Tonight’s wine was poured from a pitcher into wine cups thrown and fired less than three miles from our farmhouse.  Bradford Pottery. Dinner was roasted rosemary chicken raised on pasture just down the road.  Goat cheese on bread baked in a cast iron pan, both bought at the farmer’s market this morning.  I spoke to the people who provided these foods.  We are blessed to live in an area where farmers live too.  And they are trying to make a living from farming.  What they are making for certain is a community that is stronger because they are here. Connecting us to the land, to one another.  We hear their stories of weather related crop failures,  of livestock losses because of predators.  We begin to understand that food should be not cheap because the price of farming is high, often requiring a full time job off the farm as well as the full time job on the farm.  Most working people today can barely find time to grow tomatoes much less raise their own meat, run a dairy, plant corn and wheat.  Thank God for farmers, and thank your local farmers when you see them at the farmer’s market.