 The Baking Begins! | Hurrah! We're finally open for business! As I mentioned in my last post, just over a week ago, We started the process of preparing to offer baked goods from our honesty box some time in early June. 'Preparing' in this case ranged from scrubbing to the back of dusty old cupboards and fixing up a tired old ceiling, to completing council paperwork and taking out product liability insurance... (Who knew cake could be so dangerous!?) All that activity slotted in around (and was slightly delayed by) greens set dressing work for Nik's business throughout a very busy July, so it's felt like a long time coming but on Friday the 2nd of August (auspiciously close to Lammas, I must have intuited that one!) we were very excited to make the first batch of Earth Heart Kitchen produce available from our newly refurbished honesty box! Of course, honesty boxes mostly rely on passing trade and out here we're hoping for some hungry tourists who need a sweet boost to get to the top of the waterfall, but we hadn't left our opening day completely to chance and we'd enthusiastically invited a fair few local friends and neighbours who we wanted to share the day with (possibly without giving quite as much consideration to parking as may have been wise!). After all, a local source of high quality baked goods is also a matter of community interest! |
| Friday morning was spent whipping up a final gluten free banana loaf to accompany the rhubarb and loganberry flapjack, peanut butter/fruit and nut cookies, as well as making a few final tweaks to decorating the gazebo and picking some fresh produce from the garden; peas, rhubarb, yellow courgette and globe artichoke, bunches of mint and some cottage garden posies! I might almost have forgotten to put the crafts, cards and poetry books back in the box! It's hard to pick a date for an event. We toyed with the idea of launching on a Saturday, which might have been more convenient for some but a few of our passers by are commuting between villages so we wanted to catch them too, if possible. Then of course, it's holiday season, which is in itself a double edged sword; a lot of our local friends turned out to be away but we hoped that equally meant lots of passing tourists! Either way, I'm very aware how busy life can be and I've learnt that expectation is a short cut to disappointment so despite the invites and organisation, I was content to imagine a quiet afternoon chilling out under our new gazebo and watching the world go by. I was also quietly confident that I wouldn't have too much trouble finding homes for excess cake in the following days... I mean, is there any such thing as too much cake!? |  It's Cake Day!  The First Full Batch! |
 Ready for Guests!  Beautiful Veg! | Happily, my visions of a quiet afternoon rapidly evaporated as people began arriving shortly after two o'clock and I was catapulted into full hostess mode distributing samples and making sure everyone had drinks... And cake! It was actually the first occasion we've even had more than a couple of visitors at a time (and that can make the cottage feel very full indeed so it's a good thing we were outside!) so it was completely delightful to welcome friends and passers-by alike to pause a while and enjoy the space. And the cake. My mildly pessimistic anticipatory strategising around the dispatch of surplus baking proved unnecessary as packets of flapjack fairly flew out of the box, though we did have just about enough left to open, (and make sales) over the weekend too. Nik's beautiful veg was also popular in a scintillating rainbow of abundance and I particularly enjoyed the contrast of the sunny yellow courgette against the deep, visceral mauve of the beetroot... But we sold all the courgettes so I had to let go of that one. Come Friday evening, we'd had a full afternoon of happy hosting and felt so warmly supported and encouraged in our new(ish) venture. Who knew you can take more on your own driveway than at an average car boot sale!? And the money is a necessary part of keeping things going, though it's easy to feel awkward about that. I felt much happier giving away samples than selling to my friends... But that doesn't buy in the next shopping basket of ingredients, so that's a practice in itself and the other side of being generous is receiving with grace. Ultimately, any profit we generate from the honesty box will be woven back into the greater Earth Heart vision too, which is going to take more than a few bake sales to get off the ground, let's be realistic! |
Necessity of cold hard cash aside, what I enjoyed most about the event by far was the gathering and connection of friends. Though I recently made the decision to leave conscious community residence at Taraloka, there are other, broader (and less intense!) kinds of community that are just as important for fostering kindness, care and compassion. The ultimate goal of the whole Earth Heart project is to be in service to that and I feel not only content that we've made another important step on that journey but also moved by the enthusiasm of those who attended to engage in that connection with us.
And then there's the cake! I'm planning to bake roughly once a week and to have a variety of vegan treats available through Thursday/Friday and into the weekend from our honesty box. I'm also hatching a plan for some local pop up stalls and we're looking forward to the Llanfyllin Food Fair in September, so you'll have plenty of opportunity to catch us and sample some for yourself! There might even be a rumour of some bread baking trials... But that'll have to remain a teaser until next time!
And then there's the cake! I'm planning to bake roughly once a week and to have a variety of vegan treats available through Thursday/Friday and into the weekend from our honesty box. I'm also hatching a plan for some local pop up stalls and we're looking forward to the Llanfyllin Food Fair in September, so you'll have plenty of opportunity to catch us and sample some for yourself! There might even be a rumour of some bread baking trials... But that'll have to remain a teaser until next time!
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