Here's a partial list of what you can find at the Common Ground Fair, which begins today in Unity and continues through Sunday:

* Cochin chickens, very cool-looking fowl with so many feathers on their legs that they look like they're floating in puddles of fluff. They join lots of other weird and wonderful chickens in one of the many animal display areas.

* Black tomatoes, green zebra-striped tomatoes, pink tomatoes, yellow tomatoes and perhaps even white tomatoes, all laid out for your perusal in the Exhibition Hall.

* Political groups, environmental groups, alternative-everything groups, peace groups, Free-somebody-now groups, all doing what's called "tabling" (that's talking to people from behind a table strewn with literature about your cause).

* Some of the best and most unusual food and drink to be found in Maine, from switchel (also known as haymaker's punch, made from water, molasses, vinegar and ginger) to cider, strawberry shortcake, lamb curry, fried fish and roasted beets. If you think you'll find cotton candy at this fair, think again.

From the people to the politics to the food, it's all local, it's all organic, it's all from Maine. There are spinners, weavers, historians of the apple in Maine. There are people on stilts, people building canoes, people selling (legal) herbs to make you feel better. And if it feels like a throwback to an era that may never actually have existed in Maine, so be it. It's fun.