a couple more days here in the netherlands then I will be headed to denmark. the area that this town was built on used to be a swamp, then the government thought they were clever by buying the land to drain it and cover it up and turn it into a town, it wasn't too successful, and what remains now is a town that I think is kept alive by farmers, but since the area used to be a swamp the "dirt" is real sandy so it's tough to grow a lot of things without treating the land so you get the right kind of balance for plant life, so it's extra tricky to be an organic farmer. the plus side to having a garden with sand is there is not a lot of weeding to be done and when it's sunny I imagine it's what a garden at the beach would feel like. my hosts have been great one is from the netherlands and the other is from Italy, so food has been this balance of Dutch and Italian and some nights a combo of both. my hosts have been hosting wwoofers for the past five years, they don't do farmers markets but they have a stand out in front of their house where they sell whatever they have available and a little shop inside their home where they sell preserves and basically anything you can boil down and stick in a jar. free time has been spent eating plums, reintroducing myself to bike rides, reading, and going to Germany to go grocery shopping, because it's cheaper in Germany then it is in the Netherlands, the picture above of the fence and field is the entrance to the home, beyond that field is a horizon of trees which is germany, it's what my bedroom window faces and the first thing I see ever morning is Germany.