P I C N I C

In addition to being a busy day generally, Douglas Gayeton and Kim Johnson showed up and took hundreds of photos for a project they are working on, called Lexicon of Sustainability. The result of the photographs will be a collage depicting Brett Burmeister, of foodcartsportland.com, eating a Reuben sandwich out of a Go Box. In the background will be a spatially dislocated interior, with Jen cutting Ham and me baking bread.  For 5 minutes Gayeton had Brett standing in the middle of the sidewalk with half a rueben suspended just below his gaping jaws.

Martha came with me this morning to the cart. While I mixed dough, baked beets, and whipped mayonnaise, she worked on her manuscript. The cart functions well even with 3 people!

Jen and I have a lot of time to banter while doing prep or after the Rueben rush. What did we talk about this week?

• I ran out of masking tape and was wondering if I could wrap my sandwiches using only folds. Jen said I should look into furoshiki, a Japanese cloth tying method. I found some helpful government resources from the Minister of the Enviornment. After 15 minutes of experimentation I made the first two sandwiches of the day for Alex, wrapping them using some furoshiki. Jen burst into laughter when she saw my attempts.
• This reminded me of something I had read on Gizmodo years ago of an actual boat made of origami. Jen suggested making the cart into a boat. I suggested a hot air ballon and we could take off and land at will, anywhere in Portland, weather permitting.
• Jen’s spirit animal is a rabbit. Mine is either a cat or a monkey. Lot’s of my friends also have a rabbit as their spirit animal. I should ask Jen if she knows any other monkeys.
• We have named the the dust buster Zak.

My mint has been blossoming for the last few weeks. I get these Ricola types from Curly at Osmo Gaia farm. They are steeped into the assam black ice tea.