Our spring issue is set to arrive from the printer on Monday. Today in preparation, I’ll print off distribution sheets, send emails and clean the front porch so I can stack it high with boxes upon boxes of magazines.
While my husband and I distribute most of the magazines, there are many hands that help lighten the work. Our amazing contributors take a few extra copies to pass out. Our cousins welcome us into their home during distribution weekend. My sister-in-law takes some 500 copies to the local businesses in her town and lets us store boxes in her garage. And farmers market managers across the region pass out copies to customers, spreading stories of food and connection. We couldn’t do what we do without their help and support.
Speaking of farmers markets, as they ready for their regular season, several markets are hiring. In Waynesboro, Project Grows is seeking a mobile market coordinator and a summer camp assistant. LEAP is hiring for a number of positions, including market managers and a community garden manager. These organizations work tirelessly to make healthy food more accessible to all who reside in their communities.
If you’re looking for ways to become more involved in your community, many organizations such as LEAP, Project Grows, and New Roots are seeking volunteers. House of Bread, a small non-profit that makes a lasting impact on those they serve is seeking mentors for their spring session.
Welcome to the Edible Blue Ridge newsletter that brings you food stories from our region and beyond. You're receiving this email because you've purchased a magazine subscription—thank you!—or you signed up via our online form. If you need to opt out at any time, there's a link at the bottom. We're glad you're here.
Thanks for reading, happy eating, and enjoy your weekend,
Lisa - Publisher & Editor
EVENTS
Have an event you’d like us to share? Email: info@edibleblueridge.com
3.09 Paint & Sip at Cider from Mars: Iconic Women - Staunton
3.09-3.10 & 3.16-3.17 Highland County Maple Festival - Highland
3.15 Veritas Supper Series: Rachael Harris - Afton
3.22-3.24 Forest Farming Conference - Roanoke
3.30 Daze of Rose - Keswick
MORE TO CHEW ON: LEAP Commercial Kitchen Seeks Small Businesses
Are you starting your own food business but struggling to find prep space? The LEAP Kitchen is a shared cooking space in Roanoke with a fully-equipped, licensed commercial kitchen designed for a variety of food businesses. They are now accepting new applicants for their commercial kitchen space. To learn more, scan the QR code or reach out to kitchen@leapforlocalfood.org
WHAT WE’RE COOKING
With rain in the forecast this weekend, we’re getting cozy and making roasted chicken quarters with an artichoke salad.
POEM OF THE WEEK
To be of use
By Marge Piercy
The people I love the best
jump into work head first
without dallying in the shallows
and swim off with sure strokes almost out of sight.
They seem to become natives of that element,
the black sleek heads of seals
bouncing like half-submerged balls.
I love people who harness themselves, an ox to a heavy cart,
who pull like water buffalo, with massive patience,
who strain in the mud and the muck to move things forward,
who do what has to be done, again and again.
I want to be with people who submerge
in the task, who go into the fields to harvest
and work in a row and pass the bags along,
who are not parlor generals and field deserters
but move in a common rhythm
when the food must come in or the fire be put out.
The work of the world is common as mud.
Botched, it smears the hands, crumbles to dust.
But the thing worth doing well done
has a shape that satisfies, clean and evident.
Greek amphoras for wine or oil,
Hopi vases that held corn, are put in museums
but you know they were made to be used.
The pitcher cries for water to carry
and a person for work that is real.
Marge Piercy, "To be of use" from Circles on the Water. Copyright © 1982 by Marge Piercy. Used by permission of Alfred A. Knopf, an imprint of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, a division of Random House LLC. All rights reserved.
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