Saturday was a frigid, blustery day, and I spent most of it outside at the Mother Earth News Fair. My mom had wanted to go, so I bought passes for us a few months ago. But Saturday morning rolled around and she wasn’t feeling well, so I recruited my friend Carrie to go with me instead. She’s a good sport.

I went in to the day thinking that the Mother Earth News Fair was pretty much a hippie festival. It turns out it’s more about homesteading and farming, both of which I believe hippies are into. So I guess I was partially correct.

But the fair was about other things, too. Like mead, wood-fired ovens, and “prepping.”

Lots and lots of prepping.

I have mixed feelings about the prepping movement. On one hand, I would like to be prepared for a natural disaster or something that would knock power out for awhile, etc. On the other hand, I’ve read a lot of dystopian and post-apocalyptic fiction, and I’m not keen on living in a society where I’d have to get into a knife fight over a piece of beef jerky or a shoelace. So it might be best for me if I stay unprepared for that sort of scenario, so I meet my demise swiftly after the doomsday event.

Anywho.

I only went to a few of the presentations, and I wasn’t overly impressed with them. There were a lot to choose from, though, so maybe I just picked a few duds. The expo area was pretty fun to explore, though, and I tried a number of new things there. Such as:
– I patted a tiny goat.
– I tasted five varieties of hickory syrup, which until Saturday I didn’t know existed.
– I tried several flavors of hemp soda and didn’t care for any of them.

I bought a jar of sweet and spicy pickles from GR Picklers. They are delicious and so spicy that I can only eat one little pickle chip at a time. Speaking of spicy, I also bought a jar of Fire Cider. It’s apple cider vinegar with a touch of habanero and horseradish, among other things. It tastes terrible. I bought it for Rockford’s dad, who takes apple cider vinegar every day and loves horrifically spicy things. I haven’t gotten a report back from him on his opinion of it yet.

Other cool things I saw at the fair:

This wreath was made from succulents, and it was lovely and oddly soothing to gaze upon. It was also $70, which is why I did not bring it home with me.

The hand-forged garden tools from Homestead Iron in Missouri were so beautiful that I don’t know if I’d be able to put them in the dirt. They looked very sturdy, and they come with a lifetime guarantee. I was very, very tempted to buy one, but I didn’t because I was low on funds and I don’t do much gardening. Carrie bought a trowel, though. I look forward to finding out how much she loves it and then buying one of my own from their website.

I don’t normally make a practice of accepting free cookies from people in trucks, but I made an exception for the King Arthur Flour people. The King Arthur Flour truck is ridiculously cute, with a big red spatula on the top and a rolling pin bumper on the front. They were matching donations made to the local food bank, so I left some money and took two cookies and a recipe for their chocolate chip oatmeal cookies.

Other than the Arctic winds, it was a nice way to spend a Saturday. I’m not sure I’d buy a pass for the full weekend again — we didn’t go back on Sunday — but I’d like to go again next year just for the expo.