Wow! A HUGE thank you to all of you who have come out to support our new shop, Cultivator General Store this last week. We had a fabulous opening week, with great soups, eats, coffees, and wine tastings! Jeff and I could not be more thrilled by your enthusiasm and excitement about the food and shopping goodies that you are loving at our general store. I thank each of you for stopping by to check it out, and what a delight to meet so many of you face to face.

I thank Sherri, and Kris, Lori, and Victoria, and my mom, Scott and Mary, and so many of you I cannot even name, for encouraging us to follow our vision. I thank all of you who have volunteered your time in getting us up and running. I thank Heidi and Laurita, Jani, and Brett, our fabulous staff for working and believing in Jeff and myself, with out you we could not have done this. And I thank the musicians—Scott and Bill, Victoria, and Joe and others, and the fabulous bellydancers, Gyspy Caravan Dance Company—who helped to celebrate last Thursday on our opening day and night. What an honor to have your talents in Clatskanie.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

We are happy to bring our wonderful town more events, starting this Friday, April 9^th, with an informal wine tasting with some delicious wines from Chile. Drop by from 5-7 pm, for a tasting of four yummy wines for $4.00. And try a delicious cheese platter while you are there…

Also tomorrow, Friday, we will have our first delivery from the Blue Scorcher bakery in Astoria, featuring fresh baked loaves of bread, bran muffins and oatcakes, regular and gluten-free cookies, so come by early to get in on that with our daily soup specials and sandwich pizzetas from kitchen wiz Heidi!

We have had the pleasure of serving you fresh goods from the Houlton Bakery in St. Helens all week as well, so look for Gainor’s goods on Tuesdays too!

Also coming up, Saturday May 1^st, starting at 11 am, we will have coffee expert Marcus, from Batdorf and Bronson, coffee roasters from Olympia, WA, come and give a talk with several tastings (free) about their fabulous coffees. Now is the time to come and learn more about coffee and have you questions answered.

And May 6^th, First Thursday, we will have wine experts Scott and Mary Denis (uncorkednw.com) out again to sample wines from France, so mark that in your calendar, 5-7pm. And follow that with a night of music at Victoria’s open night mic at the Blue Nutria, (7-10 pm) and we have a wonderful community event happening!

Many other events coming up, including the Garden Club’s fashion show Friday morning and  the poetry slam this Saturday. How cool is that?

And the possibility of an upcoming Portland artist’s show of botanical and herbal drawings with an art class in just that. Interested? Let me know.

And we have just begun…

We were happy and appreciative to have been written up in the Clatskanie and Longview newspapers, many thanks for that acknowledgement and exposure.

So again we thank you all for being here. It takes all of us to make a community thrive, and I am excited about our future together.

Paulette

And Jeff too!

Pass this email along to your friends, and I am trying to establish a good weekly newsletter to let you know about these events! Have a request or some event to pass along, send it to me.

As always, if you don’t want to be on this email list, just reply back with unsubscribe in the subject line.

Also, those of you who are taking my yoga and/or bellydance classes on Wednesday nights, I will see you next Wednesday at the Goldenspire! Can’t wait…

302 N. Nehalem, Clatskanie, OR   97016    503.728.3496
(Post to 23808 Blunk Dr.)                paulette@cultivatorgeneralstore.com

Open hours–Tuesday-Friday, 10 am – 7 pm;  Saturday, 9:00am-5pm;
and Sunday 11am- 4:00 pm; closed Mondays

all things good–local, organic, sustainable, yummy…
wines, cheeses, coffee, produce, fresh-baked goodies, home lovelies, and funky eclectic farmgirl delights!

Well, it has happened. My delightful blog has taken a back seat, but just for the time being. And why, you ask? Or, better, I  assume you ask. Because my new shop, Cultivator General Store, has opened. Last Thursday was our opening day, with an action packed couple of days, with wine and cheese tasting, bellydancing with my fabulous troupe who braved the commute to come and dance for me and to honor the new adventure.

The community has honored Jeff and myself by coming to visit, and shop, and drink and eat, and I am beyond thrilled. What pleasure it gives me to serve a lovely little lunch of fresh soup and salad made up by my kitchen wiz, Heidi, or myself, with wines or coffees, and add chocolates, and a new apron, and wow….

