon started his part of the cooking on Friday morning. Laura and I arrived in the Common House on Friday afternoon and had to push our way into some counter space so we could make the quiches and the soup for Saturday. Many friends arrived to help with cooking as the afternoon went by. I left to continue my part of making sure the farm continued to function. Alissa came home from her work at the hospital, put on an apron and started making as many desserts as she could, all at once, for the next few meals.
The Friday night kick-off dinner was lovely. About 40 people came, little by little as they escaped the traffic on the I-95 corridor. Most of the Friday night crowd was made up of extended family and people who were staying over at Blueberry Hill, so most were from the olden days. There was a core group of long time friends from the late 1960s through late 1970s. It was so much fun to see everyone in one place. At the last minute, I had asked the Plancks if they had slides they could share, so they selected a relevant set from the time they were with us on the farm, and Lani was the only person in the world who still had a working slide projector. It all came together and we saw slides of Newcomb and Planck children as 2 - 12 year olds, workers in their 20s who are now in their late 60s, the front field before it turned into houses, draft horses in harness, and so many sheds under construction in the front yard.
The next morning that same core group gathered for breakfast at Anna and Gordon's -- the perfect hosts for any small or large gathering. It was like being at a conference or retreat, with a breakfast buffet laid out. They hosted us for both Saturday and Sunday morning and it was such a cozy and warm start to those days.
Meanwhile, invisible to most, the farm continued its usual work. The trucks got loaded on Friday, they went out without a single hitch at 6 AM on Saturday, vegetables were sold (but not that many because it was a holiday weekend and who wants mustard greens? NOBODY.), and on Sunday the next loads went out. The stands stayed open, the CSA rooms were ready for business. This is a testament to systems that work and people who know what to do. It felt pretty effortless. While there was a huge party going on, we brought home $11,000 over the weekend, selling Delicata and bok choy and beans and lettuce mix.
While my mother led a long, slow tour of historic PVF and current day operations, I picked some beautiful beans with Carrie and finished up getting lunch ready. Robert was at the stand cracking garlic so he took on the job of setting tables and cleaning up a little better than I would have. We had lunch behind the stand, one of my favorite party venues. So rustic and unpretentious. Our work space is perfect because there is a built-in buffet line where we usually pack the CSA bags, plenty of room for tables where we usually have carts full of vegetables, a walk-in cooler, running water. It's all right there. People came home from markets and joined us for lunch. There might have been 40 people sitting in the sunshine, having butternut squash soup and quiche and Gordon's delicious bread.
The next activities were all in Loudoun, so we moved everyone out there. Ellen and Ciara did the next tour, but Mom and Michael and Jon and I missed that because we had to race off to Adrian's wedding. We left very reluctantly since there was a huge different group of friends gathered but we had to go to this wedding and off we went. It was at the Salamander Resort, fancy fancy beautiful setting. We stayed only for the ceremony and hugs and then we rushed back to the farm. We had missed most of the big story circle that was led by Julia but I heard it was wonderful.
Dinner in the Pole Barn -- a whole new level of a party. Seating for 100, filled up. Food for 100, eaten. Furnace Mountain (Zach plays in this band, and they play old timey dance tunes. Superb.) set up by 8:30 and the dancing began. Olivia who is one year old danced every dance, mesmerized by the music. All the children danced every dance, mixed in with people of all ages. The dancing was surprisingly high level, partly because there were some actual dancers. I danced only the last dance, finally finding Jon after not seeing him for hours. It was huge fun.
The next day people started to leave after breakfast and CSA set-up (real work but not too hard, lots of people helped). The rest of us kind of forced ourselves to continue on to the next events, and were glad we did. Back to Loudoun for brunch and then an afternoon of shared work. Stephen had got the new barn (under construction) to a place where he could use some help from any number of people, and there were crazy men climbing all over those poles, drilling and screwing in beams, building a catwalk so he could stand on something way up in the air later, with a chain saw. It looked like an Amish barn raising. The rest of us picked overripe beans for the food pantry. I got to hold both 4- month-old Jude and 6-month-old Willa at the same time, one on each knee. A dream come true. Then we moved to garlic planting, and the first wave of planters were all actual full time farmers, which was not the point or the plan but we had fun planting together.
And for a last hurrah of storytelling, we moved into the newly created lounge in the Green Barn, sitting on couches and carpet, and talked about our present and our future, collectively. For the most part, the tone was hopeful and forward-looking, with a lot of talk about climate, belonging, the potential this farm has for transforming society, the work of farmers as it relates to everyone else, the beauty of what we all have.
One last dinner and a dance party. We are all pretty tired by this time, but a new flush of young people arrived to keep dancing into the night. Stephen had Shaia on his shoulders the whole time. That child loves to dance. Everything is a dance party to her.
This is long, but it is the most bare bones account of what we all shared this weekend. There are many parts that stick with me, but the conversation I remember best is when Anna and I told Kathy A. that it was her presence in particular that made a huge difference to us (she worked here in 1970-71) because we haven't seen her for so long and her life has been full of amazing work in medicine and activism. She really touched our hearts by making this weekend her priority. She said that coming here, she felt "cherished." And she loved learning that she still belongs in this community, even though she has been gone a very long time. There are so many who belong, who are cherished, and who continue to do good work in the world, with PVF in their hearts and minds.
The link to the photo album so far is: https://photos.app.goo.gl/atsD
(Only those who read all the way to the end get to see the pictures. The black and white ones are from a worker in 1969. That's 8 year old Lani driving the tractor in the first photo.)
Fabulous, every bit of the weekend! Everything went smoothly--PVF is clearly a well-oiled machine to pull that off! It was a weekend full of kindred spirits. I've sent link to this post to Robin Poley and Naomi Dworkin who I'm sure will enjoy reading it and seeing the photos.
ReplyDeleteGlad to see all the great photos!
ReplyDelete