An Historic Michigan Farm

Too many people around here act as if the economy imploded suddenly just before last year's election, or they seem to believe that the meltdown was caused by/is exacerbated by the current crop of elected officials in our Nation's or our State's capitals. And they want instant fixes of problems that have been building up for years. As a news junky, I've been watching the crisis as it was born, incubated and then erupted, and I understand there are no instant fixes.
I've recently learned about one family that has been in the midst of the fray for a long time. Jim Crosby and his sister Linette Crosby were gobsmacked two years ago by an unregulated and out-of-control huge financial corporation. Follow the link above to read about the historic Crosby Mint Farm's two-year struggle to keep history alive, bring a valuable product (the finest, pure peppermint oil and spearmint oil, not to mention pure mint honey) to a market which is growing, and keep the family farm alive and growing for the current and future generations.
http://www.crosbymintfarm.com encapsulates a story heard at farms across the nation; Peppermint Jim can tell his story better than I can. But the purpose of this post is not only to urge all of my readers to Get Mint, but also to remind you to think about the wonders of a family farm, or almost 100 years of history that might be connected to it. If you are in a spending mood, take a minute to think about family businesses ... from the local auto dealer to the third generation farm family to the mother-daughter hairdressing team downtown ... in your neighborhood or community.
So, take a minute ... if there is an orchard or produce farm a mile from your regular supermarket, drive out of your way for once and buy the peaches fresh from the trees. Take your kids to the neighborhood salon for back-to-school cuts, rather than a mad dash at the chain salon in the malls. You can believe that if you've experienced a drop in income (or increase in your ARM mortgage payments), your local business person (and local farm business) has been hit twice as hard.