The most anticipated shindig in our lives for more than a year has succumbed to the realities of Covid-19:  The Mother Earth News Fair at Polyface.  If you've never been to one of their several fairs around the country in the last decade, you're missing a real treat.  It's the biggest gathering of authentic self-reliance and eco-enhancing practitioners in the world.

             Certainly bigger events themed around integrity food and wellness-in-a-supplement exist, or sustainable ag wrapped around music entertainment, but this one is nitty gritty dirt-under-the-fingernails real.  This is not people pushing organic supplements; it's people pushing growing your own food, generating your own energy (one guy always drives his F150 powered by wood gasification), and your own construction, from pizza ovens to straw bale houses and shipping container retrofitted tiny houses.

             I've had the privilege of doing presentations at most of the fairs over the years and I always come away encouraged by the thousands of people with a mindset to roll up their sleeves and change the future without waiting for academic focus groups and government agencies to credential it or pay for it.  Interestingly, this tribe is divided evenly (MEN commissioned audits to determine their socio-political patron base) between socialists and libertarians, and between religious and non-religious.

             This tent of doing for yourself, of participating in the stewardship of our ecological nest, is a big tent that includes all stripes and types.  You'll find Amish and Mennonites next to dread-locked tattoo-covered Gaia geeks.  The common bond is ecological stewardship which includes growing soil, growing community, protecting water and air, and doing more than talking.

             For the last year MEN and Polyface have been preparing and planning for the first ever on-farm hosting of this magnificent gathering but we all realized last week that it's too many too soon.  Scheduled for July 17-18, we expected 10,000 over the two days and knew that even if it were technically legal, we'd irritate lots of folks for bringing that many people together too soon, and we knew many folks would be uncomfortable to come or be here.  It's not 100 people.

             So rather than wait and drag out the limbo, we went ahead and postponed to the same weekend next year, July 16-17, and hope most folks who have already purchased tickets will roll them over.  More information is available on www.motherearthnewsfair.com.   We're going to do some short videos on their teaching platform to gen up continuity for next year.

             All the other fairs are at public fairgrounds; because this one is on a farm, we can do things that can't be done in those venues.  Like cut trees, make charcoal, mow hay with horse-drawn equipment, move cows, show water systems and pond building.  With legwork largely done, we look forward to next year being better and smoother than we even anticipated for this year.

             Mark your calendar now and let's all take a deep breath, hang in there, and plan to meet next year July 16-17 for the MEN fair at Polyface.

             Were you planning to come?