I have been up to my knees with a few things, the biggest right now being our annual Home Products Dinner.  It is that time of year, once again.  And it is so exciting!  I’m surprised at how much I’ve forgotten over the course of the year, both in terms of planning items; what we need to do, what we need to put out, what needs to go where, and the fun of it all!

I think (wait, I KNOW) I talked about the dinner before, but that was about a year ago.  So just a little refresher for you.  Our community hosts a Home Products Dinner, featuring a menu of items grown entirely in our county.  It started in 1941 by our State Representative, on a brag.  He claimed that he could make an entire dinner using only food grown and produced locally.  The meal continued until he retired from the Legislature, and the modern version of this dinner was revived in 1963.  This year’s dinner is the 49th annual dinner.  I am so proud to be part of such an amazing, long-standing, local tradition!

I am finishing the second of my four year commitment on the Home Products Dinner Committee.  I practically begged to be a part of this committee after we moved here.  Not only is it wonderful to be part of the tradition, but it also takes me back to my meeting-planning professional background (I was not a meeting planner in my previous, career-minded life, but I did work for an organization that planned many meetings, including a large annual conference and had many duties in planning those events).

The dinner also celebrates the self-sustaining nature of our rural community – an aspect of farming that I am learning to embrace.  While green is the new buzzword, I think sustainability is an important part of being green, and that is what this dinner is all about.

Back to dinner, tomorrow we will feast on barbecue beef, scalloped potatoes, baked pinto beans, candied squash, cherry tomatoes, sweet corn, whole wheat rolls, strawberry jam, watermelon, ice cream and milo donuts.  An amazing meal for the amazing price of $6!

We’ll be serving approximately 1,500 neighbors tomorrow evening and so we’ve been busy the past few days.  While the committee works all year on the planning, we really started harvesting the crops in August.  Many groups came together in August to harvest the corn, shuck it, clean it, cut it and cook it.  The potatoes were also harvested in early August and have been waiting for the dinner.  On Saturday, the committee gathered the cherry tomatoes, squash, watermelon, decorative pumpkins, gourds and hay bales.  This evening, the committee also started cooking 800 pounds of beef for tomorrow, yummy!

But it’s getting late, and I’m running on a bit.  I must get to bed, for I have another long day tomorrow.  But just a few pictures from last year’s dinner.

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