Memphis Democrat December 6, 2000

We made many trips to Kirksville this week. Tony, Susan and Rachel went to speak at a class on Feminist Criticism at Truman State about Dancing Rabbit. Kalen went with Lindsay, of Sandhill Farm, to a performance by a griot, a Senegalian storyteller and musician. Jeffrey and Laird, from Sandhill, went to their regular Wednesday night bridge party.

We really enjoyed our first real snow of the season. Especially our golden retriever, Baloo, who went around with his nose in the snow and tried to fetch snowballs.

Don, Kalen and Kurt made their monthly run up to the root cellar on the Roes' land to retrieve our month's supply of canned goods and root vegetables. It nice to have full cabinets again and enjoy the abundance of our summer harvest.

One evening Laurie, Debra, Kalen and Rachel gathered to whittle chopsticks out of apple whips pared from our friends' orchard in the spring.

We all settled in for our six day long annual retreat. This is a time when all the members gather to spend our days resolving big concerns and planning the coming year. We are lucky to have Tree from Eugene, OR to act as our facilitator, to make sure everything goes smoothly. We are discussing topics such as how to refine our eating cooperative, how much to grow this next year, and how to help members make enough money. While discussing these things, some of us are also doing lots of patching, quilting and other needlework.

We had a lovely dinner at Sandhill this week. Gigi prepared lasagna and for dessert served crepes with chocolate sauce. All the rest of our dinners while we have been meeting have been prepared by our two remaining interns, Laurie and Debra. We appreciate their fabulous meals, with menus including items such as sushi, spicy peanut noodles, potato pancakes, hummous and almond cookies.

Jess' Almond Poppyseed Cookie Recipe
5 cups flour
1 Tablespoon baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cup Sandhill sorghum
1 1/4 cup oil
3/4 cup poppyseeds
1 Tablespoon almond extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Roll into 1 inch diameter balls and bake on a cookie sheet for 10-15 minutes. Makes 4-5 dozen.