In Which Farmer John Has a Snack

The Luxembourg airport looked likeTHIS:

Needless to say, we weren't going anywhere fast. Our flight was delayed. Then it was cancelled. Then we were re-routed on a Heathrow flight, which was, of course, delayed. Farmer John decided he needed a SNACK. He bought a blueberry smoothie and THEN decided vending machine chips would make for a perfect pair. He pondered the choices.

He very carefully counted out the required euros for the transaction (I believe he opted for paprika flavored potato crisps, in the end).In the money went! But the machine would not TAKE his money!! Farmer John was taken by surprise when the money comes clattering out into the change bin.He tried again. Maybe the first time was a fluke? Those chips, after all, looked mighty tasty.Farmer John was shocked! Once again, the machine refused his coinage! What the hell, machine?! Give the man some CHIPS!
Farmer John, however, was a good sport. He resigned himself, with a bittersweet smile, to his chip-less fate.
He achieved a stoic, philosophical, anthroposophic attitude toward the chip machine as he prepared his blueberry smoothie.
He tenderly inserted the straw.

And, gracefully, he made do with his non-chipped fate with the best straw-suckin' face in Luxembourg. Here's to you, Farmer John.

In Which We Wrap Up Germany and Want to Take it Home as a Present

FJ and I are back in our luxury suite in the 'burg. You know, that little Grand Duchy we like to use as a bookend for our trips to Germany. The hotel was quick to give us our favorite room 700 at the same discounted price as the last time. Either this means we're awesome, or this room is only worth the discounted price (maybe less) and they are rubbing their duchy hands together and silently giggling with glee. "Estupid Americans!" They say. "So easy to take advantage of!" Except probably not "estupid" but that was the only way I could make it sound accented and I don't know how to write a Luxembourgish accent.

Reason #429 why I like Farmer John: Farmer John is in a very pensive mood tonight, pondering all these things we have seen and done in the last bit of time, and planning his next steps in his farm's 22 year plan. Yet, even when pensive, staring fixedly at a certain spot in the table and absentmindedly twirling a martini glass, one notices the very carefully folded napkin tucked into his sweater, placed there specifically due to the delightful complimentary accent it adds to his outfit.

Reason #430: Farmer John, over there on his computer, exclaimed "I'm COSMIC right now!" He kind of IS.

Yesterday found us back in Dottenfelderhof (our time there was far from complete when we left it last Tuesday morning). We arrived just in time for lunch (totally on purpose) and then went to speak with Knut, one of the founding pioneers of Dottendfelderhof, and now a 77 year old man with the most AMAZING beard. He spoke English quite well, though not as well as he would like, and we were able to gain his perspective on the past 40 years of the farm - what it was when it began, how it has changed, how it is going forward. I spent the whole time wanting to pet his beard. He was kind enough that maybe he would've let me, but I didn't ask. That's him to the right there, in a stalkery picture I took when I first encountered his facial magnificence.

And then FJ and I drank coffee and chatted and then we were off so FJ could lead a class with Dottenfelderhof's group of biodynamic farming students, many of whom were already farmers and were looking to explore the biodynamic method, and FJ talked about his explorations with farming and his findings with all the farms he had visited and it was a whole mix of english and german and hilarious translations back and forth ("Irony? What is this word, irony?" [frantic looking up in the single german/english dictionary on the table] "Here it is!! It's... um, irony. Ee-ron-ee."), and it was a great hour and a half and we ended with looking at pictures of FJ's farm and then watching Lesley Littlefield Freeman's Farmer John video and then the GRAND FINALE, Lesley's "Four More Times", available HERE: http://www.lesleylittlefield.com/video.html. It got stuck in EVERYONE'S head for the rest of the night. It's super catchy!

We also did lots more awesome farm stuff, like drink Dottenfelderhof Riesling and go talk to Dottenfelderhof's in-house biodynamic scientist about the connection between the moon, constellations and planting, and talk to their orchard and vegetable guy about building warmth in the farming process and whether horses were a good means of doing so and how to continually enhance the farming experience, and we ate more homemade bread and jam and soup and cheese and also Heidi, our favorite Australian translator, took us to see the cows and dairy, and then we stayed a bit longer today than expected (juuuust long enough to have lunch before we left) and hopped in the car and took the scenic route through a gorgeous national park back to Luxembourg and walked to dinner and saw THESE:

Life, in these crazy times, is good.

