I spent the rest of last week dutifully doodling at maps for my garden design, with no salient events of interest. In the end, I came up with three potential designs and counted myself a success.

Today filled itself with productive and exciting tasks. First and most notably, I got to attend a Forest Grove Chamber of Commerce luncheon, the buffet menu for which included ham-stuffed meatloaf (which I refrained from sampling), couscous, enchiladas, three kinds of salad, cheese bread, and many, many brownies. The enchiladas were, as farmers' market manager Gina described after tasting all the offerings, "the best effort."

The Chamber of Commerce hosts these lunches once a month, and at each meeting, one community member presents about their business. This month, Gina presented about the farmers market, which was exciting for us and the reason why Anne encouraged me to attend the lunch. She described the history of the Forest Grove market and community benefits of farmers markets across the nation. Our farmers market accepts food stamps and Oregon Trail cards, a lauded benefit in the small town of Forest Grove. The market also offers a "Match Program," where through grant and donation money, they give every person using food stamps at the market $5 more for every $5 they spend, both increasing low-income families' ability to afford healthy food and bringing more money to the market and into the hands of small, local farmers. In layman's terms, I think this is really cool.

After I had filled my stomach with enchiladas and my mind with assorted facts about farmers markets, I headed over to the Adelante Agricultura office to meet with Anne. We looked at my three designs, and after she, Alejandro and I had perused them for a while, she basically said they were all good and that I should just pick one, but that she agreed that the one I liked the best was probably the coolest. I felt vindicated. I then filled the rest of the afternoon with such internly tasks as writing thank-you notes to organizations that had donated seeds for our gardens, flipping through binders filled with plant data, and drafting a plea letter we plan to deliver to local nurseries asking for donations of garden supplies and seedlings. I went home feeling productive and fulfilled. Tomorrow I will create my final map design, and then we move on!

Also, I'm having a bake sale at Catlin on Friday to raise money for the garden, so everyone should come buy and get brownies!