A Feat to Feed Farmers

This past Saturday, Elizabeth and I fed 900 hungry farmers and farmer fans.

That's right.

We were in charge of all of the food at the Northeast Organic Farming Association's Winter Conference, featuring Joel Salatin as the keynote speaker. This membership of farmers is contributing to some of the best work being done in organic and sustainable agriculture in the US and beyond. I was honored to have the chance to work with them on this great event.

We organized a breakfast, with all items being donated from local organic producers. A gigantic thanks goes out to Iggy's Bakery, Clear Flour Bakery, Nashoba Brook Bakery, Tribe Hummus, Bigelow Tea Company, Stonyfield yogurt, Organic Valley and Dean's Beans coffee. A special thanks to Sally for the homemade jams!

We also orchestrated a potluck lunch, in which each attendee dropped off a potluck item between 8:00 a.m. and 9:00 a.m. Each item was marked as "hot" or "cold" and whisked off to a refrigerator or heated oven in the kitchen. By 11:30, all items were set out at 6 stations and we fed 900 people within 45 minutes. Talk about fast food.

Here are some of the best moments of organizing the food from this conference:

• Twelve pounds of Tribe hummus. Enough said.

• Iggy's, Clear Flour Bakery, and Nashoba Brook Bakery all donated the bread products. When I say my tiny Prius was filled with bread, I am not kidding. From top to bottom, we were clearly carb-loading (hahahhahaha). Elizabeth and I were getting ready to leave bright and early on Saturday morning, and decided my car smelled more like a bakery than a garage.


• We were up to our eyes in bagels.

• Twenty pounds of Dean's Beans fair trade coffee will keep you awake.
• Please don't bring a 10 pound, uncut Superschmelz kohlrabi to a potluck.
• Or a bag of soup to share. This makes serving difficult.
• Do show up on time, be a fabulous volunteer, and make this conference go off without a hitch!

We cleaned up and were done around 4 p.m. at which time we parted our separate ways. I wanted someone to wait on me, so T and I headed to my favorite local fish market/restaurant for dinner. By 7:30 p.m., I had quickly found a very comfy spot on a very comfy couch and proceeded to glue my gluteus there for the remainder of the evening.

The conference was a success and I couldn't have done it without the help of my very awesome assistant Elizabeth and all of the wonderful volunteers for NOFA, as well as the school's staff and volunteer high school students who helped keep all the hot dishes warm so no one contracted a poisoning of the culinary nature.

By participating in this group potluck, NOFA saved money and resources. We were able to enjoy hundreds of delicious dishes, most filled with hearty root vegetables and rich whole grains.

We also only generated about 8-10 bags of trash; most people brought their own plates, cups, and silverware, so we were able to reduce trash by quite a bit. Most of the food was composted, too. It was a great example that reducing, reusing, and recycling can be done even on a scale like this. Thanks, NOFA for this unbelievable conference and opportunity to be part of it!

Training Update

We're up to $750, and my long run distance is a 14 miler. I watched the entire movie, "The Pursuit of Happyness" and the Obama rally for Mrs. Coakley while running. It was a looong time on a treadmill, but well worth the 1700 calories and feeling of accomplishment. This is the longest distance I've ever run in one fell swoop!

I still cannot reveal a few very big items of excitement coming along your way, but it's coming...