June Carp Dinner Surprise!

June Carp Dinner Surprise!

Members of the Carp Celtic Jam add their magical presence to the June Carp Dinner.

Regulars and new folks coming to this month’s Carp Dinner and Talk on Sunday, June 22 at the Carp Memorial Hall were delighted to find that eight members of the Carp Celtic Jam were gracing the event. With finely honed tunes, flawlessly performed, they set toes to tapping and heads nodding. No wonder—this group has been meeting and playing weekly for ten years and continues to do so on Monday evenings at the Masonic Lodge in Carp.

 

 

Speaker Richard Longworth expounding on the vision of a society where food is shared instead of wasted.

Not second fiddle, as he humorously began his talk, was Richard Longworth’s presentation on Redefining the Food System: A Sustainable Sharing Approach. With obvious deep thought and preparation, Richard spoke articulately about the need to creatively find ways to share food that is otherwise wasted in our community. He gave inspiring examples of websites that are used to help people give away free or low-cost items, such as Yerdle, AirBnB and Uber and gave ideas on how the internet could be used to distribute excess food. Best of all, he has designed and set up a collaborative website for Carp. He invited all of us to explore the site and contact him at www.carpsite.ca with suggestions.

 

Karen Richter walked away with the gift basket from new health food store Dandelion Foods in Almonte after trading in the birdhouse she won!

 

As usual, dinner was delicious, celebrating summer with a wide variety of salads to make a well balanced and healthy meal. Holistic chef Kim Trott served up salads made of mixed beans, local potatoes, eggs, kale and local lettuce and desserts made of local rhubarb, apples and strawberries. A novel creamy dressing consisted of tahini (sesame paste) and avocados. Instead of bread, quinoa with olive oil and lemon was offered as a lighter alternative. Kim announced that she is also starting up a program for children integrating nature, art and healthy food as well as cooking classes together with lead volunteer Sylvia McGee. (ktrott@bell.net )

Helen Craig (left) won a baby cardinal flower. She and sister Lois are regulars at the Carp dinners.

 

 

Donors for this month’s dinner include: Connaught Nursery from the Carp market with plants for the raffle as well as supplying the green salad; McGregor’s Produce, also in the market, donated potatoes and supplied the strawberries; Dandelion Foods, a new health food store in Almonte, donated a generous gift basket for the raffle; and Bill Rawson gave a hand-crafted wooden bird house for the raffle as well. Finally, local charity Carp Ridge Learning Centre generously covered the cost of the food. Many people volunteered their time and energy with much goodwill!

All proceeds of food and funds from each dinner go to the West Carleton Emergency Food Aid with thanks for the important service they provide.

Coral Byers and Ashley Wellman are first time participants at the Carp Dinners and were delighted with this community project. I think we’ll see them again!

The Carp Dinners will take a break over the summer and will resume on Sunday, September 21 from 4:30 to 6pm, with a talk on Simple Fall Cleansing. All are welcome and there’s a craft table for the kids set up by volunteer Tanya Spirak. Please RSVP by calling Lori at 613-839-1198 or emailing carpdinnerRSVP@gmail.com.

Thank you to all who helped clear the tables at the end of the meal!