PASA Day Two

What I didn't mention about day one is that we had breakfast at the Blue Dog Diner attached to the Autoport Motel and Lounge where we stayed. They don't really have any info on their website about the diner, but let me tell you it was delicious. Homemade white bread toast, farmfresh eggs and bacon, and really good roasted potatoes. Rebby had oatmeal. When we got to the conference site though we discoved that there was a free continental breakfast so the next two days we opted for that. So Friday we rolled up and got some coffee and bread and yogurt and boiled eggs and cheese and fruit and picnicked in the hallway. (one big problem I would have to mention is the lack of available places to sit and eat for meals that weren't in the main hall. People were jocking for position against the wall) After finishing our breakfast we took our seats in the Presidents Hall for the opening remarks.
Everyone who spoke was very inspiring---the new Dean of the agriculture school at Penn State, the new head of the PA Dept of Agriculture, and the Board President and Executive Director of PASA. The main event for me and Rebby, though was Michael Reynolds, founder of Earthship Biotechture. He gave a wacky, entertaining and inspiring speech that was about a lot of things besides Earthships. Mostly about the fact that government regulations which are supposedly there to protect citizens generally keep citizens from doing what they want to do. I gotta say a lot of what I heard at the conference had something to do with "know the laws, but don't let them stop you from doing the right thing." If I had to pick one message to sum up the conference, that would be it.
Michael got people all riled up and then it was time to grab our bag lunches and head to the first set of workshops.
I went to a really, really informative talk on Biodynamics. I've been interested in it since I somehow stumbled upon this book way back in the late 80s. My first attempts at a garden at the original Melwood house were inspired by this book. Biodynamics has a lot of really intuitive components and some sort of out there components, but it was in general a fascinating introductory lecture. The main thing I took away from it was to think of the whole farm as an organism. Biodynamic farmers believe for instance that if you feed your animals(which could include worms eating scraps from vegetables produced on your land, or chickens and horses and cows and goats grazing it)from your land, they will poop out what is needed to fertilize the land. That's why you should not feed animals grain from somewhere else, and why you should use manure or compost produced on your farm. Fascinating. The whole burying dung in a cow horn for half the year thing is a little harder to follow, but apparently it works. And I really like the idea of paying attention to the spiritual needs of the garden.
While I was learning about Biodynamics, Rebby went to a talk on edible forest gardens. She was definitely convinced by what that man was saying and has a lot of ideas to incorporate in our garden once we officially get the deed to the land. I can't wait!
We opted out of the PASA awards banquet and instead headed off on our own for dinner to Otto's Pub and Brewery for dinner and some local brew. By the most magical of coincidences, my old Albuquerque roomie Sean was there having dinner with his family! Also magically, his parents are the owners of the restaurant. What?!? I totally picked it based on the fact that we wanted some local beer and local food. In chatting with Sean, we uncovered the fact that his college buddy Jeff designed the menu at Otto's, at the Autoport, and the original menu at the Quiet Storm back before I was involved. And, he is currently in the kitchen at the Penn Stater where the conference was being held. I couldn't make this stuff up. Anyhow, we had an awesome talk with Sean and some incredible food and beer. I drank the Schwarzbier at the restaurant with my steak frites and local mushroom and cheddar puff pastry appetizer, and then we brought home a couple bottles of Jolly Roger Imperial Stout. Holy moly is it good. Rebby had a brisket sandwich and a Red Mo which she then brought home a bottle of as well. Amazingly good times.
We made it back to the hotel before it got too snowy and turned in early.