Hey!!!! We're back....

Communal Table's been on hiatus and Deena and I have moved about in various directions. Deena will have to speak for herself but her year included trips to Japan, and back and forth across the USA, and a part-time job facilitating craft projects at a senior center.  I taught a semester's 'Food is Art' class to art students at Parsons, took a trip to Michoacan to see the winter home of the Monarch butterflies, and slogged through a ten-day silent meditation retreat by fortifying myself with brown rice, tahini, and a blessedly sharp mixed Indian pickle condiment.  Somewhere around day six of the retreat I got to thinking about Communal Table's past, and got the bug to pickup again and host some more salon events.

So back we are, hopefully to popular acclaim. Maybe this go-round we'll break-even producing these events- or gosh, begin to earn our keep!  In these next few weeks look for posts with calendar, location, and ticket/reservation information...  Please spread the word widely! We're hoping to expand our audience, and through this, find new and interesting collaborators and spaces. We are thinking of Communal Table as an "umbrella" many can fit under-- the more engaging, delicious, fun salons produced, the closer we come to realizing our mission, which is to create community with food and stories.

Till then, here's a taste of some ideas we're nurturing:

Back by popular demand: Mushrooms and Moonshine redux wherein we journey Upstate to forage fungi, then relax over cocktails as a mycologist helps identify the specimens we've found. The identification is followed by an extravagant vegetarian mushroom feast...  (just found an interesting recipe for Chanterelle butter, and another for mushroom syrup.) After supper we'll build a bonfire and regale one another with fairy and ghost stories (I'm looking for tales that feature magic mushrooms!) To cap-off this event- the next morning we'll picnic on mushroom frittatas and homemade pastries on a tiny private island in Lake Kinderhook.  We are gathering a list of nearby B&B's and preparing a map of local orchards and farms you might wanna visit on your way home.

Jamming  An afternoon of musical jamming, fruit jam making and jammy treats. Guests are invited to sketch (we're thinking of the musicians as models and the fruit and jam-making as still-life. Art supplies will be provided, as will jars to fill with jam to take home!) Come nibble and scribble and sing-along.

12 Bytes  This is a new take on our previous Sing for your Supper Musicale. We'll serve a four course meal made of three bites each, and in between each course an artist whose work is computer-based (hence bytes, ha ha!) will present a short piece for your pleasure.

 The Winter Spa  Drawing on the popularity of DIY we'll spend an afternoon sipping tisanes, knitting booties and home-making herbal facials and scrubs. Snack on antioxidants, probiotics and chocolate! And if you'd like, indulge in cocktails flavored with essential oils.