However.....
The reality of focalizing a kitchen goes something like this.
Main Supply won't provide all the food for cooking if you're feeding the gathering at large - either off-the-rails or at dinner circle. This means you provide much of the free food in the woods. While some kitchens have a donation can on the counter for after people have been fed, in reality most of the cost of food is born by those running the kitchen. Bring 500 to 1,000 pounds of food to get started. You'll need to provide pots and pans for cooking, 5-gallon water buckets for dish washing, filtered drinking water for you and your crew and hopefully for all gatherers. You'll need to chop wood, haul water and wash dishes in addition to cooking. You'll need to make sure you provide sanitary cooking and serving facilities, keep sick people out of your kitchen, deal with late night movies and work your ass off. If you've never plugged in with a kitchen at a gathering before, you might think about joining your energy with a well established kitchen to get a sense of how hard cooking in the woods can be before you strike off on your own.
Sure late night zuzu cooking is fun, but it also is hard to work around all the tripping hippies -- especially those who need baby sitting at 2 AM.
You'll also need to have some serious shitter movies going down. Not only for your crew but for anyone who is attracted to your camp. This can mean digging one or two new shitters every day from June 28 to July 3 when the gathering population swells.
When the gathering is over, you get to disappear your kitchen so no one knows it was ever there. You get to haul your trash out, bury your compost and fill in your shitters.
What do you get for focalizing a kitchen?
More personal growth than you ever imagined possible in a couple of weeks. More stress than you can imagine and more people smoking you out that you could ever wish for if you're kitchen is dank. You get to move your kitchen three times because the US Forest Service keeps changing the rule on how close to surface water the kitchen can be - play it safe and go 500 feet if you want to avoid the move your kitchen game.
The wonderful tarps you strung over your kitchen collapse from rain in the middle of the evening meal. And above all, you get to have a complete temper tantrum when your nerves snap because no one wants to help wash dishes or dig the next shitter. Of course, you can plug into an existing kitchen and learn from experienced family how a great kitchen works. (Try the Ovens, Kiddie Village, Iris, Musical Veggies, Granola Funk, Instant Soup, Fat Kids, Tea Time, Warriors of the Light and BARF to name but a few of the great kitchens. Ask at Info when you get to the gathering). Most kitchens welcome new people who are willing to work.
If you've every plugged into a kitchen, please share your words of wisdom. If you're interested in how Main Supply works, click here.
Very well written and quite funny! As someone who has done a Zuzu kitchen, you touched on all of the finer points! I have done it twice, most likely will not do it again, I feel plugging in to an established kitchen is a better way to go. I did Montana with my daughter when she was 10, my first year with Kiddie Village. It was my most rewarding National yet! Especially rounding up the kids to go borrow our swing set back, a swing set that somehow walked away with a very sorry brother.
ReplyDeleteSee Ya'll in Oregon! Lovin' You!
How can I focalize a box store style kitchen? You know, sorta like a Walmart but not a Walmart. I think that would be great asset for the Oregon nationals and future nationals. It'd be a way to cut down on town runs.
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