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Storm of Characters

We are in a bit of a lull in our trip.  Though we were supposed to be in Maine, instead we are currently holed up in a hotel in New Hampshire, waiting out the storm.  On top of that, it has been a bit harder to find stories as we head east.  Well, its not difficult to find stories, its just difficult to find the stories that we want to tell (or that we havent already told).  There are so many farms in VT, so many CSAs, small gardens, folks with chickens or pigs — its overwhelming.  How do you choose a story when there are so many options that seem so familiar?  Every community has their “you have to talk to so and so” person.   Despite the fact that we would like to visit all of these places, no one wants to see 8 videos in a row about farm life.  Sure, it may be the future of food and more farmers is a good thing, but for our episodes around the country, I don’t think it is.

The easy option for us would be to go to the famous folks, the Joel Salatins and Will Allens of different areas.  These videos might even be more popular, they might make for a better, or at least more typical film down the road. But what we’ve found is the folks that have a persona (that have a business and a reputation to uphold) don’t make as good of subjects as the folks who are surprised by our visit — the people who are just doing what they do and haven’t gotten any attention for it.  And those people can be farmers or foragers or fisherman — it doesn’t matter — they just need to have an original story and the capacity to let it come through to our camera.   But how do you tell who they are in a sea of organic ideas?  We just guess and hope for the best.  Sometimes it works out.