Pesto, Poultry, Party...

The days have been long (literally) here in Vermont, offering lots of opportunity for the plants and animals (including myself) to grow and run free. In that strainer is my first "pesto harvest", including green and purple basil and a little parsley. Add some grated cheese, nuts, olive oil, and garlic and preso...pesto! I did freeze quite a bit of pesto from last summer for this past winter, but I love this stuff so much that I think it was gone by January.
In addition to pesto, local chicken is in season here in Vermont, thanks to the passing of the "Chicken Bill" (aka H522-The Viability of Vermont Agriculture) this past legislative session, small family farms producing less than 1,000 birds are now able to sell their poultry to restaurants and at farmers markets without going through the costly process of state inspection. My partner Robb worked with Rural Vermont, a farmers' advocacy organization, and helped to get this bill passed! Ironically, he has not eaten chicken for almost 3 years, but he did enjoy some poultry-topped pizza at American Flatbread at Chicken Event 2 last Friday. Here's a picture of him enjoying the fruits (or sho
uld I say meat) of his labor.
Since he was doing something out of the ordinary, I thought maybe I should try something new so, along with nine other brave humans, I dressed up as chicken and did a victory dance. I'm at the front of the flock, with a purple dress under my chicken outfit. These outfits were provided thanks to Bread and Puppet, an awesome political theatre group that has been making people think and laugh for longer than I have been alive.

To top off my weekend, I celebrated the opening of L.A.C.E. (Local Agricultural Community Exchange) in Barre, VT. Ariel Zevon, a friend from Marlboro College, had a vision about a farm fresh market in downtown Barre and on Sunday, her vision became a reality. As part of the festivities, I went to the Jackson Browne benefit concert on Saturday night at the Barre Opera House. Sunday, I spent much of the day hanging out at L.A.C.E., eating yummy local food and enjoying the festivities.
On the knitting front, I have been finishing up this
baby sweater for Robb's godchild. It is a minnowknits pattern and the yarn is Mission Falls cotton. So cute. One other knitting note, is that my friend Symeon (aka Pippikneesocks) has a great article in the summer 2007 Knitty about the dying yarn using a solar oven. Have a look.
I guess all this activity explain my lack of blogging. There's just a short period of time in these parts with this much sunlight and you have to take advantage.