Clodhopper Farm – October, 2006
This past weekend we went to northeastern Pennsylvania to pick up Finn, our Border Collie, who was finishing his latest round of herding training. We took advantage of the trip to stay with Marilyn and John Anthony, two friends of many years who own a cabin in nearby Springfield. John is a musician, music producer and potter and Marilyn is a very successful professional in the dining world who gave it all up to open a restaurant in a former garage in Montrose which specializes in locally grown, organic and naturally raised products. The restaurant – the Summerhouse Grill – has been a huge success in terms of drawing and pleasing customers but also in terms of Marilyn’s real motivation, which is to create a support mechanism for the many local farmers who produce fresh products on a small farm scale.
Marilyn and John’s cabin sits on the side of a mountain in this very rural area which is served mostly by single lane dirt roads. John has his studio and kiln in another building and they own a fair amount of land surrounding their place. On this land is an old farmhouse that had fallen into disrepair and they were fortunate enough to meet Seamus, who now lives there with his cow and a few chickens. Seamus is a wiry little Irishman who plays the mandolin and guitar and has a fine Irish tenor voice. He doesn’t pay rent directly but does make repairs – and a lot are needed – to the house in return for being allowed to live there. He’s a bit of a mystery. It’s rumored that he has a PHD in literature and it’s clear that he’s well-educated and smart but his other visible means of income is working on a neighbor’s farm in return for food.
That farm – Clodhopper farm, owned by Pete and Eliza Comly – is just down the road and is one of several local farms that supply Marilyn’s restaurant with meat and produce. So we also had the opportunity to visit Clodhopper. Pete is a stay-at-home dad, taking care of the farm and their three young daughters. Eliza works in the local school system. Their farm is a model of frugality and ingenuity. Almost everything is handmade and mostly from cast-offs from neighbors, including several of their farm buildings. It’s not much to see at first glance but when you listen to Pete talk about what he does and how much he loves it, its clear that the world would be better off with a few more Petes. A recent innovation about which he probably has mixed emotions is the switch from plowing his fields with a horse-drawn team to using a beat up old tractor. They raise chickens, turkeys, pigs and beef along with some vegetables and generally sell directly to consumers or people like Marilyn.
Aside from seeing their place and meeting all these great people, we had the opportunity to attend a hootenanny at Pete’s that night. This wasn’t a yuppie type of thing. It was John, Marilyn, Linda and I with Seamus, Pete and Eliza and it was held in their kitchen. The refrigerator was covered with drawings by the girls and the atmosphere was absolutely homey. We drank beer that Pete made from hops grown on his land and stored in 2-liter Pepsi bottles and ate desert that Marilyn had brought along. Seamus played the mandolin and guitar; Pete played the banjo (a new one that Eliza got for him that replaced the one he’d made himself); and John brought along his Bodhran drum. Seamus had written most of the songs and did all the singing. When the kitchen started to get a little cold Pete went outside for a few logs to put in the wood-fired kitchen stove. Half the time we talked, mostly about world events, and half the time we listened to music.
As we left Clodhopper I glanced over at my 2005 Ford pickup and then at Pete’s patched and rusted Dodge that probably sported parts from several different years. I looked around at Pete’s farm, with its home-made structures, his handmade chicken plucker and the sagging tractor. And I realized that Pete and Eliza are happy people with a purpose. I also realized that they were some of the luckiest people I’d ever met.
Folks who are interested should check out Clodhopper’s web site (http://clodhopperfarm.com/). Pete is a much better and more reliable blogger than I am.
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