Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Scaring the Snow and Sharing Our Strengths

Gypsy Woman had a very busy morning barking at the snow invading her territory. Great Pyrenees are bred to protect their flocks, and she’s not so sure what all these cold, white aliens are doing falling on our ground. She knows our cat Buster has no need for this stuff, and she probably has picked up that neither does her mama.

I had recipes to type for the Coker Creek Elementary School/Coker Creek Heritage Group cookbook project, so the snow didn’t much bother me. I was so excited that each of Coker Creek’s ninety-year-old cooks agreed to have one of her recipes submitted. Eda wrote out the biscotti recipe and Mamie shared her daughter-in-law, Louise’s, squash casserole recipe. I had to type and email them; and since I type two-fingered at a blazing sixteen words a minute, it kept me occupied for a while.
Mountaintop Mary graciously gave me access to her Mary Mac’s Apple Cake recipe, already neatly typed. I know Richard will want to try this one when apple season rolls back around.

Eda has asked me to attend the next Dorcas meeting at a nearby church. Josie drove me to one of their meetings before the Tellico Plains Christmas Candlelight Walk. This is the ladies circle that organized the last candlelight walk when it was in danger of being discontinued. Since the Cookie Caper is a major source of their funding for their good works in the community, and there would have been no Cookie Caper without the Candlelight Walk, they simply took charge of the whole thing. Sounds like potential candidates for One Million Matriarchs to me.

I did want to know exactly what mission the Dorcas group supports, so I Googled “Dorcas.” Come to find out, Dorcas was a dressmaker who made clothes for the poor in her village. She is considered by some to be a saint, which I strongly suspect she may be. I’ve heard that we’re not saved by good works, but I’m hoping this will give me access to a group of women who focus on positive progress and problem solving. I did belong to a couple of these in Louisiana before Hurricane Katrina, even though I’m definitely not sorority sister material. I also have no sewing or other craft skills, so I’m not sure what part I can play. Only time will tell.

The poverty and social inequality issues in the rural mountainous pockets of Appalachia are being brought to the fore again with the slump in the world economy and the high unemployment rate. Mamie well remembers how bad things used to be. Her dreams of a community garden got us started on gardening with her.

Coker Creek Village has now begun plans for a community garden utilizing church mission groups attending their summer camp programs to support the food bank for the local families fallen on hard times. I know the children attending our “Granny Camp” this summer will be only too happy to help.