Dia de Gracias!

I woke up to Azucena knocking on Vida’s door to pass on a message that Mickey called. Vida wants to buy some property from him that is adjacent to her property, but he won’t sell for a reasonable price. She has a collection of candles and prayer cards for intercession with the sale, so we were hopeful that was why he called. Sadly, no. I collected my things and headed across the fields back to the cabana to get breakfast and get to work. Patch was reading a Thanksgiving card his mom packed for him. Azucena gave us our work for the day – weeding. Kaitlyn and I worked a row over together. It wasn’t too bad, though neither of us wanted to use the zapa. We made great progress until the sun came back out – it had been warm and overcast until about 10:30 am. Our other obstacle was the water that started coming down the irrigation ditch. Bummer! At lunch, which was tasty leftover polenta with quinoa greens and fried eggs on top, Azucena talked about Thanksgiving. We invited her family’s farm and volunteers to come over for dinner. She took a list of items we wanted and planned to go to the store to buy our groceries. We weren’t going to work really long in the afternoon. I was thrilled to get to make mashed potato casserole – papas famosos, as Patch called them. I tried napping in the hammock during our break, but it wasn’t great. The flies bother me, and I just couldn’t get super comfy. I wrote a bit, and then it was already time to get back to work. We “cleaned the floor” of the mud-construction building. This involved hoeing up the leaves and sticks because it is currently a dirt floor. It was amusing. We also filled the mud beds with water to prepare the mud for tomorrow. There was a mini-water fight between Sean and Myrna, but I was happy to stay dry, if not clean. That didn’t take long, so we collected firewood. Gratefully, Azucena returned with the vegetables, so I could get started on cleaning potatoes and getting them boiling. She forgot cream cheese and sour cream, but a bunch of people can’t eat dairy, so I figured I would just use lots of garlic and rosemary. I had a wooden spatula to mash potatoes, which I thought would be terribly difficult, but it worked quite well. No pyrex in these parts, but I did have a big rectangular metal pan charred with lots of past dishes. The oven is a metal drum sideways in the wall. There is a door on our side with two racks and rocks on the bottom. Outside there is a space underneath to build a fire. It works great, but changing the temperature means having a fire of different sizes. I wasn’t exactly sure how hot it was, but I wasn’t about to fret about that. Halfway though prep Azucena said the other farm wasn’t coming, but they surprised us and showed up anyway. It was a confusing night for us in the kitchen. Thanksgiving was not the same for Patch without college football, and most were really missing the turkey. I enjoyed myself, didn’t gorge myself, and washed a lot of dishes! There were 14 of us. We had mulled apple cider with spices and oranges with apple juice from the other farm. I made a big pan of mashed potatoes, and the other farm made a layered dish of potatoes and vegetables. There were roasted sweet potatoes, garlic, fennel, and carrots. Patch made a huge pot of pumpkin soup, which we will be eating for a while. There was a group effort on stuffing that was a little mushy, but none of us make it the same way. It tasted great, much to the surprise of the meat eaters, who doubted stuffing existed without meat juices. We had salad from lettuce, as opposed to the typical bitter greens we pick from the yard (maybe dandelions?). It felt like a great feast, but I missed pumpkin pie. I was imagining that if Gail and Mike were with my family in Portland, Gail might have made amazing pumpkin pie. And homemade whip cream? I guess there are a few things I missed. We don’t eat much in the way of desserts here, mostly just bread with cinnamon and sugar for me. The cider was pretty darn dessert-y for me. I washed a lot dishes before heading back to Vida’s to sleep. I am so thankful for so much! What a privilege for me to be here! Peace, tori