We arrived in Pittsboro, North Carolina six days ago and moved into one of a few houses at Oilseed Community in nearby Moncure with a nice group of people and an energetic dog. Pittsboro is a small town with a population of less than 3,000 and a well developed network of farmers, engineers, teachers, students, interns and business owners.
Our reception has been wonderfully warm and generous. We have already been to an election party, a welcome Bob and Camille party, a luncheon, a long hike through the woods and a pot luck.
Everyone we meet is extremely generous with their time, ideas, homes and food and we have met dozens, including Tim, who is interested in doing something with mushrooms, Lisa who needs volunteers at her therapeutic riding barn, the mayor, the yoga instructor and many more.
One of our housemates, Jessi works for a farm which offers a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture.) Most of the people we have met pay the CSA fee of only $10 a week for a large supply of fresh, organic, local produce.
Everybody at Oilseed cooks. On Thursday we went up to one of the other houses and helped prepare food for the weekly “Local Lunch” which fed thirty-three people. Yesterday, we baked bread, made Tempeh and a roasted red pepper soup for the weekly Sunday Pot Luck.
The seven of us in this household were joined by another seven people all bearing food. I ate until I was stuffed and then Bob and I walked up the driveway to throw scraps out for the chickens. On the way back we took a look at 17P/Holmes, a comet located in the constellation Perseus. Life is good!