Grange Notes by Tim Swartz, Grange President (with everyone’s help) November 1, 2024
Grange meeting: 4:30 PM, this Saturday
Our November Grange meeting will feature a more thorough report on the State Grange meeting than the one below. We’ll be going into more of the story of what it was like for a small corps of volunteers to host this gathering–and to feed them. We’ll be discussing whether we want to do this again–and if we do, what should be done differently to make it less of a struggle, especially for the kitchen crew.
We’ll also be talking about plans for the upcoming meetings in the colder months, including a December 7th meeting with a Program, and a Holiday Sing-a-Long which is on the Calendar for Dec. 15th.
I will also report on some website management complications that have cropped up–I’m really hoping that they will be cleared up by Saturday. We’re still looking for a member or Friend of the Grange who would like to be a webmaster for us! Our online hosting and update service, WPEngine.com is a big help, but we should really have someone who has more than my amateur-level skills keeping an eye on that important aspect of our operation.
Our Grange meeting will be run with our simplified Grange ritual, and will be available via Zoom if you can’t make it in person. The link is posted on the Grange Calendar posting for the meeting, as usual.
VT State Grange: taking care of business
About 60 delegates came from all over Vermont–from Bomoseen, Boltonville, Barton, Bridgewater and many more, to meet for two days in our beautiful Grange Hall in Berlin. Our Grange received many compliments on our Hall–and many more on the food dished out–I’ll include a separate article below about that project!
Since the State Grange meets in session only once a year, a lot of business gets transacted in a couple of days. Every Grange can send 2 voting delegates, who can discuss and vote in a very clear and democratic way on all aspects of Grange governance. Voting delegates get name-badges with pink ribbons attached, so it’s clear who can vote. The issues discussed include reports of all the various committees of the VSG, plus the budget for the next year, and the “Resolutions” submitted by Granges over the past year. On Saturday, we elected all of the officers for the next 2-year terms–just as our Community Grange did at our September meeting. Officer elections are done by paper ballot; the rest are by delegates using the “voting sign of the Order”.
We also learned about the state of the Grange in Vermont. We are down to 834 Community Grange members in the state, in 29 functioning Granges. This is a number that has been dropping for many years; the only slightly positive news is that the net loss of 15 members is one of the lowest in recent years. Capital City is one of just 3 Granges that reported an increase in members. Of course, this is just an increase in the number of members willing to pay our annual $30 in dues, and includes quite a few who do nothing else.
The President of the National Grange, Christine Hamp attended our State Session, along with her husband Dwayne. Chris Hamp spoke to us, pointedly urging us all to do our best to involve new members positively, especially being forgiven any mistakes in ritual and practices. She is clearly aware of the need to get more people involved in the work of the Grange, knowing that national Grange numbers have been going down just as our State’s numbers have done. It is encouraging to me to hear this discussion, since our Grange has consistently focused on what we do, especially with our Hall, not on the forms of Grange ritual.
The State Grange meeting, though, is where I and other delegates get exposed to the original forms of the ritual, since people who enjoy that aspect are the ones who persevere in “climbing the ladder” of the degrees of Grange membership. If you like sashes, the golden sashes of the National President and the State officers who have attained the 7th Degree are dazzling, as are the pink sashes of the 6th Degree State members.
What we all share is a belief that people working together can create positive changes in the world, and in the value of meeting face-to-face and openly discussing mutual needs. I hope that some of those reading this edition of “Grange Notes” will join us at our Capital City Grange meeting on Saturday, to have just that sort of meeting! If we believe in working together, attending a meeting once a month is a way of putting that into practice.
Serving up local food
Our Meals Committee for this event decided early on that purchasing from local suppliers would be a priority. Merry Shernock, Charles Mayhood and Alison Forrest, with some assistance from Richard DeCosta were determined to create a variety of dishes, including options for people who eat vegetarian, avoid gluten or avoid dairy.
Merry, who did a lot of the sourcing of local vendors, gave a brief introduction, which she recreated for our Grange Notes readers:
Walk Our Talk
Welcome! Capital City Grange is so happy to host this Annual Meeting of the Vermont State Grange. We hope that you will be comfortable here and we hope that you will enjoy the food we have planned and prepared for you.
The Grange is historically an agricultural organization and we think we should support our local farmers and food producers. So we have planned our meals, as much as possible around local food. Local food from small farmers and food producers costs more, so we have asked you to pay a little more. We think, however, this is the tax we pay to enjoy the lifestyle we have.
The BEEF we are serving tonight comes from Burelli Farms and the co-owner, Peter Burmeister is a friend who sold the Beef to us at cost. He delivered it here fresh this morning
The PORK comes from Union Brook Farm in Northfield and I picked it up myself. The two girls who own the farm (and anybody under 30 is a girl to me!) are delighted to sell their pork at cost to us for you to enjoy.
The BREAD comes from La Panciata, also located in Northfield. I’ve known the baker since he was a little boy. I know his dad who started the bakery. My daughter worked there when she was in high school and they baked bread for her wedding supper. They gave us such a deal! You know how it is with local food; it tastes better because you know the folks who made it.
Some special whole grain sour dough BREAD was donated by the co-owner of O-Bread, up in Burlington. The baker and co-owner has taught Afro-Caribbean Dance here for about 30 years and she brought some freshly-baked loaves yesterday.
The APPLES were donated by Chapin Orchard up in Chittenden County. (People applaud) You know them. Their apples will be homemade apple crisp tonight
The ICE CREAM that goes on top of the apple crisp was made by LegenDairy over in Williamstown. They also make the best maple creemees, (worth the trip!) and the guy who made it and donated it is coming tonight to serve it to you himself.
The CHEESE, of course, is from Cabot, and is also donated.
The VEGGIES come from two places. One is the Vermont Youth Conservation Corps. The kids at VYCC grow veggies for free for low income folks, and the VYCC donated all the ‘seconds’ to us. They also donated a LOT of kale! Please tell anyone you think might be eligible for free food about this program.
VEGGIES were also donated by Burnt Rock Farm up in Huntington VT. Burnt Rock was severely affected by the summer flooding, but shared their extra potatoes and onions and squash with us this weekend.
And finally the GREEN BEANS were grown, pre-processed, and donated by the President of Capital City Grange, who grew way more than we needed.
It was fun identifying and arranging this local food for you this summer. It would have been a helluva lot easier to get it from COSTCO, but I think Grangers should Walk Their Talk.
The pictures below show: Local Veggies from VYCC, one of the 6 centerpieces set up by Alison, using her hand-woven fabrics (and some of the veggies), Merry serving up beef, Alison serving roasted vegetables, and Erin serving chickpea curry and rice. The last picture shows State Grange members enjoying lunch on Saturday. BTW, they are eating off placemats donated by the Wayside Restaurant!
NOTE: at the request of the National Grange President, Merry sent a copy of WALK THE TALK to her, so we hope to see it featured in National Grange’s online newsletter!
