The Pie is Always Delicious

The Mountain Brook Homestead Foundation hosted its fall pie social last evening. I don’t have numbers yet, but it seemed to be a success. We had more families with small children in attendance, which was wonderful. I served pulled pork sandwiches. Sarah was in charge of the pie table.

She makes the most fabulous pies, all with gluten-free crusts. I had a slice of raspberry tomatillo. She also made an apple tomatillo pie with some of the yellow tomatillo variety, so I need to check my plant today to see if I have enough for one of those. I have apples to use up.

We couldn’t have asked for a nicer evening, weather-wise. September is one of my favorite months in Montana. Mornings are cool, days are still up into the 70s, and the air holds just a hint of fall. We moved here the first week of September, 1993—exactly 30 years ago. I took a few moments to sit down last night and look around at our community. I am pleased with the life that the husband and I have created here.

We have a potluck today after church and then an all-church discussion on a topic that has caused some ripples. I do like the fact that our congregation tries to meet these kinds of issues head on instead of sweeping them under the rug, but I’m feeling a bit drained and I’ll be glad when it’s over.

The neckband and hem are all that are left to finish on the Lark Tee that I made as a class sample for the store in Missoula. One of our homestead foundation board members also sews and took my needle class at the beginning of August. She and I chatted last night about the Harper Cardigan class. She thought she might sign up but had no idea where to get fabric, so I shared with her the wonders of the Walmart remnant rack.

I am not going to apologize for shopping the Walmart remnant rack. I know that the quilt stores would prefer not to tie up money in clothing fabric inventory, and we don’t have an apparel fabric store here. (Missoula has The Confident Stitch.) When a student is first learning to sew clothes, buying fabric online adds one more layer of complexity. I will always suggest sourcing fabric locally if possible. Here, that means Walmart.

[I’ve given up shopping at Joann Fabrics, although I am keeping an eye on their investor page. I might need DD#2’s help to interpret some of this information—she is fluent in that language—but my first pass through the most recent press release detailing their second quarter results makes me think that all is not quite as rosy as they’d like to paint it. And what appears on the balance sheet does not always reflect the reality of the marketplace. We shall see what happens.]

I will stop in at the quilt store tomorrow when I’m in town to see how many students are signed up for the cardigan class.

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Margaret sent a picture of her latest project, a hexie wallhanging:

I want to be Margaret when I grow up. She is well into her 90s and still quilting. This wallhanging will be donated to Mennonite Disaster Service. MDS gifts the homeowners that it helps with wallhangings made by Mennonite quilters all over the country.

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Speaking of gluten-free, I thought I would share that I’ve been taking the Seed probiotic now for about three months. DD#1 suggested it to her sister and me. I’ve taken probiotics for several years, but after three months of Seed, I’ve started to notice a difference in my gluten tolerance. I will never go back to eating wheat products with abandon, but I can have occasional amounts without it causing the same kind of digestive issues I used to get. I have a lot less bloating now, too. Not affiliated, just passing on some (hopefully) useful information.