When I first met my husband in 1971 we used to dream about our ideal home. Inspired by a Beetle Bailey comic strip, we called this mythical place Pork Corners. There was nothing porky about my house on Grinnell Street in Greenfield, but there in the tiny side yard I planted my first vegetable garden. I kissed the friend who came to dinner and brought a load of old horse manure as a thank you.  He sent a basket of apples for the children, but I really liked that manure.

Our neighbors, John and Mary Zon, raised raspberries. And taught us about raspberries.

Next we moved to North Berwick, Maine while I taught for a year. I bought a house and barn, but it was on an almost suburban street. I wasn’t sure this was Pork Corners, so we called it Ant and Bee Farm. We had ants, and bees, and chickens and pigs, and a huge garden, but it only took a year to make us decide to move to The Big Apple.

We lived in Henry’s ancestral apartment where the only animal life was five teenagers. When it was time to leave the little apartment in the big city, we thought about returning to Maine and the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners, but Heath called. End of the Road Farm currently has chickens and cats, but we have had pigs. Once they were slaughtered and butchered right in the  farmyard, while a wet snow fell. I might have been looking at a medieval scene.

We all have dreams about where and how we want to live. I grew up thinking you owned a house or rented an apartment. Nowadays there are many ways to arrange ownership of a home. Together on the Land: Options for Ecological Living in Community is a tour co-sponsored by the Cooperative Development Institute, Equity Trust, Franklin Land Trust, Mount Grace Land Conservation Trust & Valley Community Land Trust scheduled for Saturday, June 12 from 9 to 5. Do you know the difference between a coop, condo, and cohousing? .  Click here for full tour information. Maybe you will find a new way to get your dream home.

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Today, June 5 is also the first day of the new Farmer’s Market in Charlemont. It will be held at Hawlemont School from 10 to 2 pm.  Students from the school will be selling their produce, along with other vendors. If anyone knows of others interested in being vendors they should contact the manager at  jason@penandplow.net who is working at the new Pen and Plow Farm in Hawley.