Success!

Ya know those situations when you just know you had a great idea?? And then there are those who doubt your abilities and try their best to discourage you??? That was what it was like for me to organize the Buy Fresh-Buy Local "Love your Local Farmer" breakfast.

I felt I was in the middle of an Edgar A. Guest poem!

When you grow up in a small town ... you learn how to feed the masses. Between Easter breakfast at church, 4-H Chicken BBQ's, Fireman's pancake breakfasts ........ you learn two eggs per person, 4 slices of bacon, two pieces of chicken and a 1/4 cup of baked beans! And then you add a bunch for teenage boys and farmers!!!

It just comes automatically.

So ..... it was kind of tough hearing that this was going to be an impossible task.

Never fear ....... I had secret weapons. First of all, I had four years of intense training at 4-H House! Fifty six girls .... 3 meals a day. We shared cooking and cleaning duties so several times a week, it was your turn (along with a couple of others) to cook breakfast or lunch or supper.



Secondly, I am Georgia Whitenack's granddaughter. Gran was an incredible woman that could take a meal for six people and stretch it for 15! During the Depression, Granddad was always bringing home people to get a good meal. Relatives that were having a tough time, hobos that were hungry.

It was through Gran that I learned the importance of a pantry. If you serve another vegetable, have another cake, maybe another salad............. you can feed another 8 people! I also saw first hand ..... that a fancy kitchen wasn't the key to good food. Gran lived in a small trailer on a hill in rural Illinois. Her actual kitchen might have been 12'x8'..... small. And she fed nine hungry grandchildren incredible meals.




And my last secret weapon ........ Doug Coobs! Doug doesn't say much but he jumps right in and gets the job done! Beautifully! And although I was sworn to secrecy..... he is a hell of a dishwasher! (I promised that I would never utter a word to Gwen!)

So ... after a week of cracking eggs, flipping crepes, creaming butter, baking bread, peeling potatoes, chopping onions and grating cheese....... the breakfast was on! And wow! The comments and the support from the community has been incredible!

We could do this week after week after week...............

But we won't!!!!!!

(There are rumors afloatin' about a dinner this fall. Don't be surprised! Gwen, Dawn and I are gearing up for it. And yea --- we are counting on Doug!)