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.