Tues Dinner 5:30pm       &     Thurs lunch 12:30pm  every week

9/4 spaghetti & meatballs      9/6 meatball/ sausage grinders

9/11 ham                                9/13 scalloped potatoes

9/18 turkey                            9/29 turkey tetrazzini

9/25 Yankee potroast            9/27 Yorkshire strata on biscuits

Meals by donation, advance sign-up helpful but not required. Vegetarian & sides too.

Tuesday Dinner is at 5:30pm. Typically 80 people come, interact, eat, catch up on news. Those with special interest topics they’d like, can now use the overflow dining room for a smaller setting for discussions.  Just make a sign to direct people to the table for that topic.  Thursday Lunch is at 12:30pm.  Menu listing is for one main dish, but there are always vegetarian choices, and side dishes, salad bar, home-made soups, bread, dessert, beverages.

Annual Block Party under the tent and across the lawn beside the pond. SUNDAY JULY 15th 1-5pm at 16 Bell Rd, Middlefield. Come hear rock and blues band “Lady Di & the Dukes” starting 2pm. BYO lawn chairs, picnic (or potluck dish to share if you want), beverages, coolers, lawn games, kites, swimwear, towels, friends, family, guests.

New this year: Vendors or community information tables welcome to set up!  Any type welcome: hand-crafters & artists, or food fundraisers, or political candidates, nonprofits, organizers, or tag-salers.  BYO table (and popup) and set up enough away from band tent so conversation doesn’t disturb listeners. No fee.

Sponsored by Middlefield Community Service Group. Donations welcome to help continue this tradition of 3rd-Sunday-in-July block party.

Menu for twice-weekly community meals: Open to all-ages, folks from Middlefield and beyond. Kept going by donations and volunteering. Listed main course joined by vegetarian side dishes, salad bar, home-made soups & breads, dessert, beverages. Meet new friends. Be sociable or solitary -it’s all fine.

TUESDAY  DINNERS 5:30pm   &   THURSDAY  LUNCHES 12:30pm 

6/5 – Roast Beef                               6/7 – beef stroganoff
6/12 – Lasagna                                 6/14 – sloppy joes
6/19 – stuffed pork chop                 6/21 – pork marsala
6/26 – Turkey                                    6/28 – quiche
7/3 – American chop suey               7/5 – hamburger & hotdogs
7/10 – chicken pot pie                      7/12 – baked potato bar
7/17- stuffed pepper / tomato         7/19 – taco bar
7/24 – ham & baked beans              7/26 – sandwich fixings
7/31 – chicken parmesan                8/2 – breakfast for lunch

Annual Block Party / Live Band & Picnic on Sunday, July 15th 1-5pm

serving line gets started

The twice weekly meals have been set for May. If you have recipes to suggest to the cooks, don’t be shy. The commercial kitchen space would also be available for food events on different days, if the Blue Zone Group or other foodies wanted to organize something.

Meals by donation, sliding scale. Volunteer help makes it all work. Current times are: 5:30pm for Tuesday dinners, which get 70-80 people usually. 12:30pm for Thursday lunches, which have half as many. Any weekday we try to have soups, bread, salad bar and leftovers available on a self-serve basis.

5/1 Dinner:     Turkey          5/3 Lunch: Sandwiches

5/8 Dinner:     Porkloin        5/10 Lunch:  Stir Fry

5/15 Dinner: Enchiladas      5/17 Lunch:  Breakfast foods

5/22 Dinner:  Golumpkis      5/24 Lunch:  Pierogies & Kielbasa

5/29 Dinner:  Chicken          5/31 Lunch: Scalloped Potatoes

 Middlefield Library begins a 5 month book club & wellness affinity group, starting with Dan Buettner’s book “The Blue Zones Solution” about working together as a community to alter our food and social environment to increase health and vitality. Meeting one Tuesday each month, the group will plan meals, trips, walking groups, and discuss other ways of providing good companionship for healthy lifestyles.  Each month will explore the habits, food, and cultural practices of different “Blue Zones” (locations of exceptional health and longevity).  January 16th meeting, 9:30-10:30am, will focus on Ikaria, Greece.  February on Okinawa, Japan.  March on Sardinia, Italy.  April on Loma Linda, CA.  May on Nicoya Peninsula, Costa Rica.

The project, initiated by Middlefield Librarian Maryann Walsh (library@middlefieldma.net), has in-town support from Middlefield Council on Aging, and from Blossom-Center Middlefield (a local, food-offering, nonprofit Community Center (www.Ezmereld.org).  This Blue Zone project is launched in collaboration with the Southern Hilltowns Adult Education Center (www.SHAEC.org).  Additional regional collaboration partners encouraging the project include: the Hilltown CDC (www.hilltowncdc.org);

In person meetings monthly at the Library, 188 Skyline Trail Middlefield MA, begin Tuesday January 16th, 9:30-10:30am.

