Chapter 5

Once the ritual ended, everyone charged into the kitchen to grab food. Aside from being a respite from the cold, the delicious aroma was enough to draw everyone inside. There were crockpots full of stew, both meaty and vegetarian, plates of seed bread and cheese and nuts, vegetable platters with homemade dips, jugs of apple cider and orange juice. Plus the mini apple strudels I had made were piled neatly with the rest of the desserts at the end of the table, tucked between a bowl of peanut butter bombs and one of Nancy Eramand’s made-from-scratch chocolate cakes.