There at the Fair

by James Duquette

Saturday has always been a special day for me. It’s when I gather with my friends every week, when we play adventure games and go out to dinner together… more than anything else, it’s reserved as my day off. 

So last year when I was asked to come to the farm on a Saturday morning, I had my reservations, to say the least. This was a special time though. 

Apprentice-led tours and wagon rides at our Summer Fair - photo by Ethan Roe

Our annual Summer Fair is one of our biggest events of the season, and I had been asked to write about it. So I went, and I felt something else–something that transcended my reservations. I walked through the carefully prepared display of our farm, so thoughtfully gussied-up and shining for the event: floral tablecloths under shelves of our FlowerFetti and dahlia tubers, buckets of fresh flowers in a make-your-own-bouquet station, and a full course picnic barbeque in an elegant red-and-white checkerboard buffet.

While talking to the various staff and board members who had come out for the event, I felt something stronger than my grumbling complaints.

I felt pride.

Products from our flower farm at the Summer Fair - photo by Ethan Roe

Pride that we had built so much and more than that, that the whole community was coming out to see it. That year we had expanded into an entirely new field, both literally and figuratively; an expansion field of new farming space, and the fields of media and writing helmed by my coworkers and myself. We began crafting our bouquets on site with our new bouquet barn, and we had more apprentices than ever before.

The Ethans were managing parking; Ethan R and Ethan M frequently work together, such that you have to specify which Ethan you’re talking to. They had their hands full, since we were packed- the cars were overflowing from the Temple Hall parking lot into the grass beyond. An old mentor of mine- actually the mentor who had introduced me to Legacy Farms in the first place- came out to see our exhibit. All around me were members of the community who had made time in their Saturday like I had (somewhat begrudgingly) done. Hundreds of people laughed and smiled and participated in a celebration of all the work we had done that spring.

Bouquet-making at our Summer Fair - photo by Ethan Roe

Take home your own bouquet from our Summer Fair - photo by Ethan Roe

Community matters. It seems obvious, but it’s true. The pride I felt was around the larger Loudoun community coming together and acknowledging us and our jobs, our endeavors. It matters when people show up to an event like this. It raises the morale of everyone at the farm knowing that our work means something to more than just ourselves. That the people in our lives and beyond know it means something. 

And it matters to me. The pride I was feeling was a complement to the gratitude that overcame me, gratitude that so many people were recognizing my labors and the labors of my peers. I’d have a hard time forgetting what that felt like.

I got to joking with a group of people who were admiring Blueberry, the farm peacock. I wouldn’t remember their names or faces later, or what specifically they’d said, but I would remember what that experience felt like. I would remember that they were there. And even though I’d had to drag myself out of my routine on a hot Saturday morning, it was worth so much more to be here.

BBQ and music at our Summer Fair - photo by Ethan Roe

Apprentice-led tours at our Summer Fair - photo by Ethan Roe

Garden tours just as it’s beginning to bloom during our Summer Fair - photo by Ethan Roe