Photo by Myra Klarman
Record numbers, yet so smooth and easy. The nice steady pace throughout the day made it seem rather calm. Silvio’s brilliant idea of Pizza Rustica, besides being delicious, was prep’d ahead of time to a great degree, making things proceed smoothly. And then there is just the presence of Silvio, the King of Calm, the new reigning champ of soft, smooth, scrumptious, satisfying service. Adding to the Friday effort were the team of happy-friendlies: Shana Kimball, Maria Bonn, Rex Roof, Kate Daum and Bridgette Carr. A dedicated dishwasher roll and a “relief clean-up” position (come in at 10:00, eat and stay till clean up is done) seem to be in order at this greater volume of humanity. Interested: our volunteer signup survey is here.
Thursday prep night was a blast as well. 12 of us at one count, many of the Friday crew, joined by Silvio’s daughter Francesca who can roll out a mean pastry dough, Lisa’s son Nevon who is a Selma regular now, contributing in any way needed (finding Silvio’s back alley door for a last minute ricotta pickup, getting up Friday morning to wash afew dishes before school, etc.) whenever he is not in school (2 more months buddy). Ian Bost went above and beyond taking on the “vegetarian carving a prociutto leg” job among others. Matt and Shannon came through again. I know I am missing at least one (but thank you all). The preppers feast was hoop-house salad, cured meats and home-made cheese and bread, vegetable soup, zing’s brownies, … (hint, hint, we could use your talents)
I think the weather was really one of the nicest contributors today as well. As people started moving about outside, seeing all the bicycles lined up in the driveway, neighbors shoveling compost into garden beds, finally thinking the last hard frost could be behind us.
It may be time for someone else to roll out a Thursday morning breakfast(?), a Friday night supper(?) We sure could use a roving band of potato and onion dealers. I look forward to hearing your ideas for the next steps in stirring the local food pot.
Oh, by the way: We had our first encounter with “the man” regarding our renegade chickens. Basic brief back-story: we got our birds last year when it was not clear the city would ever get around to a common sense approach to poultry. As part of our community-building, neighborhood-affiliating, school-kid relating efforts (as well as to let the backyard grass recover a bit from a hard winter) we moved the featheries up front about 2 weeks ago. It has been a blast with many conversations, kids feeding the birds scratch grain treats, lots of oohs and ahhs.
We had thought we would not pursue the official permit, as we are a bit out of compliance anyway and did not really feel this should be required (that this process was more just a way for the city to ease into a common sense practice). The city attorney hand delivered a notice telling us of all our waywardness.
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