The March Hare: Summer 2006 Issue 49

Co-ops • Starting Something • The Way We Eat • Ironweed Maturing • Getting There • Crossword

Starting Something

By Nathan Brown

Some might say that necessity is the mother of invention when it comes to forming co-ops at Dancing Rabbit. You might even see my own act of helping to create Sunflower, the newest food co-op here at DR, as just such an example, but I say it was just the power of laziness and the desire for companionship.

You see, when I first moved to DR last summer, the Skyhouse associated food co-op called Bobolink was kind enough to let me eat with them while I transitioned into life in our little ecovillage. Bobolink is like the other DR food co-ops in that everyone purchases food together collectively and take turns doing things like cooking for each other, processing food, cleaning, etc. This saves a lot of resources by making it easy to buy food in bulk, while sharing kitchen infrastructure, as well as having added benefits like helping everyone save a ton of time on cooking.

I had never participated in this kind of food co-op before moving to Dancing Rabbit, but I enjoyed eating with people regularly and found it nice not having to spend as much time in the kitchen as I used to when I was cooking on my own. Eating with Bobolink was, however, a temporary solution to getting my eating needs met and so things were going to change.

When my time with Bobolink started to come to a close I realized I was going to be doing a lot more cooking than I had been, and eating all by myself, if I didn't find another food co-op to join very soon. So, to try and be part of a food co-op after leaving Bobolink, I decided to check with the other similar co-ops here at DR to see if I could eat with them. Much to my chagrin, it didn't work for me to eat with any of them for any long period of time. So, to resolve the situation, I decided to organize the formation of a new food co-op.

Setting up Sunflower was probably far easier than setting up the other food co- ops here at DR because we were able to simply use the existing common house kitchen instead of having to creating our own, but this didn't mean that it was just smooth sailing. We had to jump many logistical hurdles, some that involved making community decisions. Two that I found to be especially complicated were figuring out how to integrate the feeding of visitors with Sunflower's use of the kitchen, and figuring out how to handle the renting of the common house from Dancing Rabbit Land Trust.

In addition, we had to make decisions internal to our co-op about what sort of food we would purchase together, how much it would cost to eat with Sunflower, who would cook when, how we would handle conflict when it arises, etc. In fact, we are still in the process of refining some of these sorts of decisions. For example, we have realized that we need to be more frugal in our spending and we are in the process of creating a new budget to make sure we live within our means.

In the end, however, helping to bring Sunflower into being has actually been more fulfilling than I thought it would be. It is providing a number of DR members and residents with a food co-op with which to eat, and in Sunflower's formation we decided that part of our reason for being should be to help new people moving to Dancing Rabbit to transition into our community by being open for anyone to join.

I would like to think that this will make it easier for new people by allowing them to spend less time cooking and more time figuring out how to adjust to and enjoy ecovillage life. Plus, I suspect the increased socializing that happens around group meals is something that many new residents will find very helpful in forming social bonds when they first arrive, and will provide them with opportunities to learn more about DR culture.

If Sunflower ends up contributing to the well being of people here at Dancing Rabbit as much as I think it will, then the fact that my laziness motivated me to take action will have not only helped me live a life of more leisure (what I mean by leisure is spending time doing things I really want to do, especially with people around whom I enjoy being), but it will help others feel more at home here, and maybe even provide them with more free time. Who knows, maybe the laziness bug will rub off on some of the new people who become part of Sunflower, and they too will start working hard in the short run to have more leisure in the long run. I just hope they like sharing their leisure time and tasks with me, because I get pretty lonely and bored when I have a bunch of free time and no one with whom to share it.

Co-ops • Starting Something • The Way We Eat • Ironweed Maturing • Getting There • Crossword