From the Brook: Fall 2018, Week 1

As our first week at Glen Brook draws to a close, we are able to reflect on the new experiences, and the new lives we are going to lead for the coming weeks, and beyond. This week our theme was sustenance, and how we sustain ourselves. We were able to get a first hand look at a sustainable kitchen, and how to cook sustainably. For most of us, this was a new experience, and one we welcomed. Working with food that was recently harvested, we learned to use as much of the fruits, vegetables, and meat as possible, and what doesn’t go in our food goes into a large pot for stock, or into the compost buckets. This was just the surface of what we experienced during our lessons in food sustainability.

However, sustenance and sustainability does not end at the table. Its meaning is revitalized when speaking about people. We cannot sustain ourselves alone. In the new environment we have been brought into, we became parts of a larger community. We sustain this community by working within it, and in return, the community sustains us. We had a potluck dinner on Friday, people from the community brought pies, homemade soda and green beans. We had a jam session afterwards, and all of us felt that we had become a part of something much larger than ourselves. We had a movie night, we traveled into town a few times, and we cook meals together on a regular basis. Overall, our first week at Glen Brook has been one of new experiences, new friends, and a new community to be a part of.