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You are here: Home / Grange Notes / Cobbler Contest report & join us June 7 for spring cleaning!

Cobbler Contest report & join us June 7 for spring cleaning!

May 20, 2025 by Tova

Grange Notes by Tim Swartz, Grange President (with everyone’s help) May 12, 2025

What a variety of tasty treats!

We thought we might get a wide variety of “cobblers”–and we sure did!  In the photo above, Grange Vice President Richard DeCosta is surveying the 5 choices our “Local Celebrity” judges had to choose from.  This contest did not specify recipes or ingredients, just asked for a “Summertime Fruit Cobbler”.
Our judges were:
  • Lisa Burr, co-owner of the Woods Lodge in Northfield, and co-founder of the non-profit Feed Every Need, which makes prepared foods for hungry people in Vermont.
  • Roger Hill, well-known weather forecaster in Vermont, and producer of the award-winning Weathering Heights blog.
  • Albert Sabatini, Grange member and former chef and kitchen manager–and also volunteer weed-whacker for the Grange Hall!
        These intrepid judges had to figure out how to compare the varied entrants based on:  Flavor (40%), Appearance (20%), Texture (20%) and Ease of Preparation (20%).  Here’s the list of entrants (from left to right in the picture above):
  • “Easy Dump Cobbler–Rhubarb”
  • “Berry Upside-Down”
  • “Baja Berry Blast Pie”
  • “Blueberry Coffee Cake Cobbler”
  • “Spring Blueberry-Strawberry Jubilee”
        In the end, after scoring all the entrants on the criteria, and enjoying a few taste-tests, the judges made their awards:
  1. Rhubarb Cobbler, by Bethany Demas.  Here’s a link to her recipe, which can be used with any kind of fruit.  We appreciate her sharing the recipe for this tasty dish!
  2. Blueberry Coffee Cake–I’m embarrassed that we lost the name of the baker for this–please get in touch if you know her!
  3. Blueberry-Strawberry Jubilee–by Amy Handy
       First place received a basket of chocolate and other treats from Just Food Hub; Second and Third place received cooking and food-related gifts.  I am sending out award certificates (suitable for framing!) to the winners as well.   We appreciate every one who entered–and thank them for tasty treats that were enjoyed at the potluck dinner that followed our meeting, enjoyed also by some lucky contra-dancers that evening.  We thank Stan Carlson for cleaning up the dishes that the dancers left.  Stan is always a hard-working volunteer.

June 7:  show some love for the Grange Hall!

Every year, we ask Grange members, plus the many folks who use the Hall, to help us spruce it up so that it looks its best.   We need to supplement the routine vacuuming of the carpeted areas and cleaning of the bathrooms and the kitchen by the cleaning contractor we pay.  We need to pitch in to get some “deep cleaning” done in as many areas as we can accomplish.  This is something you can do to really help us keep our Hall welcoming and fun for everyone who uses it.  And we’ll have some fun doing it!  Bring some tunes!  Bring your favorite cleaning supplies to supplement what we’ll have!
This year, Merry Shernock, our volunteer Treasurer and Rental Agent has posted an online signup form for our June 7 teams, using a program called “Signup Genius”.   There, you’ll find time listings like “Mats” (the vinyl mats we use in the Main Hall) from 10 AM to 12 noon, and others including “Windows”, “Stage, Closets and Storage” and more, from 1 PM to 4 PM.  It’s easy to click the “Sign Up” button in your favorite cleaning area–I just signed up for Mats!  You’ll also find a button on the page where you enter your name labelled “Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information”, which I clicked…and so can you.
We’ve found that if we can get a good number of people to join some of us “hardcore” Grange members, we can get a lot done, meet some new friends and enjoy the process of getting our Hall clean.  Please check out our Grange Facebook event page, and if you want more info, please reply to this newsletter email.

After the cleanup, we’ll rejoice with a Sing-Along!

After a brief break to put away our cleaning equipment, we’ll have a brief Grange meeting from 4:30 to 5:00, and then our Grange Musician, Matt Nunnelly will take center stage.  In addition to being a great piano player and accompanist, Matt has lots of experience leading sing-alongs.  What are your favorite songs to sing with other amateur singers?   Let us know, and we’ll print up the lyrics!
And remember, it doesn’t matter if you’re good–we welcome anyone who will sing out soft or loud!
The singing will happen from 5:00 to 6:00, and then we’ll have…
Potluck dinner!
       Our monthly Community Potlucks are well-known to many of you newsletter readers, and to many other folks as well.   As always, everyone is welcome–if you can bring a dish you made, that’s great–and it is also great if you pick something up at the store on the way over.   Merry will be cooking a pork roast which has been in the freezer since we hosted the State Grange Annual Session last October; I expect to make a vegan dish, and I’m sure we will have a wonderful variety of other tasty things.  We hope you can join us–whether or not you also helped us clean and sing.  We have the most fun when a bunch of friendly people show up!

It’s gardening time!

Along with spring cleaning, it’s also a great time to be planting and weeding and watering in gardens–including the flower beds at the Grange Hall.   The picture above is of the bed at the right of the Original Entrance on the south gable end–last summer after the hard work of, especially, Amy Handy, who (not coincidentally) holds the office of Flora in our Grange.  Amy would be happy to work with others on all of the flower beds which volunteers have established around both entrances.  You can email her to get in touch!

Look who rehearsed in our parking lot!

All Species Day is a long-established day of celebration in Montpelier; this year, there were rehearsals held in our parking lot, as well as indoors in preparation for the big day on May 4th!  Above is a photo of the dance corps on the streets of Montpelier; below is part of the show at the State House.  Look at their flowers, too!

Filed Under: Grange Notes

Contact Us

Tim Swartz, President, CCG#469
802-225-8921 (cell)
grangepresident@capitalcitygrange.org

 

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