by Sarah Townsend

I’m scheduled to pick grape leaves tomorrow for a meal that will celebrate locally grown wine and produce. I have been instructed to pick the leaves that are both large enough to stuff and not tough. I know to feel the veins and note the curvature of the leaves. I also know not to strip all the leaves from any one branch which may cause it to wither—a reminder that no one individual can carry the weight of community. These leaves will be rolled into dolmas for our dinner.

Proceeds from this meal will help launch a center that serves families of children birth to six years in Kitsap County, Washington: Peacock Family Center. Our goal is to provide an interconnected community of care under one roof with access to ongoing and flexible day care, child enrichment programming (including a progressive kid early childhood environmental curriculum), open play, and family support. The health and well-being of children are directly linked to the health and well-being of the children’s caregivers, so our center will offer programming to nurture both children and the adults who care for them. To that end, we are launching a “seed” campaign that appropriately moves from farm to table.

The making of this meal closely parallels the development of our program. It is relational and organic. We have approached each farm to ask for donations of individual ingredients. The resulting meal will include  hearth breads with wheat grown West of the Cascades in Sequim, home-made chevre, ricotta and feta made with local milk, thinly sliced tomato, sweet onion, carrots, basil, dill, cucumbers, beets, arugula, chard, cauliflower, lettuce, local lamb, and chicken. It is the human interaction required in a season of abundance—going and finding the farmer in the midst of the potato field—that nurtures a community as well as a deeper appreciation for all of our connections to each other and the Earth.

Sarah Townsend is a founder of Peacock Family Center, a nonprofit support and advocacy group for parents and children based in Bainbridge Island, Washington.

Image by Jennifer Dickert, 2006. Creative Commons license.

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