Dozens of people flocked to Flying Pig Farm off Keithley Road to welcome the Summer Solstice on Wednesday, June 21. They came bearing food and joyful spirits, to listen to music, watch a magic show and catch up with friends.
Barak Ben-Amots, who manages the farm and hosts educational field trips, addressed the crowd before everyone dug into the potluck.
“Flying Pig Farm is a really special place because it’s a place where people come to connect with land and rebuild their relationship with the natural systems that we’ve always relied on to feed us and nourish us, and that have relied on us to nourish them,” Ben-Amots said.
He then presented a wooden plaque to Doug Edmundson, whose family has owned the property for generations, and Edmundson’s wife, Annie Schmitt.
“These two people are doing something that is basically incomparable on any piece of private land that I have ever encountered, that they’re opening this up to the community, not just for parties like this, but literally on a daily basis, sometimes hosting hundreds of children who are going through this connected process. That level of generosity I can’t even believe,” Ben-Amots said.
Edmundson, who started the farm project in 2013, gave credit to all the people who have worked to create this oasis for learning and collaboration.
“I could go on with a thousand names, but really the soul of this project is you, just community,” Edmundson said.