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You must be brave

Posted at 10:56 AM on December 30, 2008 by Sareen Dunleavy Keenan (1 Comments)

Do you like talking to strangers? It may come as a surprise to anyone who knows either myself or Brendan, but we do not like talking to strangers. We even avoid ordering the pizza on the phone. It is a funny dance for us at the door of a restaurant that we haven't been to before - no one wants to go first.

What the heck does this have to do with being a locavore? You have to talk to a lot of people. You have to ask questions at the farmers market. You are the one slowing down the line at the meat counter trying to determine where your food came from. You have to talk with farmers about where to get what animal in what season. You have to blog to get others to keep the local community thriving.

This year has allowed us to get a little bit better at talking with folks. We are delighted when store clerks take that extra moment to acknowledge that we are there, and have been supporting them for a long time. I love the person that makes the first move and introduces themselves. But here are a few very simple questions we have:

1) How do you go about even learning the name of someone that you have been shopping with for a year. It seems a little late for introductions at this point. They know our names because of the credit cards or checks, but we are clueless.

2) When do you introduce yourself to a neighbor? We have our eye on some people in our alley that have a compost pile, a garden that expands every year, they hang their clothes on the line to be dried, they are heating with firewood and use a push mower. They seem just like our kind of people but have been there for at least two years and we haven't made the move to say hello.

3) When you do find out that something doesn't have quite the providence you were looking for, how do you tell someone: "Thanks but no thanks." I feel bad.

Again, this year has helped us to start all of our new relationships on a better foot, but it is hard to go back and get the necessary information on the preexisting people in our lives. I am going to guess the answer is: be honest, apologize and have a laugh over it. But I am hoping there are some savvy communicators out there that have ideas.

Be brave. These people are fun!

Comments (1)

Always challenges... How about 1) Hello, my family really appreciates the quality of your (fill in the blank) and I'd like to recommend you to our friends. could I have your name, please? 2) It's the dead of winter, so how about grabbing a jar of your home canned salsa and knocking on the back door.... "I've been meaning to talk to you when I see you working in your garden, I bet we have lots in common. I thought I'd bring you a jar of my salsa and suggest that we our families together when it warms up. We could plan a back yard potluck picnic - Or if you would like, we're having (your favorite food) for brunch on (pick the date) and we would be happy to share it with you. 3) Thank you so much for telling me about your (fill in the blank). My family has made a commitment to buy "organic/local" whenever possible so I'll have to say no thanks at this time. Good Luck. I'll miss your blogs

Posted by Diane L | December 31, 2008 2:11 PM