• by Kelly Samardak , June 13, 2008

Choose GOOD Farmers' Fair, Solar One, New York
June 7, 2008

Last summer I was walking around SoHo and tripped into a cute little store. Inside were all kinds of hints and tips on how to be more eco-conscious and all that other organic fun stuff. I saw these cute little buttons that said "GOOD" on them. Being the eternal pervert, I saw this as dirty, so I giggled like a 15-year-old boy and snatched a couple up and went home. Last Saturday early evening, almost a year later, I discovered what it was all about. I know. Sometimes it takes a while.

Because I have to cover an event daily, you can surmise (and if you can't, you might need a vacation, too) that I have to GO to some happening every day or night. Which, as you can also imagine, means that I hold tightly to my precious weekends as my one chunk of opportunity to do the important things like watch DVR'd "Top Chef" and "The Real World," shower, walk by the gym, and turn on the dishwasher. So when I got the invitation from Justin Kazmark to attend "Choose GOOD Farmers' Fair" I was torn between my love of farmers and somehow creating a farm feel in the city... and the eyes of my inner couch potato wanting nothing more than to take root on my decrepit inherited futon to get dumb.

I chose the party! Why? One, I could bring my favorite guests and two, they promised bee-keeping and fresh mozz cheese-making! TRY and say no to that! The location was Solar One, that green energy, arts, and education center on the stinky East River. I've always been curious about that place. So off I went, pals in tow. As we approached the circus tent of farmers' delights, gentle hippie types could be seen cavorting outside the entrance. The second thing to catch my eyes was the soldier line of "squat on the spot"s. Grand.

Have you ever heard of 4-H? Entering the festivity tent was like walking into a 4-H competition. I half expected some of my band geek buddies to trundle by with their pygmy hens and lop-eared rabbits, blue ribbons and all. Cheese, glorious cheese was spread across the first set of tables as I exercised bad girl side and pinched a hunk of illegal mozz. Oh yeah, that's right. It's illegal to sell because it's unpasteurized, but not illegal to display and sample.

As for bee-keeping, well, you couldn't really participate in it so much as stare into the class case of those fuzzy guys having a bee orgy with the queen. Bees and bugs in general are about as much my forte as a shot of Campari. Hey! Speaking of Campari! While I was waiting to get my FREE screened-in-front-of-my-fat-face t-shirt, my +1 approached with a reddish pink cocktail and a sneaky grin. "Try this" - he said, grinning as I suspiciously sipped. "Wow, that's not bad," I admitted. "So... It's a Campari drink... and I actually sort of like it," he begrudgingly agreed.

The night concluded with a conversation with a feller I nicknamed Old Man Winter, who has been to 2003 live shows to date - the first being Vanilla Fudge and most recently Robert Plant and Alison Krauss, which he said was as wonderful as a peanut butter and jelly sandwich at a Dead show. We slurrily gabbed while trying to tune out "These New Puritans," who made me want to stab myself in the earhole.

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See all the eco friendly pictures on Flickr!