Newsletter 7/14/21

Greetings Friends and Neighbors,

Have you noticed the push and pull of North and South Winds this past week? The changing qualities of Light and Air, Sun and Shadow, Heat and Coolness, Wet and Dry? Last Friday morning I mixed and shaped bread doughs in the pre-dawn dark as Rain ran down the bakery windows in sheets. The Night Air hangs warm and heavy – saturated with water. Condensation runs and puddles below a jar of cream, still cold from the refrigerator. Later in the day, Erika, Evan, Christina and Sarah carefully set the table for a Feast – gathering and weaving Wildflowers into a wreath, scythe-mowing the Grass, cutting and bagging hundreds of loaves of Bread, packing quarts of cold Soups into coolers. As we prepare, we wonder: Will any of the invited guests arrive with the forecast still calling for showers? Shortly before the appointed hour, North Wind rumbles over the ridge and spills into the Valley, gathering momentum on the open flats around the Farm, and changing the quality of the Air completely. Perhaps this is the invited guest for whom the table has been so carefully laid? When North Wind – affectionately known here at the Farm as Winter’s Tooth – blows in the Summer he brings thin Air days of exceptional clarity and comfort, casting the hills in the sharp relief of unfiltered light and shadow – crisp boundaries between Sun and Shade. The Feast minstrels – Carl, JB, and Lausanne – unpack their instruments and begin to attune their ears and fingers and voices towards the melodies that they will offer into this cooling, drying air. The guests do indeed arrive – many dozens of friends and neighbors – by bike and by car and on foot. Three human babies – the youngest just a few weeks old – are carried by attentive parents and proudly introduced at the Stand. Three-week-old Trudy nurses nearby on her surrogate Mother Sweet Pea. Both Calf Trudy and Cow Sweet Pea are themselves new arrivals to the Farm. Human Babes meet toddling Calf in the pasture as we hand out Soup and Bread at the Gift Stand. Neighbors tentatively offer and receive hugs, some for the first time in over a year. The band plays on as late afternoon gathers towards a cooling dusk. Every so often a moment like this one arrives here at the Farm and stops us short. A moment of exceptional clarity. We stumble a few steps back and take it all in. We are immensely grateful for the opportunity to join hands with you in these attempts to make something that might one day contribute to beauty. May that it come to pass.

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We continue our every-other-week baking schedule. Mark your calendars for Fresh Bread on Friday 7/23. Cold pureed summer Soups are in fashion here at the Farm, and will open the Gift Stand for self-service this Friday, Saturday and Sunday 9am-5pm with coolers full of frozen quarts of the following Soups:

1. Brush Brook Soup: Pureed Greens(Spinach, Swiss Chard, Kale, Napa Cabbage, last summer’s Sweet Corn, Garlic Scapes, Tomato, Herbs and Beef Bone Broth)
2. Vegetarian Soup: Pureed Winter Tomato Soup(Roasted Carrots, Butternut, Sweet Potato, Beet, Radish, Potato, Onion and Garlic, Tomato and Herbs)

*** Please bring clean yogurt containers with you from home to leave in the return tote at the Stand. We are sending out over 120 quarts/week, so the incoming flow rate is important to the continued health of the Farm. ***

Both Soups are delicious served Cold or Warm, with or without an addition of Cream, Milk, Yogurt or Sour Cream. Finely chop some fresh herbs from the garden and sprinkle into each bowl for garnish if you wish. These Soups represent our longing and commitment to offer food that has been carefully grown, gathered, gleaned, preserved and prepared as a gift to anyone who is hungry for any reason. We invite you to stop by to pick up Soup for your household as well as some to drop off to a neighbor on the way home. Our work is made possible by the generous support of the many landowners who offer fields, buildings, greenhouses, water and power as well as all of you who contribute to the monthly Budget Request and join us for our weekly Work Days. 

We invite you to join us each Sunday for our Work Day from 1-4pm to tend to the Soup Pot, the Pantry, the Gardens and Pastures. This Sunday we are putting out a particular call to folks to help us dig Burdock(bring a round-pointed shovel from home) before it matures its grabbing seeds. 

We have about $3300 to go to reach our July Budget Request. Find the detailed spreadsheet below. If you would like to make a gift to sustain our work, you can do so HERE.

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Here is what you will find in this Letter:

1. FINANCIAL GIFT REQUEST – Detailed July 2021 Budget

Click HERE to continue reading on our website.

With Great Care, 

Ava, Erika, Kristen, Erik, Collin, Evan and Adam – The Brush Brook Community Farm Team

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BUDGET UPDATE: Thank you for considering the July 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.