Stannard’s farm stand is just down the road from our new farm and when they open in April life changes for us. They become our grocery store until October. Red and I go there every day to get berries, carrots, vegetables for my pizzas and vegetable casseroles. Melissa Stannard is one of the strong women I photograph, she sighs and just looks right into the camera.

She and the other women at the farm stand work brutally hard seven days a week, out in the orchard, in the new greenhouse, at the cash register. Some of the people who come in are nasty (usually New Yorkers) trying to bargain for a zucchini, most are nice. I love eating fresh fruit and vegetables, my body changes and thanks me for it every day, it is some of the best medicine I have ever taken. Red has his friends there of course, and is welcome, he seems like a spirit, moving in and out of my life. When Stannard’s closes in November, I have to go back to the supermarket and buy my fruit from South America. That system seems backwards to me, I appreciate the chance to buy my food from nearby farmers who grow it. The fresh blueberries and strawberries are amazing.

When the sky is gray I drive down the road to Stannard’s to see Melissa and joke with her and the other strong women there and soak up some color and light. This, I believe, is how we were meant to shop and eat before the economists decided family farming is inefficient in the global economy.