Grange Notes by Tim Swartz, Grange President (with everyone’s help) April 28, 2025
I’ve been collecting images…and now I’m hungry
As you will see from the images below, there are many ways to make a “fruit cobbler”. Preparing to write this newsletter, I did a little online research, and gathering the pictures has got me salivating. I hope you are too–and that you are inspired to bring a delicious dish to be entered into the contest on Saturday, May 3!
We are asking people to bring their entries about 4:15, so that they will be ready for the “local celebrity judges” to begin tasting about 4:30. For this contest, we will accept cobblers made with any type of summer fruit–recognizing that this isn’t summer, you can use canned or frozen fruits! Note that if you want to make an entrant for the VT State Grange contest in July, they will require that it be made with blueberries, raspberries or blackberries. We’re just looking for tasty fruity pastries! And we know that very similar recipes get called things like Betties, Buckles, Pandowdies and several other names…since there is no recipe specified, we’ll be generous in accepting tasty choices.
Judges will be rating characteristics like appearance, texture and ease of preparation–but the most important is flavor! There will be prizes–including (for 1st place) a basket of delicious items from Just Food Hub. This local provider not only sells fair-trade food from small producers, especially Equal Exchange ones, but also donates part of your purchase price to the Grange! Sue and John Morris, who operate this “profit-free business” are longtime supporters of the Grange. You can place orders that will benefit the Grange at: https://justfoodhub.us/
ity-grange/. 2nd and 3rd place prizes will also be awarded–plus a certificate suitable for framing!
Grange meeting after the cobbler judging!
We’ll be having a Grange meeting in addition to the cobbler judging, which will include:
- Planning a “Spring Cleaning” for June 7–including mopping the floor mats in the morning, and other cleaning in the afternoon
- Planning a Sing-Along for June 7, after the clean-up! This has been our recent tradition for our June meeting, a chance for many of us to join in singing with our Grange Musician, Matt Nunnelly.
- Please come to the meeting to learn more and get involved, or reply to this newsletter!
As usual, the meeting will be followed by our monthly Community Potluck starting at 6:00 PM. Please bring something you’ve made, or something you’ve picked up on the way over–we have an eclectic set of choices at most of our potlucks, with something for everyone. Invite your friends!
Great news from one of our long-term tenants!
We are proud to be the rehearsal home for the Barre-Tones, the local women’s chorus that specializes in barbershop quartet style singing. This last weekend, they took part in the “Area 2 Regional” competition–and came in 5th out of 11. This qualifies them for the Fall International competition in Canada! “Area 2” includes all of New England, plus Montreal.
Barre-Tones have been in existence since at least 1949–there’s a picture of them performing on Flag Day in that year on their website. They welcome people interested in being part of their group–come to one of their Monday night rehearsals–except for this evening, April 28th, when they get an evening off! More info on joining on their website, of course, plus pictures, and video of them performing Singing Valentines too!