Unexpected Finds are Rejuvenating
Driving home last week, exhausted after our two weeks away, and very sick of being in the car, we were approaching the final stretch of road before D.C.: Gettysburg and Frederick. As I was aimlessly staring out the window near Gettysburg, a homemade (but very legible) sign on the side of the road caught my eye: ‘Small Farmers Love Their Jobs’. ‘Okay’, I thought…’interesting’. About a half mile down the road, there was another sign—something along the lines of ‘And You’ll Love Their Food’. This immediately perked me up. The signs continued for the next 3 miles, with phrases like ‘We have the ripest plums around’; ‘Do you like Tomatoes?’; ‘We have tomatoes!’; ‘Sweet Corn!’; ‘We sell pottery too’; and‘You know you want a mug…’.
Gettysburg Countryside
Needless to say, I started reading these signs out loud to Justin. The final sign said something like ‘If you want the freshest fruit AND amazing pottery, turn here.’ Uhh, okay! Yes, we eagerly turned off the exit, in anticipation of what we might find.
We drove about a mile down the road and came upon an amazing set up: two homes and a huge farm stand. One home was where the couple lived (more about them in a few sentences…) and the other one was completely dedicated to their pottery store/studio. Outside of the studio was a wealth of fresh fruit and vegetables (watermelons, plums, peaches, cucumbers, tomatoes, etc). There were also numerous shelves set up around the yard full of pottery. Before we even had a chance to look around, we were immediately offered a plum and a peach to try because ‘they were amazing’. Okay, first the original signs on the road and now free fruit?! We were completely taken with the whole operation.
Lion Potter's Green Tea Shallow Dragonfly Bowl
We talked with the fruit ‘offerer’, learning that his name was David Young and that he and his wife, Junko, are potters (known as The Lion Potter of Gettysburg) and partner with 27 local farmers in the summer and fall, essentially setting up a daily farmers’ market in tandem with their studio. David and Junko both have extensive, interesting histories with pottery and farms, with David sharing that he had worked with farms and farmers’ markets since he was a young boy. As a cute aside, they have four young children, all of whom help out in some way: the oldest makes pottery and a few of the younger children help with the composting by driving their little vehicles to get the rotten fruit and driving the fruit back behind the house to the compost pile (!!).
Our New Soap Tray
We explored the inside studio as well, picking up a really cool soap tray. Besides all of the pottery, the studio also houses fresh milk and eggs and a huge collection of jams and jellies.
Plums!
We were thrilled with our unexpected adventure and left with a bag full of peaches, plums, and corn on the cob. I am inspired by the Young family’s approach to life and how harmony with nature and the focus on relationships is being instilled in their children and in their day-to-day lives.
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