May your days be Merry and Bright…

Now, as the sun turns from the shortest day of 2017 toward the growing season of 2018, we look back and forward.  For a picture to keep from the past year, I pick the beauty and welcome of our pyramid room, finally finished in 2017.  I look at it, and think that its healing possibilities are endless. I remember the conversations about creating Intentional Community, in which we participated at one Reclaiming Tradition gathering. Visions discussed kept returning to having a ‘Healing Arts Center’.  I suspect the theme of healing has only become more central to people’s dreams of life on the right track.  Certainly we are seeing sales at our business, AzureGreen.net, soar on an undefinable yearning for things that speak to alternative ways of being, and offer uplift for spirit, mind, and body.  Even the local Adult Education classes given in our small, rural town of Middlefield MA have seen the biggest turn-out be for Aromatherapy, in keeping with this theme of seeking gentle, healing ways of life.

     (Pics of finished upstairs meditation room, plus we did the floor of the greenhouse on the pyramid’s lower level.)

Joy, Health, Love & Peace, be all here in this place…

We continue having community meals twice weekly in the previously finished portion of the upstairs –the dining hall and commercial kitchen, as we have since mid-2015. The practice of simply sitting down with neighbors over good food and friendly conversation gives uplift for the self and connection-building for the larger group. About 80 people gather for dinner on Tuesdays, and nearer 40 come to lunch on Thursdays. These meals have been the most frequent expression of the mission of the nonprofit community center: to enhance our community, and the world we share.  “Blossom Center” was the name that arose for the community center, since it was meant to be a center, was located near Blossom Corner, and has the purpose of encouraging creativity, stewardship, and initiative to blossom. People are welcome to find us on Facebook: @Blossom-CenterMiddlefield. 

Or, visit the website under the name of the umbrella organization at: www.Ezmereld.org  (Ezmereld was the name of the school of magical, healing, and bardic arts in the novel Tamarin wrote: Initiation At Beltane.  She keeps giving EZMERELD acronym words of explanation. Currently it’s an Epicenter Zone, or an Expansive ‘Zation, –Modeling Explorations Re-imagining Earth-Life Disciplines.**  

We do a lot of imagining what could be; exploring how to create it; then becoming a model of life-affirming things, so natural to human aspirations, yet too rarely found elsewhere.

                 ~ 2017 ~  This past year, Adair continued to work the jobs of 3 people, and say: “We need more help.”  … Marin got elected to town government again, this time on the Board of Assessors, and went to UMass Amherst for a week of training. … Her parents’ 2 retirement homes in Santa Rosa got through California fires intact, after a forced evacuation. … Former housemate and co-worker at AzureGreen, Cam, died after a long illness, and received a very nice funeral from the Middlefield townspeople who’d known him since their one-room-schoolhouse days together. … The ongoing collaboration with the local Community Service Group produced another great annual block party on the 3^rd Sunday in July. …

We got additional solar-electric panels installed. … We welcomed to town a long-time friend from CT, Diann T, who’s now built her dream retirement home in Middlefield.  … Daughter Buffie continues to be a key member of our 20-employee family business, and to frequently bring her god-daughter, red-headed Tara, to work and events here. (See pics of the frequent pizza-making events, and video of Halloween congregated trick-or-treating: https://quik.gopr o.com/v/H9wKQNbGsv/ )

~ 2018 ~  In the year to come: We will be completing construction on the remaining 4,800sf unfinished space in the business & community center building (named Beltane Hill).  We’ll continue to network with diverse people also engaged in enhancing life in our various communities.  We’ll continue to provide spiritual supplies, support other businesses with fulfillment and shipping services, and a great selection of goods.  We’ll continue to build the connections of community.  The upcoming events, classes, salons, and possibilities will manifest when community members make them happen.

We’ll continue –with others– to discuss and implement the things that aid our practice of living on Earth in harmony with our destiny, and with each other.  

–Merry Solstice Greetings 2017 from Adair & Marin (Tamarin), Buffie, and all the folks of AzureGreen & Blossom-Center, at Beltane Hill, Middlefield MA 01243. (That’s POB 48 by mail, 16 Bell Rd by street.)

