The Pie That Binds Us

My Monday morning mind is feeling frantic, trying to decide what to write at the moment. There's just so much to say... I mean I know that moving to a new place comes with its own ornery momentum - a fierce slope, either up or down depending on the day, which hurtles you along towards what you hope is... balance.
New people and spaces.
Routines and habits.
Markets and vendors.
Ingredients and soil.
An Entire Culture.

So I resist the urge to skulk into my quiet corner of this desert amidst this high volume of newness, and instead I clean up the clutter up of my desk, make some lists (see below), and feed the birds.

The birds, it seems, have become a calming fixture here which help to prevent any aforementioned skulking. These sweet desert beasts just feast and feast beginning at about 7am, returning throughout the day for snacks. I am lucky - for their presence, but also because bird seed is cheap.



But they are also quite shameless for their affection for me is fully conditional -  you see they don't come round unless I set out their seeds. Ok maybe they swoop in for a moment to check the stash, but if they see none then they simply fly off to the next post that may possibly satiate them. If I'm too lazy to drag that bucket out - no birds for me.

Ultimately, is it this breakfast of peanuts and sesame that is the only thing keeping them at my kitchen window. And who can blame them? And really isn't this true of us all? - The feeding, the nourishing, is what so often brings us together. (Hopefully not just to my kitchen window... that would be creepy. Also I'd like to tto reassure you that I am not in fact losing my marbles out here in the desert. I don't really expect the birds to provide me with unconditional love. They're just a metaphor... Sheesh.)

The food is what brings us together, is what connects us.
Choosing a concrete chapter to start from, Pie, has meant a connection - from me to you, and you to you, in the shape of a recipe testing guild. From all over this earth we shall very soon all be baking a pie together! It shall be the pie that binds.

So then keeping up with all this newness, and thus fending off the skulking, comes with a theme in the coming posts/days.
The connectivity of food.
Here's my list (in no particular order) of upcoming variations on that theme:
1 - The Cloud Cliff Bakery, Albuquerque Mennonite Church, and Pie Crust
2 - Farmer Ken, the Duck, and Quatre Epices
3 - A Chocolate Contest and Creme Fraiche
4 - The Mennonite Writing Conference, a Food Writing Class, and Meyer Lemons
5 - Keturah and Fred in 1972 and Fasting
6 - Leah Stuckey from Chicago!

Thanks for connecting and see you soon!