The week before the Heath Fair is full of activity and anxiety. Rory wanted to enter pickles this year - as he did last year. Last year we somehow got the sugar and the salt mixed up, but the good news is that the judges don't taste the pickles, they just look at the jars. Consistency is paramount. It takes a lot of slicing to make bread and butter pickles. Fortunately, I was once given a really fancy…
The weather has been hot and dry. Our Texas grandsons Anthony and Drew were glad to take a dip in Rowe Pond near-by this past week. They are excellent swimmers after several years on their local swim teams. We left the Pond when we heard thunder, but we never did get the longed for rain. When Kate returned to Heath after tending to other family responsibilities in the eastern part of the state she did a little touring…
The Heath Fair begins for me on Thursday when a loyal crew sets up the Friends of the Heath Library tent, after which we bring in our exhibits. This year I was in charge of bringing in exhibits for Anthony and Drew, and Tynan, as well as my own. Talk about hectic. When we arrived at the Fair on a sunny Saturday morning we found we had lots of winners. All the boys had won ribbons and Rory's…
My 14 year old grandson Rory has been visiting this week and we are busy, especially now getting exhibits ready for the Heath Fair. The other day we made bread and butter pickles, but the jar seals didn't take. You can only imagine our anticipation when we took today's batch out of the hot water bath. Even as I lifted one jar we heard that POP! Then we waited, and didn't touch the jars. But soon, Pop, Pop,…
Pulling Together was the theme for this year’s Heath Fair. After such a cool, wet summer when it was hard to get a good hay crop in and Late Blight hit local farmers, as well as local gardeners who mourned over lost tomato and potato crops, it felt like we were all doing some heavy hauling. It takes a lot of people pulling together to prepare the for the Fair, from the vision and energy…
Pulling Together was the theme of this year's Annual Heath Fair organized by the Heath Agricultural Society and supported one way or another by just about every one of the town's 800 residents so that thousands of area people can enjoy a day in the country and gain a sense of the abundance around us - even in these hard times. It would not be pushing a metaphor too hard to say that it takes a lot of people …
Pam Porter (R), co-president of the Heath Agricultural Society, arranged for Annie Cheatam (L) to come to the Heath Fair and talk about local agriculture. As the former owner of a garden center, and most recently retired after 9 years as the Director of Community Involved in Sustainable Agriculture (CISA) Annie knows a lot about local farms, local gardens, local gardeners and farmers and what they, we, and our communities are doing and what we need. CISA developed…
The Exhibit Hall with its displays of sewing, knitting, canning, baking, quilting, flowers, vegetables, fruits and assorted collections is a center of activity all through Heath Fair days. These exhibits are one of the ways that we celebrate life in our town, the skills of the residents, the creativity and purposfulness of our children, the fertility and beauty of our landscape, and our devotion to the town and its institutions and organizations. The grandsons and I won lots…