Family Farm Day in Rougemont benefits Durham Central Market

By Neil Offen

noffen @heraldsun.com; 419-6646

ROUGEMONT -- Sofia Ventimiglia didn't know which goat to kiss first.

So she tried kissing them all.

The 3-year-old ran happily around the barnyard at Elodie Farms Saturday afternoon, planting smooch after smooch on goats large and small, most of whom were blessedly oblivious to Sofia and the dozens of other kids who had come out with their parents for "Family Farm Day" at Elodie.

With mom and dad parents in tow, and busy taking snapshots, the kids got a chance to nuzzle with the goats, pet the rabbits, dig their hands into dirt and check out the cheese-making operation. A fundraiser for Durham Central Market, a planned new neighborhood cooperative grocery, Family Farm Day was nevertheless as enjoyable for the parents as it was for the kids.

"This is great," said Joyce Ventimiglia, Sofia's mom. "We've never been here before, and it's just been a lot of fun."

Sam Garber, 3, got to pick up one of the baby goats all by himself.

"Look," he said while holding one goat, "I see another goat!"

Mara Deutsch, his mother, acknowledged the obvious. "When you're 3 years old," she said, "there's nothing like holding a baby goat."

Sam's sister, Ally, 5 and a half, watched intently as the goats munched hay. She started rubbing one goat's ears.

"I found the ears," she told her parents proudly. "Look, I found the ears. They're right here."

The families got to traipse across the farm's 21 acres, taking a tour of its operations, checking inside the greenhouse where Swiss chard and sage were growing in little blocks of moistened soil. They got to help farm volunteers make the soil blocks. They got to walk by and pet big black-and-white Sadie the horse and peer into the bunny hutch.

And they got, at the end, to picnic by the farmhouse, where there were Locopops for sale and -- for their parents -- Chardonnay and Chambourcin wines, from Benjamin Winery, to sample.

"Just a great way to spend a beautiful spring Saturday," said Alicia Levinsohn, sipping her wine while she watched her two kids licking their pops.