But it does make other things in my life take a back seat, like emails. this blog, and even my dance world, just to get the store up and open and stocked and running. And it is a beautiful shop, with most of it built by Jeff the husband and amazing carpenter, and designed by moi.  A paradise to visit, sip, shop, and be inspired by organic foods, cheeses, and so much more. Fresh, some local, improvisational cooking at its finest! Soups, salads, cheese plates, oh my…

I will share tales and photos of the whole process when I can breath again, but for now, I am still here, but lurking with thoughts of garbanzo bean and mushroom stew with a garnish of avocado and a roasted red pepper couli, platters of Oregon’s Rogue blue, Washington’s Beecher’s No Woman Jamaican spiced cheese, and a fried up plate of Holoumi (from Cyprus) with capers and lemon, with a full glass of Goat’s Head Red from down the Cascade Cliff Winery (WA)…I’m a happy girl.

and I do plan to give you updates on my dancing journey to Cues and Tattoos, Seattle, last weekend, and my upcoming week in Huntingdon Valley, PA, doing CS1 and CS2 this coming week… but first I must go get off my feet for a spell, and have a sip…

Thanks for hanging on….

And now, what does Tribal Farmgirl Paulette move into this spring? My handsome man, Jeff, and I are opening up a shop in our little town. Soon—April 1^st is the projected opening date—oh my. A shop of local organic foods and produce, freshly baked goods, farm-fresh cheeses, fair-trade coffee, and oh-so-good wine! We are extremely excited to take on this new adventure for our life now and our future, as we grow and nurture ourselves through work, community, necessity, and desire. Cultivator General Store, where farmgirl meets a funky, eclectic blend of sustainable home goods and yummy foods. That is our next step to create community, eat good foods, and live sustainably. What about you?

This month my Farmgirrrl Divas group made house-cleaning products that are simple and cheap to make and easy on the environment, in our reusable containers. No need for chemicals or to buy quantities of throw away bottles, we can use baking soda, vinegar, castile soap, essential oils, and borax to do minor and major housecleaning with no worry about harming our earth or our noses and skin.
We made Green Cleaning Products:
powdered laundry soap
dusting spray
all purpose cleaner
window cleaner
toilet bowl cleaner
lemon dish soap
tub scrub

we used:
2 1/2 cups baking soda
¼ cup salt
20 drops citrus essential oil
10 tea tree essential oil
2 cups liquid castile soap, plus1 tsp plus 1 Tbsp
1 cup ammonia
½ cup white vinegar, plus 4 Tbsp
4 cups distilled water
1 Tbsp lemon juice
2 cups, plus1 Tbsp Borax
3 drops essential oil of your choosing, like tea tree, lavendar
1 bar Castille soap, grated
2 cups washing soda
and we needed an airtight container, squeeze bottle, 4 spray bottles, and a covered jar.

The recipes were taken from the Aug/Sept 2009 issue of MaryJanes Farm magazine. Plus we had a ball, ate (OMG) fabulous foods, swapped stories, tromped out in the mud to see my animals, drank some wine, and in so doing, we are building a stronger community in my little town.
Come on gals, try it!
We all make a difference….

A winter full of knitting crazy stuff, mostly because I really don’t know much about knitting, except your knit and purl and then winding the yarn a few times to leave some holes in the piece. I add different yarns when I feel like it, combining fuzzy with glitter with hemp with wool. How fun is that? These above where these soft coccons of yummy colors that I made several very long boa type scarves from.

scrunchy boa

Of course my cat, Sage, wanted a scarf too.Carol and Gina got those yummy boas, along with me. Dulci got a crazy glittery pink girly fringy scarf or hip sash because she is so feminine.

Then Lynea, who has beautiful blue eyes and blondish hair got this fuzzy one in watery greens and blues for her birthday. It’s so fun to make things for someone special because you create it just for them only, and are inspired by them as you make it.

Fusing ideas and colors and thoughts of someone, reminds me of how I dance too, fusing ideas, cultures, songs, moves, depending on mood, song, someone, even what I’m wearing at the time.

I just finished reading Kate Jacob’s  third book, Knit Two, A Friday Night Knitting Club Novel. A delightful read, and I can’t wiat to read her new one. Another aspect of community building. a knitting group of women who, although very different in age, culture, upbringing, work, join together and build solid relationships of support, love, inspiration. Just like our dance community, just a different art form that brings people together. Pretty cool, eh?

I have enjoyed her other books so much. Anyone read the new one?

Do you like our work-in-progress logo? Pretty fab, thanks to Farmgirl Devona, for this!

Ah, yes, the Farmgirrrls met again, finally! We got together to make cards, as in Christmas cards. Farmgirl Karen brought her fabulous mom to show us how to stamp, glue, cut out, layer, etc, to make holiday cards. Mama Maryann brought lots of samples and paper goods for us to work with, while we ate mushroom lentil soup, cheeses, humus, wine, apple cranberry sauce, wine, lemon bars and more! A brief visit to see my farm animals and everyone set to work with such determination to get our cards made. What fun…

Paulette enjoying lunch

Kate and Linda

Heidi and Karen

a table of goodies

Maryann showing us how

one of the finished cards

the girls are ready

and now for something a bit different.my lovely dancing friend Lydia, was my first egg customer! When my beautiful young hens started laying their eggs, she was first in line to buy a dozen, and now she gets them almost every week from me. I love that… that’s as local as it gets, and fresh and organic eggs from well loved chooks!

but what was even more special was what she wrote to me, after cooking the eggs the following morning for her two little girls.

