It was a good mead day, yesterday. Fall has come, and that means fresh apple cider has hit the farm stands. Here in New England, there are two kinds of farm stands; the ones where the family is involved, running things in the spirit of Yankee ingenuity, and those where it’s all about profit. I’ll grant you, there are places that find a balance, but sometimes, our reputation for cute kitsch gets the best of us. In my hunt for new partnerships in this new place I’m living, I’ve found both.
New Englanders can find ourselves charging outrageous amounts of money for items purchased across town, or worse yet, over the Internet, but displaying them as if they were hand-made. We put them out for the leaf-peepers who flock here from New Jersey and New York. It’s our own version of tourist season, and it makes us greedy.
I still haven’t found that partnership that will allow me to barter. I’ll have to wait until winter when easy sales end and dollar fever has dampened. I still managed to secure twelve gallons of cider, though, and now have three barrels, bubbling away.
As for the house… progress. An idea of where it started… with me pulling old carpet, and the same room today.
 
Hope you enjoy today’s chapter. Like myself, Eric and Sookie are settling, but like so many of us in our relationships, what shows on the surface may not be the whole story.
natsgirl1 