It was all things sheep in West Friendship, Maryland, last weekend as the 37th annual Maryland Sheep and Wool festival drew a crowd of 50,000 visitors, 250 sheep-friendly vendors and 1,000 sheep representing 42 different breeds. Lancaster Farming reporter Michelle Kunjapu paid a visit, strolled the grounds, talked to some people, tasted some lamb and, we don't doubt, bought a woolen thing or two. Two contestants in the festival's blade-shearing competition are seen in the photo. You can read Ms Kunjapu's report in Section B of the issue due in your mailbox on Saturday.

     I'll just have whatever grows in a tree. Way up. In the highest branches. Should you find yourself in the Mexican town Mixquiahuala, some 60 miles outside Mexico, don't drink the water, don't eat the carrots and don't swim in the irrigation canals. Those canals are filled with plant nutrients that help local farmers prosper, but their prosperity comes with a price. The "black water" - that's what they call it - is the untreated sewage from Mexico City's 20 milliion residents. It stinks, it gives you boils and the flu, and it's terrible, terrible way to deal with sewage from one of the world's largest, most teeming cities. But many of the local farmers were upset to learn that Mexico City is developing plans to build a billion-dollar sewage treatment plant that will take care of 60 percent of the city's wastewater. They want to keep it flowing to their fields. It's a curious, unlikely story, reported in the New York Times on Tuesday by Elizabeth Malkin. You can read it here: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/05/world/americas/05mexico.html
    
     Did we say sheep seem to be riding a wave of popularity?  http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1934500