Easter in Bucks County

In the suburbs you feel Easter approaching when the reject Valentine’s day chocolates and fake roses are cleared out of the grocery store’s seasonal aisle and replaced with their pastel egg and bunny-shaped counterparts.

In Bucks County, you feel Easter approaching in a very different manner.

You feel it when the garlic you planted into the cold ground of winter finally reveals itself, shooting through the mulch in glorious strains, or when your desolate, brown greenhouse begins to sprout and fill with verdant splendor. I felt it when Mr. Rosenberger, the older rancher that owns the land we farm on, excitedly came into the greenhouse one morning to tell us he was the proud father of 54 newborn calves and when we visited Aston’s ag-focused school, Delaware Valley College, and petted precious little lambs and piglets only days old. I especially felt it last night when Aston came home from the flea market with a box of baby chicks and (the best surprise of all!) a tiny yellow duckling, which we named Howard, and, again, I felt it this morning when we watched her boyfriend Rob’s chicken eggs hatch in the incubator on his kitchen table and slowly transform to adorable little creatures resembling peeps (only noisier and without the marshmallow).

As a child, I was confused by the relevance of candy-filled plastic eggshells and cuddly baby animals to a holiday that my Sunday school teachers had taught me was meant to observe the Resurrection. In Bucks County, however, I am surrounded by new life everyday, and the true spirit of Easter reveals itself to me as an astonishing and quite moving celebration of Death and Rebirth - an idea consistent with commercialized images of Easter, the Christian perspective, and most importantly, the magic I have witnessed around me everyday since my arrival at the farm.

It’s interesting how the urbanization and specialization of our culture has created this gaping disconnect between ourselves and our cultural heritage. Holidays that were formally sacred celebrations of our relation to the cycles of nature are reduced to empty icons perpetuated by corporations, a tragic but profitable by-product of consumerism; or, perhaps, even worse, to guilt-ridden reminders of how unworthy we are as human beings in comparison to the utterly flawless J.C.

I guess these last two paragraphs make me a pagan of some sorts. That's not to say that I don't like Easter candy and hunting for eggs as much as the next guy. I really do! (as evidenced by the kilo of chocolate I consumed yesterday and the photos of me ruthlessly competing with 10 year old children for eggs at the Ward family's annual Easter egg hunt - to be posted at a later date).

I hope everyone back home and abroad had a lovely Easter. Enjoy the pics.

Aston's bf Rob gets cozy with a silky chick.




The adorable Howard!!


Howard & Aston.


The most disturbing part of our trip to DelVal - a cow with a window in it! (all for scientific advancement of course)


Pretty new cow friend at DelVal.



Hungry little piglets. DelVal practices conventional farming. The pigs are confined to tiny pens indoors. The mama pig is restrained by that metal bar so she doesn't squish any of her piglets. Not a very nice place to be for a pig.


This angelic little lamb was entranced by me and my camera.


Eric getting intimate with a sheep.