By Sarah Schrock
The perfect zucchini. The right size, shape and flavor, and it was the only one I got. My plant didn’t produce Goliath-sized, boat-shaped squash you find along the road that people can’t even give away, the kind used in the infamous zucchini races. It put out just one perfect zucchini.
Somehow the satisfaction of that one perfect zucchini was more gratifying than the barrage of tomatoes, ceaseless pickling cucumbers and sweet carrots that we are plucking daily. It’s certainly not the perfectionist in me — for those of you who know me, perfectionism is not one of my traits. Perhaps because there was only one, it was more precious. Probably though, it was the fact that I didn’t have to keep up with harvesting it.
Unfortunately, produce rotting on the vine or stalk is happening, despite a mediocre gardening season, we still couldn’t keep up with its bounty, or the weeds. Plus, the deer got in the in other night, ate through three of our jack-o-lanterns claimed for Halloween. So for the last few weeks, I have been scheming to finally throw in the towel and pave it over to build a sport court for my boys.
Twisp Park is still waiting on tennis courts, but in the meantime there’s a dedicated group of pickleball players on Saturday mornings at the basketball courts in the park. If you’re interested in joining, contact John Fleming through Town Hall — he’s the keeper of the court.
The Give Methow campaign opens up this week. This fundraising event is a 30-day cyber campaign, where 22 local charitable organizations promote their causes through an online catalog. The Community Foundation of North Central Washington hosts the virtual event and encourages generous benefactors to shop around for the organization. In doing so, you educate yourself on what is happening through in the valley’s nonprofit sector and grasp the scope of its deeds. It’s hard to pick just one, so you can pool your donation and evenly distribute it to all groups.
Beware, shameless plug coming: The Friends of the Pool still needs your help! We have almost paid for the pool remodel; however, that drained our annual contribution for operations at the pool. So once again if you want to see it open, please contribute your annual gift in this easy way through www.givemethow.org. And give to others too — it’s quick and easy. We are truly blessed to have so many dedicated volunteers and staff working to make our valley clean, safe, healthy, smarter, supported, enriched and vibrant through this sector.
The Methow Valley Community Center was full of Latin rhythms and hundreds of dancing feet on Friday night. Herencia de Timbiquí, which means Heritage of Timbiquí, is an ensemble that blends traditional Colombian folk with modern Latin jazz and pop. They brought high-energy beats and smiles to a crowd of world music enthusiasts who relished the opportunity to move to a new sound.
Thank you, Methow Arts! When these world-famous musicians come to our little hamlet, it transports us to another world, and reminds us that we are part of a greater rhythm far beyond the horizon of our majestic hills. The event was enhanced greatly by the new acoustic panels that were installed in the community center gym early this year — another example of how your contributions make our community better. Still to come is a full sound system that performers can plug into instead of bringing all their own equipment.
If it’s grooving that you need, Fridays in Twisp are the place to be. First, every Friday evening at the Movement Studio is freestyle dance where you can move to your own beat in a safe and supportive atmosphere. This gathering is a therapeutic way to shed the week’s work through movement and get ready to relax for the weekend. Also, every Friday at noon at Blue Star Coffee is the Friday Dance Party Hour. The music is broadcast over the Root (KTRT 97.5) and if you come into the coffee shop and bust a move, you get a free coffee.