In Which I Make a Shocking Discovery

I learn more things every day.

Today I learned how an electric fence works. Twice! It's a strange endorphin rush to be slightly electrocuted. I swear, though, it wasn't like I touched a fence and was all "oooh 'tricity I LIKE it" and then promptly became a voltage junkie and went around trying to find electric fences to touch. I was just THAT stupid two times (though they happened at two different locations, and the fences were v. different from each other, plus the second fence was holding in donkeys and I consider it a BOOBY TRAP to have donkeys held behind electric fences that one cannot help but touch in an effort to pat those donkeys on their schnozzes. How can you resist this face???).




The morning started off, however, with the effort of dragging myself out of bed, eating chocolate cereal and coffee for breakfast in an effort to get to some level of awakeness whether through sugar or caffeine, and then jumping in the car with Farmer John, our host Tadeu, and his daughter Charlotta. Off we WENT to the organic farm research center, and were met by the MOST amazing and enthusiastic gentleman of our acquaintance thus far, Ulrich. Ulrich was in love with his research and in love with exploring new and alternative means of studying the wide world of organic food. He started off our morning with telling us he had put silica in all the paint on the interior walls of the research center, as silica promotes liveliness. If at any point we were feeling less-than-lively, we should put our hand on the wall and voila! Instant jolt of energy. Farmer John, feeling the same way I was feeling that morning, immediately put his hand to the wall. Ulrich also supplied us with muscatel grapes infused with energy-giving dew, and he excitedly told us that we should eat a kilo of these grapes a day, and if we do so we would have SO much stamina and only need four hours of sleep a night!! And THEN he provided us with espresso and told us his most recent experience in the realm of the alternative and regaled us with the tale of his own daughter, who for years had these attacks of stomach pains, and no doctor could find anything wrong and they were at a loss as to how to cure her. Finally, in desperation, he called a friend involved in alternative research while his daughter lay writhing on the ground. His friend directed him to press on various points on her ear and to relay to him what points hurt the most when prodded. From this information, this Alternative Scientist determined Ulrich's daughter's Inner Note, i.e. the sound frequency in which she existed, and Ulrich was then instructed to fill a bottle of water and place the bottle on top of a piano. With his daughter in the room, Ulrich played, over and over again, the note to which his daughter was so indelibly intwined and then had his daughter drink the now note-infused bottle of water. She drank it. They waited. She hasn't had an attack in the five years since. And I cannot, for the life of me, figure out the right google term to find the page that will tell me how to figure out what my OWN note is. Oh fate!

Continuing on, apparently the dew outside exists on frequencies that, when paired with the already life-affirming muscatel grapes, creates a powerhouse of vibrant energy one can tap into if one consumes enough of the fruit, seeds and all. Ergo, five minutes later, one found me leaning wholeheartedly against the silica wall, clutching bunches of grapes in my fists and downing them as fast as I could (half) chew them. I ate so many, in fact, that the natural acid of the grapes began to burn my tongue and the sides of my mouth.

Two walls, five bunches of grapes, three cookies, four espressos and a few hours later, still exhausted, I shocked myself on the first electric fence. One eye sprang open. After jolt number two, I was wide awake.

Shock therapy, people. Better than caffeine.

In Which I Learn Things and Tell You About Them

Today I learned how adept cow's tongues are. One calf kept trying to swoop my hand into its mouth and it very nearly succeeded.

I learned to stand in a field and attempt to feel what happens when I concentrated on my left hand and then have my right hand come to join the left, and then tried to experience the difference between standing in a newly plowed furrow vs. standing on a field with sprouts of various sorts coming up around me.

I learned the drive along the Rhein has so many CASTLES. Why so many? Why don't I have one?