**[Footnote from Tamarin: I know my acronyms get clunky, but I keep feeling like I need new words to describe what I mean.  Our culture lacks a word, despite humans naturally being social creatures, to identify belonging to a larger Tribe/ Clan/ Family, when that ‘belonging’ is not set by DNA; or belonging to a ‘Nation’ not set by geography. So I coined ‘Zation (short for organization) to describe that identification of your self with your larger group. And by “Earth-Life” I mean living in a holistic manner that harmonizes the life of spirit with the incarnate life; keeping or restoring balance between our actions and the wider whole of Earth. I still want a physical-world school of Ezmereld to manifest, as I’d dreamed when writing its fictional counterpart. That’s a project that needs co-creation with fellow Seekers, both teachers and students –a ‘zation of faculty and alumni.  … In this past year, at the Four-Freedoms and Women’s Marches, I noted the hosting ability of church congregations, and thought that the ‘Power of Congregation’ should not be limited to those agreeing on a dogma. It is too important for that.]

At Blossom Center  16 Bell Rd Middlefield, MA. Annual Picnic with Live Music  — Hosted by: Middlefield Community Service Group  

JULY 16th  Sunday 1-5pm.    Band ‘Shut Up & Dance’ starts ~2:00pm

Grilling catered by Ozzie’s 1-3pm.  Guests encouraged to bring desserts or salads to share.

BYOBeverages, coolers, lawn chairs, swimsuits, towels, etc. Everyone welcome. ~ Rain or Shine ~ Donations Welcome

 An Employer Wellness Program (for 20 employees of AzureGreen.net) & small-town Community Center (with ~100 regulars of Blossom-Center Middlefield) seek a cook with passion for food and community. Current schedule is providing Tuesday dinners for up to 80 people, self-serve buffet style. (serve by 5:30pm, cleaned up by 7:30pm); and Thursday lunches for up to 35 people. Part time hours fairly flexible. Full time employment if also willing to work mail-order tasks for AzureGreen, in addition to cooking. ServSafe needed (or willingness to take course).

Job Application form EmploymentApp to be returned to Tamarin, or emailed to AzureGreen@AzureGreen.com with subject title: Job App. Also attach personal resume, if any. 

Need to be…

**Self-directed –coordinating on food purchasing & menu-prep, handling all kitchen tasks needed, good at time-management.

**Health-knowledgeable: familiar with healthier options in food prep, ingredients, interested in helping diners with high BP, or weight-loss, or glycemic issues.

**Diversity-friendly: making senior diners feel welcomed; happy to teach kids cooking; inclusive to both carnivores and vegetarians; balancing a Hilltown/ standard-American diet habit with healthier trends; happy to leave kitchen and interact with diners; encouraging of community-member participation in prep and clean-up.

At Blossom Center, the community hub for local food and activities, Summer is shaping up as follows…  (Co-creation by participants is the key to what happens, so jump in with your help & ideas.)

LOCAL FOOD: Twice Weekly Meals continue. Tuesday Dinners at 5:30pm, and Thursday Lunches at 12:30pm. Donate what you feel appropriate; no one turned away for lack of funds.  There’s side dishes, vegetables, salad-bar, soups, dessert, home-made bread, plus the Menu for June main dishes for Tuesday dinners is: Chicken 5/30; Lasagna 6/6; Pot Roast 6/13; Turkey 6/20; Meatloaf 6/27.  Menu for Thursday lunches: Pulled Pork 5/25; Mac & Cheese 6/1; Quiche 6/8; Ham 6/15; Sandwiches 6/22; Grilled Cheese & soup 6/29.

Area Events: 43^rd Annual Massachusetts Sheep & Woolcraft Fair, May 27 & 28, at Cummington Fairgrounds.  Heather Baylis, who works her rug loom at Blossom Center, will go with her curly wool rug creation.  She’ll be working on more creations at the loom. Stop in and see the progress.

Plant Swap: Hilltown Seed Savers Network had its annual spring plant and seedling swap on May 20^th (also in Cummington). But all the remaining seedlings and bonus plants were passed on so the plant swap could come to Blossom Center. So there’ll be a place for Gift-Economy sharing of plant abundance. Take some plants to give them a good home. You can also bring some gift plants if you are thinning your garden beds.  Bring pots/ containers too. 

Green Construction: Blossom Center is located in the Green-design, energy-efficient building at 16 Bell Road in Middlefield.  Going on now is completion of the pyramid room. It will be for class space, meditation, yoga, tai chi, Reiki, and available for health practitioners who want to sign up for time (massage, etc.).  

Tai Chi Class will be offered by Joan on Fridays 2pm and Wednesdays 6pm, starting June 2, 2017, on drop-in basis. When the pyramid is done, classes will move into the pyramid room.

Solar Electric Tracking Poles: Just completed the install of a system of 5 solar power (PV) arrays that track the sun.