Craft Show at Polyface

One beautiful Saturday morning recently Granny, Hannah, and I loaded up all the baskets, soap, and tent paraphernalia and headed out in the country to Polyface, Joel Salatin's family farm, located down the road in Swoope, Virginia: The Salatins offer farm tours for folks who want a first-hand learning experience, complete with hay-wagon rides to see the pastured broilers and egg-mobile that Joel Salatin is famous for.

This spring they started a monthly event called Free Range Saturdays with "local artisans, seasonal produce, music, tastings, sunshine, and fresh air."

So...off we went to set up our big white craft tent at Polyface with hopes that the folks who were booked for the farm tour would wander over to this side of the farm to check out the artisans. Here's Hannah setting up:Sheri Salatin was setting up her line of beautiful handmade quilts for sale: This jewelry vendor had a nice colorful setup for her wares: I think this is the first time Granny's had her baskets set up in a field, but it was a beautiful area and a perfect day:Hannah arranged her soap display alongside Granny's baskets. Since she's not a vendor at our local farmers' market this season, this was a good venture to try: There were approximately eight to ten vendors this particular Saturday. Here are several tents set up on our side of the lawn:We introduced Granny to the Lunatic Farmer himself, Joel Salatin: We thoroughly enjoyed getting re-acquainted with Joel's mom, Lucille. She also lives on the property and is quite involved with farm life and knows all the many interns by name who come and go constantly on the farm: During part of the morning I browsed the Polyface Farm Store while folks hung out on the front porch waiting for the hay wagon for their tour:I thought this item was quite interesting for sale in the store:Unfortunately, most of the folks who arrived for the farm tour didn't come to shop, but this out-of-state lady stopped by to purchase soap from Hannah: Granny tried her best salesmanship to sell a basket to these girls. She was thankful that the face-painting vendor to our right walked over and purchased a basket before the morning was over:All in all, it was an interesting day. I enjoyed going to help Granny and Hannah and loved talking with some of the folks there.

Polyface would be an even better venue if more folks knew about and were willing to make the drive out for Free Range Saturdays. We appreciate the Salatins offering their farm at no charge for us to come and sell our crafts. Thank you so much!Well...time to pack up and head home until the next craft show comes along.

~Deb

Comments

[victoria]

I've always wondered what their famous farms looks like. Thanks for sharing some photos. Hannah makes the best soaps. I enjoy using her spearmint soap every morning and love her coastal lily for my face. Granny's baskets are a work of art. Hope they sell out at their next venue.

[Tammy C]

wow we pack and move with 3 posts that I missed.Right now we are waiting for the moving truck to arrive with our belongings.

Happy Birthday Granny!

[Barbara J.]

I'm sorry y'all didn't have many customers but it looked like a beautiful day. I'm sure I would have found something to buy if I had been there.

[Jenny]

Glad you had a fun day together :) we always enjoy reading about your adventures!

[Shari]

What fun!!!!!!!!!!

And love Joel's boots! Lol! Creative way to repurpose them! Wonder if anyone purchased them? :)

His
Shari

[Toni]

Hi Deb! Loved the post. I've been to sales where there weren't many sales, too, but they're always fun otherwise. I had no idea you had posted as my reader let me down by dropping your blog for some silly reason. I just got to wondering how y'all were doing and checked and lo, here I've been missing out. Hope all is well with Sarah and the baby. Still praying. :)
Have a great week!
Toni