The Weekly Newsletter
Menus and Stories for April 21 - 25, 2008
It's Earth Week
You know that one of our five guiding principles is caring for the Earth, right?  Thought I'd include some snaps of things in my gardens, both at home and at work.  And I thought I'd mention a couple of things we are trying to do about this.

For starters, our disposable cups and plastic boxes that we pack our lunches in are made without any petroleum.  They are compostable (under some fairly ideal circumstances like high heat and such).  But they are better than the kinds we used to use. 

Our paper coffee cups are "post recycled paper."  Nice.

Oh, and we recycle all cans, bottles, paper, plastic, AND all our compost.  Always have.  Always will.

Lavender at home
The blustery morning at home today forced me to take multiple versions of the lavender plants on my stone wall.  I stuck them in last summer and am happy to see so many green shoots.

Now - back to some other things we do:

We're a 100% Carbon Neutral business.  It's a tricky thing, to be sure, because we do use up a fair amount of gas and electricity in our daily work.  But we turn things off when we're not using them (on bright days we keep the lights off) and we purchase offsets from Appalachian Offsets, a local company which provides efficient light bulbs to low income folks right around here.

Trillium
This little guy lives right out our back door.  Martha tends our garden and I never quite know what I'll find out there. 

A bit more on the compost:

We collect all our kitchen scraps and save them for various folks.  For the most part, these buckets of delight go to the Buncombe Community School, an alternative educational place for kids who learn all about planting and growing and life.  It's a wonderful program, made better (I like to think) for our carrot peelings.

Dinners to go
Dinners, as you know, come with a freshly-made green salad, salad dressing of the day, and made-right-here bread of the day. We take reservations until noon or so. Please order by phone (252-1500), by FAX (252-02002) or stop in to speak to one of us in person.

As a reminder, every time you order a dinner to go you are eligible to enter our drawing. Just drop a card in our drawing jar (a business card works or fill out one of the cards that we have right here) and, at the end of the month, we'll pull one card which will be good for two free dinners-to-go.

Maybe you'll win next month.

Order a lot? Enter a lot!
Good luck!!

Here is this week's menu:

Monday           April 21            Brie and Almond Stuffed Chicken 10.25

Tuesday           April 22            Tilapia with Thai Curry Sauce 12.25

Wednesday      April 23            Fig and Fontina-stuffed Pork Tenderloin 11.50

Thursday          April 24            Chicken Gorgonzola Fettucini 9.95

Friday              April 25            Spicy Shrimp Creole 12.75

Our website
Special casserole of the week
We make a special casserole each week, usually on Wednesday. Order before noon and we'll have yours ready to pick up between 4:30 and 6:00 that very afternoon. (Yes, you can order in advance too.) Order a full for 9 portions or, if your gang is smaller, opt for the half-sized one, which serves 4 or so.

Say, we'll happily make a salad and provide bread for you if you like, just let us know when you call and we'll get you all set up.

Wednesday,  April 23

Beef “Wellington” Pot Pie

Whole: 38.25

Half: 19.25

Dining Out for Life is this Thursday
Part of caring for the Earth is caring for our community.   We love being a part of this day.  Everyone eats out a lot - after all, there are three opportunities, right?  20% of the sales gets tucked into an envelope (sort of) and gets sent to the WNC AIDS Project.  Their money helps care for folks in our area who need their attention.  Sometimes its easy to forget about close to home needs.  After all, we hear a lot about sub-Saharan Africa and yes, they need lots of help too, but it is good to keep it local and this is one very good way.

Come for our low-key breakfast or visit us for lunch or take dinner home.  Or, if you like, call and order a catered lunch that day and mention Dining Out for Life and we'll count that in our day's sales too. 

Thanks.  Thanks so much.

Lamb's Quarters
Here's another snap of our back yard garden.  I do love their soft silver leaves.

Back at our ranch:

We're trying to find just the right bag to carry here to replace those plastic bags.  I have inquiries out with all of our vendors and my vow is to have a solution before summer.  I'm thinking that a dark blue bag with "Don't Postpone Joy" would be very nice.  We'll see what we find.  In the meantime, feel free to bring in your own bag.  I have mine in my car ready for the next round of groceries.  Makes me feel pretty good (though I do sometimes get into the store and forget that I left the bags at home - it's all about retraining.  I'm getting there.)

Mint
Another picture in our back yard here.  When it's a bit later in the season our cooks wander back there to snip a sprig of this and that.  Delicious and fresh and lovely.

One other thought about Earth caring:

We are serious about buying local.  Our cheese assortments, as you know, are all local.  Our fish is fresh, often from the NC Coast (which is local in fish world), much of our meat comes from local farmers, most of our bread is from a local bakery.  In season we work with a whole bunch of local farmers.  We cook everything (except some of the bread) right here.  We read the ingredient labels and try really hard to make sure we are using the good stuff, like our recent success in eliminating trans fats from our shelves.  (Another of our guiding points is taking care of you - and that's one way we do that.)

A Note From Laurey
April 19, 2008

Oh what a nice day it is.  It’s kind of grey and it’s kind of rainy and it’s kind of chilly.  Yesterday was gorgeous: warm, sunny, mild, dry.  But I woke up to rain patters and I smiled, relieved at the wetness.  I was in my garden yesterday afternoon and things are still pretty dry around here so these April showers are a welcome thing.

We’re having a busy day and I like that too.  A long time ago, when I was very new at this line of work, I remember sitting at a movie here, frightened at the lack of work. I now remember that it was my second or third year of work as a caterer.  The phone did not ring much then at all.  Not many people knew me.  This business took time to develop and, in those early years, there were some long spells of quiet.  That movie showing was in late March.  I sat, quietly waiting for the movie to start.  Just then a friend of mine, a woman who had been in business a long time, noticed me.

“What’s up?  Why so glum?” she asked.

I blurted out my fear of no work and no money and no hope.

“Get used to it,” she said, “Every year after Christmas and before tax day.  Your phone will start ringing like crazy on the 16th of April.”

She was right.  It did.

Our phones ring all the time all year long now, but there is a lull in March.  Happens every year.  And every year, on the 16th, things pick up.  This year is no exception.  I do not get as scared as I did back then, which is fortunate, but there really is a dramatic uptick as soon as everyone’s taxes are done. 

Speaking of being patient (are you with me?) I’m about crawling out of my skin in anticipation of  these bees.  As soon as I ordered my hive components I drove myself a little crazy waiting for the parts to arrive.  It took forever!  I was sure the bees were going to arrive before I was ready and THEN what would I do?  And then, once I got all the parts, I drove myself a little crazy trying to get everything put together in time.  It takes a long time to glue and frame and nail all these things.  I worked on them in all my spare time.  And then I had to get the land ready. 

Now I’m all set. 

The bees are not. 

But I am seeing that this is not at all about MY pace, MY wishes, MY desires.  This project is about slowing down, understanding that many things are out of my control and that I will be a lot better off if I can settle down and just try to pay attention to what is, not necessarily to the way I wish it was.  It’s a good lesson.  One I’m trying to learn.

I’ll be in touch next week.

Homes for my bees
Here are my hives in their new place.  I can see them from my kitchen, my bathroom, my den and my bedroom.  Oh, and my sister helped me move a stone bench to the hillside so I will be able to sit and watch the bee doings.  SOON!!!

(Maybe next week. You can't have a functioning hive without a queen. Queen birthing and development takes a while and depends on warm weather.  It has not been warm enough and it has not been long enough and so, well, there we have it.)

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