A weekend at the Common Ground Fair

Annual Unity festival celebrates 31st year

By Hillary Leeman

Posted on Sept. 24, 2007, at 12:00 a.m.

Have you ever heard of the Common Ground Fair? Well, I have, and I was there this weekend to discover the amazing world of organic living. The Maine Organic Farmers and Growers Association throws this fair every year, and this time, I decided to fully immerse myself into this delightful culture.

After going to the volunteer tent to get my free admission, T-shirt and meal in exchange for four hours of my time, I found that all of the volunteer work had been taken by 10 a.m.

Wandering over to the livestock area, there was a demonstration on how to bomb proof -or train – your horse. I hung around here for a few minutes, watching a Percheron/Welsh Cob draft trot around the ring to the sounds of a young woman’s clicks and chirps. The mare had no ropes or halters attached to her and still followed the girl around the ring as though she was the herd leader. After the girl pulled a plastic bag over the horse’s ears like a hat, a loud speaker caught my attention.

A short walk away, I found a sheep dog demo in progress, but it wasn’t what I expected. Inside the pen, I watched the shepherds use a breed of animal for herding sheep that I had never seen before. Several humans worked together to chase a group of sheep around a course and into a pen. After nearly 10 minutes, they finished up with two of the sheep and five pinto-colored ducks trapped between three cones. The shepherds congratulated the group for making excellent time, and then showed how sheep dogs could manage to complete the same tasks in about five minutes. Obviously, these dogs were far better at their job than the people were. These sheep dogs would work 24 hours a day if their shepherds didn’t “turn them off,” giving them the signal to play. Once they heard the right whistle, the dogs were free to catch frisbees, entertain themselves with a soccer ball and mingle within the crowd to receive scratches and praise.

After giving them a quick pat, I managed to squeeze myself out of the crowd and stumble into the fleece tent. It was here that I bought a skein of “bunny blend” made mainly from angora rabbits so I could make a hat. I traveled through the fairgrounds for quite some time, discovering all kinds of things that piqued my interest.

Learning that I could sleep easier and keep my face moisturized, I bought some dried lavender and chamomile for myself. I made out with far more than a dozen free bumper stickers, pins, magnets, coasters, pamphlets and even a comic book, all about causes that I believe in.

I argued with a Willie Nelson look-a-like about the legalization of marijuana and talked about democratic high schools with an old friend. Numerous petitions floated around for different causes while I sampled just about every fragrance of soap from the Carrabasset Soap Company. When I came to the vendor giving out free samples of his organic maple-roasted cashews, I remembered how hungry I was.

Up until this point, I was having a marvelous time at the fair checking out all of the livestock exhibits and seeing the sights. However, I hadn’t been thinking about the fact that MOFGA had that word “organic” in it’s name. What is organic, anyway? In addition to a pledge not to use pesticides or herbicides, it involves the health of the dirt where you’re growing the plants and raising the animals. You also need to make sure that you’re not disturbing the natural microscopic life that lives within the soil. That’s something I can appreciate – who likes upset microbes?

Armed with this knowledge, I wandered into the many lanes of food vendors to pick an organically grown lunch. The only downside to the food was the price. Sadly, one major problem with organic food is that it costs more to produce it. For example, if a farmer doesn’t use herbicides, then this increases the amount of manual labor needed for pulling weeds out by hand.

Even so, it seems that most farmers don’t mind the extra work. Lisa Turner, 47, of Freeport, Maine had great things to say about growing organic food and about the fair itself.

“Let’s just say I’ve been here a s–ton of times,” she told me. Her favorite part of the fair is the “Ag-Talks” – agricultural lectures for those not up on their organic farmer lingo. “Truth be told, I really just come back for the strawberry creampuffs,” she said jokingly. Her employee, Gail Taisey, 28, told me that she loves watching the sheep dog demos and that her favorite food is the lamb kebobs, “which are kind of connected,” Lisa said, chuckling to herself.

I found dozens of fruits and vegetables that had been judged by certified experts. However, there was something odd about the number of blue ribbons. There seemed to be just about as many blue ribbons as there were entries. Fortunately, I was able to talk with one of the entrants for a few minutes about why there were so many.

“All of the varieties must be named,” Amy LeBlanc said, who showed me her first place Jack-Be-Little pumpkin – the small kind that fit into your palm. There is a given set of criteria for each variety that is used to judge the entries, such as smoothness of shoulders on the JBL pumpkins. Judges also look for insect damage, poor nutrition, disease, size and color differences and immaturity. “First place goes to all entries that are well-grown, good examples of [a] variety,” Amy said. This made me realize why there were so many blue ribbons – every entrant was just damn good at taking care of their produce throughout its entire organic life.

I asked Amy about her cherry tomatoes that had won the “Judge’s Pick” and were planted in a small window box found in many local apartments. She said that they were a very unique variety called “Andrina” that were originally grown by Joe Cavanaugh, whose Web site is called “History You Can Eat.” The plants that he produces are all grown from seeds that are of the same genetic makeup as when they were first cultivated years before. She offered me a few of the seeds from her plants and told me to get help starting them. With a little luck, I may be able to get a few to grow. Who knows, maybe next year I’ll be able to come back to the Common Ground Fair and win the “Judge’s Pick” with my very own Andrina cherry tomatoes.

Campus Currents: Common Ground Fair