Newsletter 10/21/20
Greetings Friends and Neighbors,
Gone are the endless days of sunshine and dust underfoot. Come are the days of heavy cloud cover and persistent rain showers. And so our schedule once again bows to the Weather. We are thrilled to invite you to Saturday Soup and Bread Gift Distribution, Noon-3pm, where all food is offered as a gift to anyone who is hungry for any reason. In addition to Soup and Bread to take home, we will have Warm Soup to fill the bowl and spoon you bring from home, and a fire for toasting bread upon. Bring fixings for a grilled cheese if you’d like. Our Barn Raising Day moves to Sunday 10/25, 9am-5pm. We would love your help! We are looking for hands for the Raising, to join the Soup Team in the afternoon as well as a couple more volunteers to bring a dish for the Work Day lunch. Information and Signup here.
With a week and a half left in the month, we have gratefully received financial Gifts of $3300, leaving $2600 left to go to cover expenses for October. Would you be willing to consider making a Gift to support our work? Click HERE to lend a hand in this effort.
Story: Catching a Glimpse of a Village
Human beings can mightily disappoint you sometimes. In other moments they seem to shimmer like jewels – silvery beaded rain drops on the late fall kale. The morning air is heavy and warm as I sit on the Post Office steps to look through the mail. The day’s planned doings – errands, bank, phone calls, preparations for the barn raising – form a formidable pile that is but a foothill to the mountain pass that is the week ahead. I feel a dull ache in my neck and shoulders and the telltale throb of a headache coming on. I open a small, pink envelope addressed to BBCF and am greeted by baby pink peonies and a cursive-script, gold-embossed ‘thank you.’ I am reminded of the notecards my Grandmother used to send. I read:
To Adam and Team – Thank you for everything you all do for this community. I can’t tell you how much we enjoy our weekly tradition of picking up bread and soup. It means so much as a gift.
What does it mean, really, this word Community? So common and yet so remarkably slippery in our time. Its siblings – commune and communism – draw us off the scent with troubled associations to failed programmatic cooperative efforts. I wonder if it might be best to give up on the word altogether. But then that shimmer appears from around the corner, that miraculous little something that catches the corner of your eye for a moment, just long enough to re-direct your whole day, or perhaps your whole life.
The Valley was shimmering this past Sunday, when over 30 neighbors appeared at the Farm to join in the work of digging holes, putting posts in the ground for a new Cow Barn, cutting rafters, laying out a feast for the Work Day Lunch, harvesting herbs and chopping and roasting the ingredients for next week’s Soup. Sometimes I refer to the work of the Farm as Reckless Generosity, words that could accurately describe the scene on Sunday. And yet, there was another word that came to mind that day. As I put the final seasonings into the full Soup Pot, I looked out the window past the Soup Team to the field on the far side of Brush Brook where the Carpentry Crew marked and cut and nailed. In the filtered light of Sun dropping through the bare trees of the Valley’s Western ridge, I caught a fleeting glimpse of a Village, of Human beings pulling together in common rhythm with Maple, Fox, and warm South Wind. It was the next morning that I opened that gold-embossed ‘thank you’ note with the pink peonies on it.
Here is what you will find in this letter:
- SOUP and BREAD GIFT DISTRIBUTION 10/24 – Details and Menu
- Hay Bale Update
- FINANCIAL GIFT REQUESTS – detailed October Budget
With Great Care,
Ava, Erik, Collin, Evan and Adam – The Brush Brook Community Farm Team
SOUP and BREAD GIFT DISTRIBUTION: Saturday 10/24, Noon - 3 pm
SOUPS:
- Brush Brook Soup – Roasted Squash, Tomato, Greens, Beef, Garlic, Herbs, Bone Broth.
- Vegetarian Soup – Pureed Sweet Potato, Cucumber, Tomato, Garlic.
Please bring a mask with you and wear warm clothes. We will have Soup and Bread to take home as well as Hot Soup and Sliced Bread for toasting over the fire. You will need to bring your own Bowl and Spoon with you from home if you would like to eat lunch outside around the fire. We will offer olive oil for toast drizzling and paper napkins. If you would like to make an open-faced grilled cheese, bring toppings with you from home! And don’t forget your Bowl and Spoon.
Hay Bale Update
Nine personal gifts and a final large gift from Neighbor Helping Neighbor pushed us over the $1200 needed to buy the 20 bales by $360, which is now folded into the October Budget balance. See below. Thank you to all for this resounding generosity.
BUDGET UPDATE: Thank you for considering the October Budget
Many heartfelt thanks to all who have responded to these invitations by sending in Financial Gifts. If you would like to support our work, you can mail checks made out to Brush Brook Community Farm to PO Box 202, Huntington, VT, 05462, bring gifts to the Gift Stand, or donate through the website. We are 100% financially supported by these personal financial gifts.
Brush Brook Community Farm and Bakery – Oct. Budget |
|
| As of 10/21 | |
| Gifts Received – Thank You! | $ 3288.00 |
| Estimated Expenses for October | |
| Production Expenses | |
| Bread Ingredients & Packaging | $ 1,115.50 |
| Bakery Overhead (Insur., Electric, etc.) | $ 555.86 |
| Bakery Rent | $ 300.00 |
| Farm Expenses | $ 1,550.00 |
| Farm/Bakery Team Requested Gifts | |
| Adam Wilson Personal Living (full time) | $ 648.08 |
| Adam Wilson Rent | $ 200.00 |
| Erik Weil (part time) Rent/Housing | $ 500.00 |
| Collin McCarthy (part time) Utilities | $ 100.00 |
| Investments | |
| Cow Barn Purchased Materials | $ 500.00 |
| Fees | |
| Estimated Federal/State Taxes | $ 351.22 |
| Paypal Fees | $ 150.00 |
| Total | $ 5,970.66 |
| Balance | $ (2682.66) |
Support the Farm & Bakery
The operations of Brush Brook Community Farm & Bakery are maintained by neighborly working hands and financial gifts. Your generous monetary support propels the gift of food forward to those open to receiving it.
Thank you!