Things are happening in the Historic Creamery District. It feels like the neighborhood is having a communal spring cleaning. Gone are weeds and piles of stuff, replaced by newly planted flowers and tidy yards.  There are new residents in the district: the Coastal Commission has just moved into the Greenway Building.  Holly Yashi is busy considering the myriad of options for their newly acquired buildings; Playhouse Arts is busy planning the Historic Creamery District Festival with lots of partners from the district; there is an international Marimba Festival coming up! No kidding, the place is a hotbed of smart, creative people doing really interesting things! Life on the trailer is no less interesting. Last week we were graced with a visit from two men and their yaks. When I asked them what they were up to (the men, not the yaks) they said, “Being the change,” and ordered some falafel.  The four of them enjoyed time at our outdoor dining area, and while the yaks are not the first pets to enjoy our patio, they are certainly the largest four-legged visitors we have had. We hope to see you (and sure, bring your four-legged friends!) at our window soon, Leira

Chef/Owner Nature's Serving: World Food, Fast!

          Chef/Owner Nature's Serving: World Food, Fast!

Have you met Olivia? She is, as the kids say, "all that"! You can often find her helping me on the trailer in the evenings or on the weekends. She has learned to take and deliver orders, assemble platters and program our cash register. She does her homework when the window is slow and is endlessly encouraging to her mother. Olivia is the kid that every small business owner wishes they had: the one who wants to help and always manages to do so. I am so lucky! Last week, Olivia turned 13, and this weekend she will become a Bat Mitzvah and lead a full (two-hour long) morning service at Congregation Shomrei Torah in Santa Rosa. Olivia has been preparing for six months and this Saturday she will chant from the Torah with her beautiful voice, deliver her very thoughtful sermon about what it means to be holy and lead the congregation in prayer and song....in Hebrew! No small accomplishment, considering her parents uprooted her from everything she had known and moved her to a whole new life (school, community, etc.) just a few months ago. A Bat Mitzvah (or Bar Mitzvah for a boy) is a Jewish ritual which welcomes the Jewish "child" to "adulthood". The idea is that the child is given an opportunity to study their religion and culture and, through that process, begin to understand what it means to them personally. It can be an incredible growth process for the child (and the parents too!). In my former life (before Nature's Serving) I helped about 100 kids prepare for this ritual. I had the opportunity to watch many kids mature right before my eyes, but it has never been as moving as it was this time. It has been a pure delight to watch Olivia discover and decide who she is. Many kids would be upset at having their lives disrupted by the kind of move we made last June. Not Olivia. Sure she had some fears and the occasional doubt, but she arrived in Humboldt County with an open heart and embraced all that she found here. Olivia is one of those people who is always ready to lend a helping hand so she has made friends quickly at school, with the lovely people at Humboldt Light Opera Company, and with our customers at Nature's Serving. Living in Bayside has certainly brought out her inner cowgirl, and she has become a big country music fan! I am lucky to have such a flexible, smart and interesting kid. She (and I) will miss all of you this week while we are in Santa Rosa, preparing for and celebrating Olivia's big day. But never fear! Olivia has trained our staff well and they are sure to do a great job without us. So come on out to the trailer this week and buy an Istanbul the way Olivia likes it, with Greek Salad added! The proud Mama, Leira

Chef/Owner Nature's Serving: World Food, Fast!

Passover has come and gone, but the metaphors stay with me. You probably know the story of the Israelites exodus from Egypt which is the center of the Passover holiday. You may not know that the Hebrew word for Egypt is Mitzrayim and that it means “a twice narrow place.” This year as I made my metaphoric way from Egypt to the Promised Land at the seder table the words had new resonance for me. April 15 will be Nature’s Servings’ 8 month anniversary, and we are in a twice narrow place. We are lucky to have a supportive and enthusiastic clientele; there just are not enough of them yet. We have been building our customer base bit by bit, and we find that our evenings at the tap rooms are more successful than our lunches in the Creamery District. The obvious good business move is to expand our evening offerings, so we are going to do that. What to do about lunches in the Creamery District is not as obvious. I love that neighborhood. The artists and entrepreneurs who inhabit it are interesting, bright, funny people. The work that is being done in those workshops and offices is beautiful, important, and could change the world. Still, our parking place is far enough from HSU and the plaza that folks from outside the neighborhood just don’t know we are there.  We have done as much advertising as we can afford to and word of mouth is has not yet put us “in the black”. Since we have yet to find a “better” spot to park for lunches….do we hold out and hope to build the audience on 9^th street? Or do we give up and do something else with our lunch hours? With the festival season about to begin, and the weather turning, there are bright spots on the horizon. We are about to have plenty to do on the weekends (keep an eye on our calendar for events and locations), and we are still hoping that the sunshine, patience and word of mouth will make our Creamery District location viable.To that end we are going to offer a special….so check out the bottom of the page! Perhaps with a good special, and your good will we can make it out of this particular "twice narrow place". My best, Leira

Chef/Owner Nature's Serving: World Food, Fast! PS: Please feel free to comment on this or any other of these postings.

