I had planned not to do a zero today and to head out after breakfast. The trail had other plans though. The group that owns the hostel and deli also own a large organic farm in Vermont and they offered to show us the farm and let us do a work for stay. All of the southbounders that I have passed have told me that if you get the chance to go to their farm that you should do it so I decided to zero in Rutland today and do that.
The twelve tribes is a religious community that follows Christianity as it was before the Catholic church came into existence and folds in a lot of Jewish traditions. They live in communities all over the world with the goal of being entirely self sufficient and not rely on the outside world. Most of their communities are farms such as the one we visited today. Each farm is mostly self sufficient but does send extra produce to other communities. This farm is mainly a vegetable farm. About 45 people live and work there along with a woodshop next door.
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| View of the fields from the main compound area |
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| Looking across the fields towards the greenhouse and barns |
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| Everyone gets ready to dig potatoes |
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| The barnyard area |
The work for stay that we did today was digging potatoes. It was easy work and was fun to play in the dirt for the morning. We worked for only about an hour before the lunch bell rang and everyone left the fields to eat. Lunch was terrific and was composed of fresh bread, fresh veggies and even home made cheese and popcorn. Everyone was super friendly and welcomed us as part of their community and wanted to talk to us about our trip.
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| An afternoon swim |
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| Looking upriver from the swimming hole |
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| Looking back across the fields towards the main compound |
After lunch we went across the farm to a river that is on the property. There is a great swimming hole here in the river that is very deep. There is even a 30 foot rock that you can climb up and jump off. We spent a lot of time here relaxing and swimming. I was the only hiker that braved the jump from the rock ledge. It was a lot of fun.
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| Great clouds |
After we were done swimming they took us on a tour of the farm. It is quite the operation and was a lot of fun to see. They focus on sustainable farming techniques which was fun to learn about. They also abstain from a lot of modern technologies, not to the same degree as the Amish but they still use horses in a lot of their field work. Also being all organic they have to find a lot of interesting ways to deal with pests and diseases without pesticides. We also got to sample a number of things as we went including raspberries, cantaloupe, broccoli and sweet corn.
We headed back to town after the tour was finished. The evening was spent hanging around the hostel. I ate at the deli for dinner which was great. Their food is fantastic and all of the produce is so fresh. After a quick trip to Wal-Mart with Handstand, I went back to the deli and hung out with Srocket and Beetlejuice who caught up with me today. I also met Apollo and an AT hiker also named Handstand. We had thought about going out for drinks later but everyone crashed quickly instead.
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