From DECA board member and farmers’ market team member, Catherine Porter…
The East Lynn Farmers Market turned four this year.
Our first season, Alison McMurray — a restaurant owner and Farmerlicious Femme — thought it might be nice gesture to cook for the farmers, who fold up their tables each week at dinner time.
A tradition was started.
For the fourth year in a row, community cooks showed up every Thursday evening with a pot of chili or stew or pasta to feed the farmers who feed us.
It’s a gesture of kindness, a marketing ploy, and a ingredient to cooking up community. For us, the farmers’ market isn’t just about eating healthy, local food. It’s about building a space where neighbours meet every week, twirl their friends in a square dance, settle in for a movie on the hill, and get dragged again by their kids into the face painting tent.
The farmers are part of that. What better way to build community than over a plate of home-baked lasagna?
Since our second year, DECA has paid a small honorarium to community members who cooked for our farmers. Most of the time, it didn’t cover their costs. They are generous souls. A few volunteered for the first time this summer, others are four-year veterans. A few cooked more than once. We want to thank them all individually.
You all helped to make our market a huge success again this year.
You rock.
If you’d like to throw on an apron and join us in cooking a meal next year, please e-mail Shelley at shelleydarling(at)yahoo.ca
Our beloved 2011 DECA cooks include:
Robin Forbes, Jessica Schmiedchen, Alisa Haggert, Frances Bartlett, Nicola St. John, Susan Crofts, Diana Gonzalez, Mary Egan, Shelley Pogue, Michael Polanya, Susan Spratley, Kirsten Hurd, Wayne Chee, Anne Conforzi, Sheila Behm, Caryn Thompson, Susan Spratley, Melissa Peretti, Catherine Porter and Alison McMurray.