Have I mentioned how much I enjoy my work community? I enjoy my job itself, but it's really the environment that makes it that much better. It began in the winter three years ago when a coworker and I decided to start a ladies' soup group. It has grown since thing to include the occasional man or student and is rarely soup. The four women who teach in the department (coincidentally only on MWF) take turns on MWF to cook for the others. When the fare is vegetarian we extend the offer to our chair of the department. How can that hurt? The cooking is fantastic. We get to try new things and share favorite recipes. We get to bring foods that our own families are tired of or never really liked in the first place.
There's something wonderful about joining together with coworkers over a home cooked meal in the middle of the day that makes you feel like a part of another family. For that, I am very blessed.
For the most part we try very hard to keep shop talk away from the table. So the conversations take many turns. Often we talk about food. Today was no exception as the topics of buying locally grown beef and vegetables came up. I think I made a deal to swap some ground beef with one of the other ladies, her's is too lean for her taste and mine too fatty.
We talked about canning. Last summer my man bought me a bushel of tomatoes locally grown (and beautiful) for ten dollars a bushel. I said "I couldn't grow them for that." And I heard my dad saying those exact words.
It might be winter of 2011, and it might be very cold outside. And we might just see that huge snowstorm they keep promising. But inside is the memory of summer and warm days ahead. And tomatoes. Big beautiful juicy tomatoes. On toast with a little mayo. Someday soon.
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