I find that the older I get the more I want to go back to simpler things. Not that I don't love my computer! It's the greatest thing since sliced bread! Especially because I can use it to find and connect with local artist, local farmers and local craftsmen that I would never have known were out there! I recently subscribed to a site called "LocalHarvest.org". It's great. It emails me about local foods, farmers markets and events that I may never have heard about. As a matter of fact, my last notification told me about a festival to be held in Unityville, PA at the Worthington Acres Alpaca farm. This is a little over an hour from where I live. They offer many services to local Alpaca farmers, they will process wool in bulk quanities and they sell spinning wheels. You can also buy their spun yarns and felted soaps. More importantly . . . you can take lessons to learn how to SPIN!!! Eureka! My first lesson is in June. I can't wait. In the meantime, I plan on attending the Alpaca Shearing and Spinning demo festival on May 22nd! Just Google Worthington Acres Alpacas and you will find their site. Prior to this serendipitous email, the only place I knew that offered spinning lessons was Mannings near Harrisburg which would have been a much longer drive and much harder to get there.
I also have to plug my friend, Andzia, who sells Baltic Amber jewelry. Her website is Amberjewelry.com and her shop is right on Main Street in Scranton. Andzia doesn't just "sell" Amber . . . she "lives and breathes" Amber. Before I was tutored by her in the amazing history and properties of Amber I just thought it was a pretty yellow stone. If you don't know about Amber, you need to either go to her site which has a lot of time and effort put into it so that you too can learn about Amber, or else go and talk to her. Be cautioned however, I've gone from thinking it's "just pretty" to feeling that I will not be complete until I get my own Amber!
I also found out about a cool home delivery service on the Internet, called EIO (as in "Old MacDonald had a Farm). They deliver Hillside Dairy milk, butter, ice cream and other local products such as cheese, bakery bread, cage free organic eggs, organic meats, and now they offer locally grown vegetables and fruit! How wonderful, I'm supporting local farmers, getting fresh wholesome foods, saving gas because it's delivered to my door . . . and because I can order online and I'm not running to the store all the time for these staples, I have more time to knit, crochet, and soon spin!
On Craigs List I found European Treasures. They were looking for distributors for their Summer Hill Botanicals soap and other bath and body products. Once again, locally made! These soaps are wonderful. Natural ingredients and aromatic scents combined to make soaps and lotions that feel wonderful, make your skin soft and supple while offering aromatherapy at the same time. I haven't bought a commercial bar of soap ever since I used my first lathery bar of this stuff. You can find European Treasures in Exeter at the Warehouse Shoppes and on the web at europeantreasures.net. You can also buy Polish and Spanish pottery there at great prices.
A little further up the road in Exeter is my friend, Dom's farm. He hasn't gotten into the whole Internet thing, his niece is working on getting him going in that direction. Now here's a guy who has felt the sting of the "warehouse mentality" that, in my opinion, is the ruination of America. Yah, their stuff is cheap . . . but so is the quality. I see people loading up at Dollar stores with all these little chintzy chotchkies or hedgkey medgekies (I don't know the spelling, I just know it means decorative junk you could live without!). But to go and spend a few bucks for some quality flowers feels like an extravagance. I walked through Dom's greenhouses the other day and took some beautiful pictures. As I walked around I noticed that I was surrounded by the scent of earth and sweet flowers . . . not the smell of pesticides and fertilizers that I would get at Lowes. I was not bombarded with "attention shopper, blue light special, security to front desk" announcements. Instead I was serenaded by birdsongs, some butterfly wings beating against the greenhouse walls and an occasional bee as it droned by. If you'd like to enjoy some real flowers in a real greenhouse, you can find Dominic Culver's Greenhouses on Packer Ave. (across from the Fox Hill Country Club). To get there, take Route 11, turn on Tunkhannock Ave. which will take you to Packer Ave. If that's too far, please visit a real greenhouse and buy real flowers from people who have worked and toiled to bring you the best quality plants and vegetables grown locally.
When I left Dom's yesterday, I took the long way home which took me past Hillside Farms in Dallas. Up on the hill were about 20 to 30 cows wandering around in the pasture. I smiled to myself and thought . . . that's where my milk comes from! Its not from cows that are lined up like prisoners and force fed antibiotics and hormones. They were happy cows . . . which made me happy!
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