Jason gives me a nice peek into the Plainfield community by taking me to a couple of fall events. The first is a harvest party, a pot luck featuring one of Jason’s lambs roasted whole and and fresh apple cider. There’s a cold wind, but everyone has themselves and their children wrapped in layers of wool and flannel, and several open fires burn around the yard. I fail to remember the brewer of the excellent keg of oatmeal stout, but I think my favorite part is watching the kids run the cider press. First comes the grinding:

Then the pressing:

I fail to get a photo of the lambs, but some other harvest sights included Jason’s wooly merino ewes and beautiful squash:

Ewes

Squash Bucket

We end the day standing at the back of a town hall packed with four or five generations singing along to Pete Seeger songs. I’ve never seen anything quite like it. Jason’s daughter Ada gets up on my shoulders where she sings and dances in rapt attention for half an hour.