I heard recently that Peter Dunning died. I want to play this again, in tribute. He was an amazing man.
Peter Dunning’s farm was a Vermont hill farm. A hundred and thirty-six acres of forest and orchards and wet spots and steep, rocky pasture, picked over by farmers for hundreds of years.
Peter farmed here, mostly alone, for nearly forty years. When he was getting done, we spoke at his kitchen table, as the farm was growing up around him.
Credits
I learned of Peter Dunning from a documentary, Peter and the Farm. It’s stunning. Watch it if you can….
Music for this show by David Schulman and Quiet Life Motel
Thank you Geof Hewitt for your help with the poetry!
This show also features the last verse of a remarkable poem called Marshall Washer, by Vermont poet Hayden Carruth. Here’s the full text.
Another amazing piece by Erica Heilman. 6 stars.
Oh, my heart. Beautiful and wrenching and full of truth. Thank you, Erica, for this outstanding piece.
Thank you for this piece. I have met many people living, or having lived, on farms such as these. They are the people who kept our villages and markets alive. But age and changing ways have made many of them left behind.
Do you know how to get in contact with Tony Stone the director and friend of Peter?
I don’t. But I have to imagine that his film is associated with a production company which could give you the name of an agent?