Progress for breakfast

It's June in Wisconsin, which means that approximately 1/4 of the state's smaller cities are hosting their annual "Dairy Days" celebration this weekend. My husband and I made our first appearance at the Vernon County pancake breakfast, on the invitation of our "landlady," meaning the lady wife of the (theoretically) semi-retired farmer (we all know how that story goes...) who graciously allows us to keep our hives on their property.

Despite the cold wind driving the colder rain, they were packing 'em in to the huge tents. Five smacks bought you pancakes (naturally), sausages, fresh yogurt, orange juice, milk, cheese curds, string cheese, and coffee. (Aside to non-Wisconsinites: Cheese and coffee is a perfectly acceptable breakfast combination, yo.) The polka band was in full swing onstage, despite the rudeness of the weather. (Or maybe they just felt the need to keep the blood moving--can't say as I blame them.) A couple of young ladies in tiaras were making the rounds, and no doubt the local politicos and other movers and shakers were doing the same.

Normally, the sense of timelessness in the community pancake breakfast or county fair or ice cream social or what-have-you sort of awes me. Something about those gatherings unchains the sense of the years' flow, of the interlocking of generations. But this breakfast was different for one simple reason: Nearly everything on my plate or in my cup was organically farmed. Even the coffee was fair-trade, and roasted in Viroqua.

In other words, these people get it. That it's time to stop wasting our energies dreaming up ways to inflate bean counts to make this quarter's books look good. That it's ultimately more efficient do do good and do well at the same time (contrasted with the "robber baron" model of the Carnegies/Vanderbilts/Rockefellers/Morgans/et. al. trying to buy their way into Heaven after a lifetime of rapacious chicanery). And that, friends and bretheren, is the kind of shareholder value I can get behind. So you can bet that the 2010 pancake breakfast is on my calendar. Hope to see you there!