“The Best Ever” out of the mouths of my babes. Tucker is quite the  foody and really appreciated the finer qualities of farm fresh. Today is a late school opening all over Portland Public Schools so we  had the chance to make a lovely slow scumptuous breakfast. I fixed 2  smaller eggs each for the girls. I crack them into a small fry pan  with a little spray canolla oil and bit of butter. Then as the white begins to firm and turn color I add about a tablespoon of water to the pan and put the lid on it for another minute or so. This poaches them to doneness. And you have a “pink egg” (the yellow looks pink
with the lightly poached film over it) Then I cracked Dolly’s egg for myself and guest what – she gave us twins!!! That is so fun to see twins come glopping out.
So anyway – thanks for the yummy breakfast -

That makes is all worthwhile…

lovely fresh eggs from my girls!

FarmAid is today people!

Oh how I wish I could be in St. Louis right now!
But you can all help…http://www.farmaid.org/site/c.qlI5IhNVJsE/b.2723605/k.C7B8/Concert.htm?utm_source=feedblitz&utm_medium=FeedBlitzEmail&utm_content=46021&utm_campaign=0
Watch the concert, donate, spread the word! wow, Willie, Neil Young, Dave Matthews, John Mellenkamp, what a show… and what a cause…
“Farmers are the backbone of America” say Willie Nelson. amen….

nothing like  a community of like-minded folks to support a cause…

help the local farmers, who fight against the big corporations who want to take over our foods…..

be a part of the solution! we can all do a little to help. let me know what you can do…

“What is Farm Aid? Farm Aid is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to keep family farmers on their land. Over the past 24 years, Farm Aid has raised nearly $36 million dollars to support programs that help farmers thrive, create and strengthen connections between farmers and eaters, take action to change the dominant system of industrial agriculture, and promote food from family farms.”

Farmgirl Fare

http://foodiefarmgirl.blogspot.com/

How do you get inspired? the ongoing topic…

A way for me to get inspired is by reading what other people do, what they think and write, it’s as if they were a mirror, or not, and gives me a time to reflect on myself and what I am doing and what I’ve set out to do… Derek Silvers, an ex-circus man turned musician then ingenious entrepeneur, the former owner of the amazingly successful CD Baby, keeps things moving for me…

HIs blog topic yesterday was…”What do you hate not doing?”

http://sivers.org/hatenot

Derek writes: We’ve all asked ourselves, “What do I really love?” or “What makes me happy?” I’ve wrestled when the emotion-based answers conflict with expectations. (I’m a musician, but I love working alone. Does that mean I should be a producer instead of performer? I’m an entrepreneur but I hate doing business deals. Does that mean I’m more of a CTO than CEO?) Last week I thought of it a different way, that I like better:

What do you hate NOT doing? (What makes you feel icky, irritated, annoyed or off-track if you don’t do it enough?) .

..and I thought this was just a super positive way to look at what I am, am not doing. So…

*I don’t like not moving my body every day, wether it be dancing, doing my personal workout, throwing hay to the goats, gardening…I am a pysical person, I need to move my body or I get super restless.

*I don’t like not reading every day. I must read, it does something to my psyche, me brain, my thought processes.

*I don’t like not writing every day. It helps to clear my mind, gets my ideas down on paper, gets my work done so that I can move forward on to the next project or idea or chapter.

*I don’t like not feeling connected, to myself, my family, my animals—every day. When I get too busy, it takes its  toll on my personal well-being, and my connection to my immediate community. Although good family and friends understand and accept those times of extreme busy-ness, no apologies necessary, it does not make me feel good. So there….do check out Derek’s blog…

How about you?

Can you approach your intentions and inspirations from that angle? Or think about what you want to do in terms of what you hate not doing? Bring it on!

~~~~~~~And down to my reading…

~~the $64.00 Tomato, by William Alexander Hilarious, made my howl out loud, which I love to do when I ‘m reading…

~~Tribes: We Need You To Lead Us, by Seth Goldin Here is something to get your brain cranked up!

~~Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman’s Search for Everything. by  Elizabeth Gilbert the ever popular book and author these days, and I still love it, and her! The writing is so authentic and soul-searching.

Here is a lovely clip from the TED conference with Elizabeth speaking about creative genius, what do you think?

Elizabeth Gilbert

on the road with Jeff, my two corgis, and the camper…what fine country side it was, from eastern oregon through eastern washington into idaho around Coeur D’alene… it was magnificent…and yep, that’s me with MaryJane Butters and her fab gal, Renee…