Nov 19 Thanksgiving Meal A Huge Success!

Timebank members make it happen! Be part of the next one, on December 17!

Here is a write-up by Karen Werner, Time Bank member.

The Montague Farm Zendo/Zen House and North Quabbin Timebank Thanksgiving meal at Bethany Lutheran Church in Orange, Mass., was an ambitious one, and an extraordinary number of hands held this effort.

STEP 1: GATHERING OUR INGREDIENTS

Local farmers donated produce and poultry:
Brooks Bend Farm (onions from Montague soil)
Diemand Farms (huge turkeys)
Enterprise Farms (boxes of kale and cabbage)
Smiarowski Farm in Hadley (50 pounds of potatoes)

Plus, Laurie Smith gave us a 20 pound bag of local carrots.

Businesses made donations:
2nd Street Bakery in Turners (two huge sheets of amazing, amazing dessert);
Atkins Market in Amherst (lots of apple cider);
Big Y ($20 gift certificate);
Green Fields Co-op Market ($40 gift certificate);
Leverett Co-op (bread for stuffing);
Whole Foods Market ($50 gift certificate);

Thanks also to Tracey Levy at the Amherst Survival Center (baguettes donated for the stuffing)!

Special thank you to Ginni Stern for contacting many of these farmers and businesses and organizing the donations.

Individuals donated money:
Thank you, once again, Duncan Sings-Alone for your monthly contribution to this meal. It keeps our spirits high. And, thank you also to the two people who quietly slipped $20 bills into our Orange meals envelop in the Zen Peacemakers main hall foyer.

STEP 2: WHIPPING THESE INGREDIENTS INTO A MEAL

Amy Mays and John Genyo Sprague cooked one of the huge turkeys, and Amy made truly inspired stuffing and LOTS of it! Amy also made kale chips.
Steve Ryusan Garabedian whipped up the mashed potatoes -very yum.
Petriana Dantika Monize and Ginni Stern prepared the carrots with herbs grown by Nancy Inzan and Ike Chosui Eichenlaub -the herbs are newly transplanted into our Montague Farm greenhouse.
Laurie Smith, mentoring Karen Kisui Werner, prepared two turkeys in the farmhouse kitchen -plus Laurie made gravy and four pies that were devoured at the meal.
Ginni Stern prepped another batch of stuffing -which Laurie Smith also had an able hand in. And then Laurie proceeded to make a vegetarian stuffing option, too.
Sarah and Woody Bliss grew purple cabbages and transformed them into sweet and sour cabbage, adding to the color of this extraordinary meal.
Sensei Eve Myonen Marko made fresh cranberry sauce -so tart and snappy!
Wendy and David, newcomers to the Montague Farm Zendo sangha (don't yet know their last names), prepared another of the turkeys. Excited to have them on board.

STEP 3: TRANSPORTING IT ALL

Special thanks to Bluey and his driver Geoff BoGai Taylor for transporting much of the food from the Montague Farmhouse to Bethany Lutheran.

STEP 4: SINGING OUR PRAISES

Court Dorsey, singing and playing banjo, led us all in a rousing musical blessing of the meal, with Geoff BoGai accompanying on melodica.

STEP 5: SERVING DA MEAL & CLEANIN' UP

Big thanks to those who served the meal (and helped prepare leftover care-packages!) for the 60+ attendees, schmoozed, and tidied:

Judith Myoki Breier
Beki Smith
Sensei Eve Myonen
John Genyo
Amy Mays
Dianne Engel-Dragon
Brian Nugent (NQ TimeBank)
Karen Kisui
Geoff Bogai

STEP 6: CYCLE BEGINS AGAIN

Want to join in? Please be in touch with me (karen@zenpeacemakers.com)or John Sprague (sunyata@valinet.com) if you'd like to be part of our Dec. 17th meal, whether by donating, cooking, serving, playing music, etc. We'd love to keep expanding the many hands that create and hold this offering.

Warmly, Karen