The weeks before Thanksgiving are always hectic for us. Juggling travel, cooking, work and family is challenging, and since we began raising turkeys, the challenge has escalated! Our last winter market before Thanksgiving fell last Sunday, and it was with great relief and satisfaction that we loaded the late fall harvest and 20 frozen turkeys into the truck early that morning. Once the turkeys were delivered, the spinach sold, and the market complete, we were headed for a relaxing Thanksgiving week.
So there we were, heading happily down I-94 into Chicago, when I heard those small words…”Uh-oh.” At first I thought maybe Nick had just forgotten something minor at home. But then I looked over at the speedometer, which indicated that we were rapidly losing speed. Uh-oh, indeed. Loss of compression falls into that special “we probably definitely can not fix this ourselves with a can of Fix-a-Flat” category of bad car news.
Luckily for us, Nick is extremely cool under pressure. He pulled us over safely, called a tow truck, and made the call to tow the truck into Chicago (20 miles) to the market, unload the food, and drop the truck at a nearby garage in the city. Under the circumstances (the people need their turkeys!), it was the best option we had.
From the time the tow truck reached us to the time we picked up our truck the next day, the whole thing went so smoothly that it seemed like a dream. We were set up in time for the market opening at 9 AM, had a lovely day of vegetable and turkey distrubution, and were able to leave our gear at the market space afterwards until the truck was fixed the next morning. And none of it could have happened without huge amounts of help from some of the most wonderful people in Chicago. There are many folks whom we are thankful to have in our lives, and so many of them helped us out, in ways big and small, that day.
We are thankful for our fellow farmers – Alex, of Radical Root, who pulled over on the expressway when he saw us, on his way to market, to see if we needed help, and Rob and Christina of Montalbano Farms, who, hearing of our trouble, offered to drive up from Chicago and tow us back in their Suburban.
We are thankful for random amazing strangers, like the tow truck driver who didn’t bat an eye when we aksed him to tow us to Chicago on a Sunday morning and who knew EXACTLY how to get to where we were going.
We are thankful for our amazing market managers Sheree and Ann, who dealt effortlessly with having a giant tow truck show up on a one-way street, helped coordinate volunteers to help us unload the truck, found a garage, lent us cars to get back and forth to said garage, allowed us to store and retreive our gear in the market space on Sunday night and Monday, and generally made sure that we were able to function at the market despite the breakdown. We are also INCREDIBLY thankful every week for the team of volunteers who keep the Glenwood Sunday Market running smoothly every week.
We are grateful for our wonderful fellow vendors, like B-True Bakery, who expressed such concern and support for out situation and rolled with the craziness that we whirled in and out with.
We are grateful for our lovely customers, who came to market, shared their festivity, and made the trip into town worthwhile, as always.
We are grateful for our friends and family (especially sister Sarah and Brad), who showed up to offer to do whatever they could, whether it was helping pack up, giving us a ride downtown or to the train, feeding us delicious caserole, or taking an unexpected frozen turkey off of our hands.
So thank you thank you thank you everyone! We are so appreciative for all the support that you have shared, both on Sunday and throughout the course of the last few years. Happy Thanksgiving from your folks in the field, Nick and Becky.
Midnight Sun Farm 