I learned a valuable lesson in navigating foreign traffic - I attempted to work my way around what seemed to be a totally stopped and unmoving line of traffic in an impossibly picturesque town somewhere along the majestic Rhein waterway and only succeeded in driving right into the middle of a very pedestrian cobblestone street right at the top of an incredibly steep and narrow road. I then was able to experience, for the very first time, the lovely feeling of having 50 incredulous Germans stare as I more-or-less successfully backed all the way down the way I came, only forcing ONE van to back up and let me by as I very stubbornly kept backing my way down and wound my way BACK to the terrible back up, which by that point was moving again (yay!) only to stop again very suddenly (boo). Turns out all those cars were waiting for trains to pass so they could get across the tracks to the main motorway. The gates would come up, three cars would get through, the gates would go down, ten minutes would pass, a train would finally come shooting by, the gates would come up, three cars would get through... and so on and so forth.

I learned that land mines are everywhere - I was exploring the biodynamic research center we visited today and, in attempts to get into every nook and cranny, I went to explore this great looking outdoor fountain setup. Before I stepped into that area, I was quick enough to notice there were several dug out holes where buckets filled with water were stored, a veritable booby trap. I smugly patted myself on the back for being so aware of my surroundings as I picked my way through the recessed small pools. My pants are still drying in the car.

I learned that traveling means never enough sleep, and I learned that I am quite okay with this. Well, as long as there's coffee.

In Which We Begin to Explore Farms. Biodynamically.

Today was the first true day of assistant-ship to my farming friend. Up we were, bright and early, to take leave of the city of Luxembourg and head out to its more suburban areas. About 25 minutes north (I THINK north. let's just say north) of the city we reached our first real farm - that of Anja, Tom, and their three ridiculously adorable children. Anja and Tom were in year 2 of a multi-year project of designing - absolutely from scratch - their own biodynamic farm. They had gathered most of the funding, the land, and the close-to-final architectural plans for the project. This NEW farm is to be located just down the street from the farm where they CURRENTLY reside, i.e. Tom's father's farm, which causes no end of heartache as although Tom's father is retired and has given over the operation to his son, he is still fully entrenched in the goings ons of daily activities and firmly refuses to reside anywhere but in the past. Needless to say, Tom and his family are eager to move into their own space. Farmer John, Anja and Tom spent around 5 hours exploring both their current situation and their future situation, and I, of course, spent most of MY time taking pictures of adorable animal noses.

I also managed to find a satanic baby goat...

...and a bunch of other goat butts to boot(ie).

As you can probably tell, my job is v. demanding.

After an entirely too satisfying lunch of these savory torts that I am determined to somehow mimic (one was made of beets and apples, the other of carrots and other shredded stuff), Anja led us to Schank-Haff, the next farm on our list (this one fully developed). At this particular biodynamic farm, they not only grew carrots and potatoes, but also had a dairy operation, a cheese-making facility, a farm store (open two days a week), and a small bakery. Their dairy cows, by the way, did nothing but stare.

We also spent a good amount of time ogling machinery. Okay, JOHN spent a good amount of time ogling machinery. That's, like, his thing. If that happens to be your thing as WELL, then remind me to send you photos. I can fuel your machinated dreams with potato pickers/sorters, carrot pickers/sorters, carrot washers, earth tillers, spikey things, rumbly things, etc.

I will show you ONE piece of machinery, however. This is called a football (in American that would be "soccer") car: I don't know how it works, exactly, but there's mesh for a windshield and something big attached to the front bumper. Hos's (the farmer and our host) son does this kind of thing as his hobby.

To prove to you I tell you only the truth, here is the starey dairy:

Also, there's a good reason for all that potato machinery mentioned above - freakin' so many potatoes my eyes almost fell out (or maybe the POTATO'S eyes almost fell out! Ah hahahahhahaaa!). This was just a small part of the whole (we were in the dedicated potato cellar):

Remember that show Chip and Dale Rescue Rangers? And then there was the slightly overweight mouse pilot who couldn't resist cheese, and when he smelled it his eyes would bulge, his moustache would sproing into a lightning bold-esque shape, and he would defy gravity and lift off the ground? Well anyway, this is some cheese:Oh my gosh and then THEY fed us TOO! I was smart and remembered to take a picture of the spread. In case you're like me, that slab to the right of the bread is not cheese, it is butter. Luckily they told me before I ate an entire hunk. Life is just tastier on farms (not pictured - apple cake and homemade whipped cream, i.e. the love of my life and the bane of my existence; though, let it be said, I drank raw milk all day and have had ZERO ISSUES. Psychological? Maybe).

