Memphis Democrat
December 30, 2007

From the snow covered hills of Dancing Rabbit, this is Alyssa giving you the news from the past week. There were very few of us here over the past week. I think at most we totalled fourteen, and that number included the two small babies, Zane and Adam. It is quite a different experience to live here with such a small population of folks (we normally total somewhere around 40 these days). The common house was mostly quiet, meals were small and quaint, our Sunday meeting only took something close to 15 minutes to complete. I have enjoyed the quiet, but I am certainly looking forward to the return of the remaining Rabbits and hearing of their travels far and wide.

Bear's parents and nephew visited us last weekend. With them came boxes and boxes of organic produce such as broccoli, squash, red peppers and potatoes. We in Sunflower eating coop have been eating large ever since and sincerely appreciate the generous gift. The visit was also lovely and hopefully the grandparents got enough time with Zane to warrant the trip out.

Jennifer left this week and boarded a train headed for New York. The Carleton Family recently returned to their previous residence to pack their remaining stuff. We hope to see them all back here soon!

The most festive day on farm this week was certainly Christmas Day. Tamar and I were scheduled to cook that day and ended up spending most of the day in the kitchen preparing for the evening meal. With the additional help of Genevieve, Bear, Alyson from Red Earth Farms and many others, we shared a delicious meal together. It wasn't, perhaps, your traditional Christmas fair, with polenta, black beans, yams, seared squash, avocados, roasted peppers and caramelized onions, but it certainly was appreciated. We topped the meal off with three options for dessert, an orange poppy seed cake, shortbread and a lemon pudding pie. Yum, yum!

Folks are slowly beginning to return home. The Milkweeds arrived on Thursday evening from their trip to Minnesota to see Kurt's mother. Tony and Rachel arrived home on Saturday evening after a week or so at Tony's parents house in Michigan. Many more are due to arrive this coming week.

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