In a weathered barn strung with twinkle lights, I stood chatting with a farmer who topped his slick hair with a baseball cap. Under the beamed roof, children ate cookies on bales of hay while their parents two-stepped across the creaky floor.

Outside, gaggles of people drank beer and ate slices of wood-fired pizza topped with beets and goat cheese, both local products. Banners flapped in the breeze near the brick oven, declaring “Thank you, farmers” and “Good food helps.” Other people ambled through a garden crowded with hollyhocks, black-eyed Susans and daylilies, where the swell of cricket songs drowned out laughter spilling from the barn. Tents filled with long tables for the party glowed as darkness fell.

I was nearly glowing, too. I had been in Burlington, Vt., for less than 24 hours, and already I felt like an insider.

Lucky travelers happen on a place they like so much that they dream about living there. Burlington — a city of 40,000 set between Lake Champlain and the Green Mountains, with an outdoorsy vibe — pulled on me that way. Except that its residents are so welcoming, I got to pretend that I actually did live there during my weekend visit.

No fewer than four people had invited me to the party — a fundraiser, really, for some growers who had been flooded out that spring. One of them had been the farmer. I’d met him earlier in the day — not at a farm, mind you, but at the art museum where he is a curator.

In the barn, he explained the situation before the auction of donated goods, from a handmade cabinet to a session with a writing coach. The parcel of land we stood on, a 354-acre swath in the heart of the city along the Winooski River, was prone to flooding. No one dared to build homes there, despite its prime location. Instead, it became Intervale Center, a place for start-up farmers to work the land, provided they do it in an environmentally sustainable way — and can endure occasional high water.

The party honored the many who have answered the call. And while I mingled with artists with tattoos, tanned and fit parents of young kids, bearded students from the University of Vermont and my farmer friend, it occured to me: In Burlington, it’s hip to be a farmer — or at least a friend of one…

Full Story: http://www.startribune.com/1513/story/1353990.html
Minneapolis Star Tribune