Is there anything else to do besides look at people's cool get-ups?

Why, yes! Contrary to appearances, the Common Ground Country Fair is not in fact one big street style fashion show set amidst hay bales and old barns. Most people, I imagine, don't even associate the words "style" or "fashion" with the Maine Organic Farmers & Gardeners Association. Here are twenty of some of the hundreds of other things people do at the Common Ground Fair:

1. Attend workshops on topics like chainsaw technique, making your own herbal tinctures, farming with draft horses and shamanism.
2. Sign political petitions for a variety of causes, from bringing the soldiers home to supporting civil unions.
3. Listen to nationally-renowned environmental speakers like Barbara Damrosch talking about why organic small farms are not a passing trend.
4. See the famous Wednesday spinners sit and spin wool.
5. Visit the rare and beautiful bunnies, chickens, lambs and other animals.
6. Buy world-class silver jewelry, hand-carved wooden spoons, tie-dye t-shirts, Amish-made furniture and other crafts in the Crafts area.
7. Ride in a covered wagon around the fairgrounds.
   
8. Indulge fried dough, french fries, and ice cream--county fair staples--with a difference: all the food at the Common Ground Fair is locally made and at least somewhat healthy: the fries are organic potatoes, the dough is whole wheat and wood-fired, and the ice cream is sweetened with Maine maple syrup.
   
9. Enjoy the popular sheepdog demonstrations.
10. Nurse your baby in the nursing tent, covered with cheery quilts and equipped with cozy chairs and board books.
11. Volunteer to work on the composting toilets, recycling bins, common kitchen, parking, or any of many other areas--volunteers get free admission, the opportunity to pitch their tent, and a free wholesome meal in that common kitchen.
12. Bring in the apples off the old apple tree in your yard and get them identified by John Bunker, heirloom apple expert.
    
13. Browse cloth diaper covers, homemade organic catnip pillows, wooden toys, Christmas stockings, goat's milk soaps, wool blankets and much more in the Maine Marketplace.
14. Walk to the entrance gate from the parking lot via a beautiful wooded trail.
    
15. Eat pretty unusual fair food--vegan Thai tofu curry, free-range steak burgers or raw milk, anyone?
16. Listen to fantastic local music, from Acadian fiddle tunes to contemporary rock and everything in between, at one of several stages.
    
17. Bring local organic veggies, plus your Halloween pumpkin, home from the extensive farmer's markets.
    
18. Peruse freshly shorn wool and other fibers from area livestock.
19. Enter your prize-worthy kale, apple pie or watercolor painting in the annual contest.
    
20. Watch the fair's signature event, the Vegetable Parade: teens on stilts and teens with bagpipes leading a just-assembled hodgepodge of kids in gorgeous handmade peapod, sunflower and ladybug costumes, carrying signs like "No Spray!" and "Don't Panic, I'm Organic" and beating pot and pan drums. If nothing else gives you hope, the Vegetable Parade will.