A new episode of love from Lisa Simpson
How often do you know the exact moment your life changes? There’s obvious milestones like getting a driver’s license or getting married, but often the less noticeable pivot points aren’t seen until you look back at them.
On my first night at Quillasascut, I fed the chickens. The next morning I went with Rick to pick out the three slowest and most trusting. We ate them for dinner.
Quillasascut isn’t a monument that my life circles around, it is instead a sort of rumble strip that reminds me to pay attention to the road ahead. It’s where I learned a lot of hippie talk. GMO, food chain, local, seasonal, sustainable.
I learned the real trick of a great chef- recipes really aren’t necessary, technique and ingredients trump all. Thanks Kären! (I’ve given up trying to get the umlauts to appear, but she deserves them). Wood burning ovens kick ass. When people talk about owning a goat I remember Rick telling me, Goats were put here for one reason- to destroy the world. I think Rick was still upset about what those goats did to his peach trees. Farming is hard, dirty work. Especially when it’s 105 degrees outside. And the well isn’t recharging and showers are being rationed.
It was also a week of the most fun with mostly complete strangers that I’ve ever had. We laughed so hard, told each other such naked truths, it was as though we’d known each other for years and it was only Tuesday. (Maybe that was the wine. There were TWO wine runs into town that week.)
I felt kissed by luck to be in that place at that time with those people, and grateful that Rick and Lora Lea were putting together a space to facilitate it so others to have the same ground shifting experience. The Misterlys have created a Salon in the old sense- a place of disparate people coming together and shuffling ideas to build something more useful and universal.They’re salonniers. With goats.
-lisa simpson