And now? Now, I sit in a pink hotel, in a room with a lovely bed calling my name. I can ignore it no longer.

In Which We Get An Upgrade

So on LuxAir, even for short flights, they give you a full on SNACK! Little sandwiches, a sugar coated cherry muffin, and then on your way out they give you CANDY. I think it is perhaps my new favorite airline. Too bad it's fairly local to Luxembourg.

I would also have all of you know that I am currently in charge of driving the rental car. Not too significant in and of itself, but this particular rental car is a MANUAL car, the likes of which I have only driven on Nantucket. There were absolutely zero automatic cars available because no one drives the things in Europe really (and when we did a last minute inquiry at the airport, just in case, the looks of incredulity at the very THOUGHT of such a thing were pretty impressive to behold), and so voila! I am now in charge of a manual car, and much like riding a bicycle, I have managed to manuever this vehicle with something approaching ease (just as long as I concentrate very, very hard). Also, there is a major difference between driving a brand new manual car and the beaters I'm used to on Nantucket - I am astounded by how easily the gears shift in our European vehicle.

And so, without even stalling one time, and with the help of the soothing British accent of our GPS guide, I chauffered us to our hotel for the evening. Well, we THOUGHT it was our hotel, except for the slight issue of our lack of reservation. It's not like it never got MADE, we had a confirmation number and everything, it just somehow never got from the internet booking service to the HOTEL. Because they felt so badly about it, they ended up giving us the last room available in the hotel for a substantial discount, i.e. the penthouse suite. Woohoo!! It is not perhaps as penthouse as, say, the Trump Tower, or even the Hilton, but still. There's a jacuzzi, a rolltop desk, a small sitting area, a fake fireplace... it has it all. If we have to share a room, THIS is the way to do it.

And now, a few random shots from our wanders around the city:

Lastly, we did not eat here, as delectable as the sign makes it sound:

Instead I ordered the "hearty salad" at another restaurant - the healthy choice, as it was lettuce, carrots, cucumbers, endive, fried potatoes and an egg over easy on top, all smothered in a hollandaise sauce dressing. It's healthy because I opted out of the bacon.

In Which I Abscond to Europe

It seems like only yesterday I landed in England (because I did) and now I sit in the London City airport awaiting our departure to the last remaining Grand Duchy in the world, Luxembourg. I have a scant 20 minutes before the flight boards, so until there is time to write more, a selection of photos from the journey thus far:

Bruce Henrietta on her first trip to Europe:

A shot of Emerson College, a small school in Forest Row based on the teachings of Rudolph Steiner:

Farmer John striking a pose in the Eurythmy studio (background: all the different eurythmy poses, each representing a different sound):

My angelic halo by the stained glass window (also in the strikingly pink eurythmy studio):
Farmer John's beloved swisher sweets. He doesn't smoke them, but rather enjoys the flavor of their wrappings. I transported twenty cases to him from the states as he was running dreadfully low... when he first said he was sending me a case to transport along, I was DELIGHTED to have so much CANDY with me. When they arrived, I realized the "sweets" had nothing to do with tasty sugar:
Lastly, taken just a moment ago, Farmer John matches the menu:
I think I have a few more moments before I have to log off... for those who have zero idea as to what, exactly, I'm doing over here (and who have grown frustrated with my answer of "uhhh... looking at farms? Biodynamic farms? And I think we're going to be in a few different countries?"), I present to you a few different links:

My traveling companion (and instigator of the trip), Farmer John:

this is his film: http://www.angelicorganics.com/ao/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=148&Itemid=182

this is his farm website: www.angelicorganics.com

The purpose of the trip is to view and tour biodynamic farms, gain information, and take it back to the states so he can continue to develop his OWN biodynamic farm. What is biodynamic farming, you ask? Thank goodness for wikipedia...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biodynamic_farming

That link is part of a series on Anthroposophy, the driving philosophy behind Farmer John's endeavors. Verrrrrry interesting, Farmer John...

On to Luxembourg!