It was a beautiful day for the second annual Reservoir Hill Harvest Festival held in the lot across from the Whitelock Community Farm. There was a soul group and a marching band to raise the noise level to the prerequisite decibel level.
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Marching band |
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the balloon man |
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Pumpkin coloring |
The main feature was the much anticipated Greens cook-off which comprised two categories - vegetarian and with meat. As mentioned in the previous posting, our RHHP resident chef Remi entered his Cameroonian cabbage with peanut sauce (containing beef and chicken). Visitors to the cook-off paid $10 each to sample the more than 20 entries. The shredded cabbage, smothered in a creamy peanut sauce with a strong suggestion of ginger, stood out among the various permutations of boiled collard greens and ham hocks. Someone who sampled it remarked that he thought it had an Asian character.
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Remi receiving the first prize for the greens with meat category. |
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Remi serving up some samples. |
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Visitor asking for Remi's recipe |
When the votes were tallied, Remi's entry came up on top and he collected a first prize of a $100. He was elated and became for a few minutes a celebrity chef and put RHHP on the neighborhood map, so to speak. Of course, there were also requests for the recipe.
It was also a good time to meet neighbors and make new friends. I met Erin, an Americorp volunteer at the Reservoir Hill Improvement Council, who recently completed a year working in a woman's shelter in Tucson. It turns out that she knows a former colleague of mine who moved to Tucson and had volunteered at the same shelter.
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Ellen chatting with friend |
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Ellen talking to another contestant |
Ellen