Harvest Festival in Shelburne Farms

Last week took placed one of the greatest festival in Vermont: The Shelburne Farms Harvest Festival.

What a amazing place and event, full of great people, delicious food, rural traditions and music! It's a magical place, and this is one of the those events where the word community takes a real form. You walk three steps and you bump into someone you know. It's awesome! It's like a party with all your friends! And it's a great opportunity to spend some good money, buying healthy, local food, some handmade craft, or a warm baked good.

Here is what I got that day:

• a Shelburne Farms bakery-made baguette
• a CD of harp and dulcimer - the musicians were right there playing, so it was a direct contribution to their own economy
• brownies to help Hands to Honduras, a local non profit
• lots of roasted corn (yum!)
• ham and Shelburne Farms cheese sandwiches (another big yum!)

Tickets were $8 for adults and $5 for kids, not expensive for a day full of fun and farm learning.

Here are some of friends I bumped into (and there were a few more I did not ask to take a photo because I felt too weird):

Shelburne Farms

hay rain

art in the middle of the forest

cars, cars, and cars (oh well, we had to get there somehow)

farm machinery

Cliff and Maria

Connie and Dominic

Peter Shumlim

(politicians never miss a chance to campaign)

Jeff, Bob and Pat

Roxana and hubby

Oscar, Kari and baby

with Lori and Lynn

Lucy and her daughters, Ella and Julia

Linda of Hands To Honduras

Marcela

Ruben, Estela, Ale and Bella

Megan of Shelburne Orchards

Kevin, Constancia and Lucia

Juan Pablo and Eduardo

Ursula and Florencia

dear Juanita

802

When you see these three numbers, you know.

8 0 2.

Yes! You feel pretty much the same as when you read, hear the name, or connect with someone from, the most beautiful state in the country, the state I live in, the state we much love:

V E R M O N T!

By Glenn Russell for the Free Press, with his permission

If you think of 802 as a significant number, one that triggers good old - and current - memories, and one that you would love to see printed even on your clothes, check the website of UVM grads, designers and founders of TophDaddy Designs.

These two young ladies, Becky and Melissa, have created an cool company and a great line of clothing inspired by the idea of area codes as numbers that automatically make you think about a place. Or maybe about the many phone conversations you made to someone special over there.

Their designs are about connecting and going to the basics of picking up the phone or conversing face to face with people, stopping spontaneously someone on the street and asking why she or he is wearing an 802 shirt. Or a 212, or a 671 one, depending on what is wearing whoever you stop on the street. The whole world does not live in Vermont, Mariana.

When I interviewed these women for a business story printed today in the Burlington Free Press, they inspired me, they comforted me with the idea that no matter where you are or where you go, you can always connect with someone who has shared something in common with you.

I did not ask them if they buy organic, fair-traded cotton or if they manufacture their tees locally because the story was not about that, but the concept behind their company really made me want to spend my money on their products. I would totally buy that.

Courtesy of TophDaddy