This week is the Jewish holiday of Passover (Pesach). I am writing this week from Santa Rosa where I am leading seders with my Rabbi friends at Congregation Shomrei Torah. It is wonderful to be "home for the holidays," though I am missing my family, the chicks (four weeks old now!), the seedlings which are growing by the day in the greenhouse, and life in the trailer. Before Nature's Serving opened I was told by one of my business mentors that one of the most important elements to having a successful small business is making yourself superfluous to the day to day operations. That sounds great in theory, but it is not the easiest thing to put into practice. There are so many elements to this venture, and a tiny budget! I am working a zillion hours a week, there is always a to do list, and to say that I am a control freak would not be overstating matters. Still, I do not want to be tethered to trailer. It is clearly not healthy.  If Nature's Serving is going to grow and thrive (and me too!), I have to be able to step away. I have been a bit worked up about this conundrum lately. I also have learned (over time) that when there is an obstacle in the road, I just have to be patient and look around for the right solution. If I breathe, the universe always provides. It is amazing really. And this time was no different.The universe (clever as always) showed me that what I need can be right around the corner. This time the answer to my problem was living very near my commissary kitchen, had a flexible schedule and was looking for work. I would like to introduce you to Desiree. Actually, I would like you to go to the trailer this week and introduce yourself. I would like you to keep her really, really busy so I can afford to pay her what she is worth! Desiree is a gem. With a background in natural foods (stores and restaurants) she immediately understood what we are about at Nature's Serving. Pleasant, hard working, and fast on her feet, Desiree has learned how to make all our recipes and run the trailer all the while putting me at ease. When I saw how well Desiree and my dear friend Ray worked together I knew I was onto a lasting solution. So here I am in Santa Rosa while Desiree and Ray handle Simcha (our trailer) without me. I am grateful to the two of them, for so many things. I will admit that is hard letting go. And, it feels great. Have a great week, make sure you eat your falafel, and I look forward to seeing you after Passover. My best, Leira

Chef/Owner Nature's Serving: World Food, Fast!

This is Chris. He is one of the Nature's Serving: World Food, Fast! early adopters. We met Chris and his girlfriend Kira when we first pulled in at the Arcata Playhouse last September. Chris and I will occasionally exchange a word or two about cooking, how the week has been, his upcoming graduation from HSU and change of scene (off to get a bigger degree!). We have discovered a few shared interests and exchanged kind words.A short while back, I was serving to the good people at Redwood Curtain Brewing Co. Things were going well, and we had a steady flow of customers at the window when I realized that our propane tank had run dry. No problem, we carry a back-up tank in the van and replacing it is fast. I pop out to the van, wrench in hand, only to discover that no, in fact, we did not have the usual back-up tank aboard. Yikes!! Our storage space (where the tank was sitting, waiting for me to load it in the van) was only a dozen blocks away but unhooking the van from the trailer is not exactly quick and while I am tough....not tough enough to carry 75 lbs. of propane tank a dozen blocks. What to do, what to do? Chris had just placed his order at the window, so like the chutzpa-filled entrepreneur that I am....I asked him if I could borrow his car to go get my tank. He did not even hesitate. "Of course," he said and gave me his keys. Fifteen minutes later I was cooking with gas and selling falafel again. Maya Angelou, one of my favorite writers, has this great expression: "When someone shows you who they are, believe them." I have lived with those words in my head for years and found them to be very helpful. They spur me to trust (rather than judge) people's actions. They help me understand who might let me down, and remember who I likely can count on. They popped into my head as Chris was handing me his keys. I mean really....we know very little about each other, and he just gifted me this huge kindness, his trust. "When someone shows you who they are, believe them." So this week a shout-out to Chris and Kira: thank you for coming to Nature's Serving, introducing us to so many of your friends, and helping me in our moment of need. I am honored and grateful. Leira

Chef/Owner Nature's Serving: World Food, Fast!

Just a short note this week because it is a crazy week for Nature's Serving. We have to give up our commissary kitchen at Redwood Acres to the Logging Conference so we are a bit discombobulated. Still, Nature's Serving: World Food, Fast! has two special events we would like you to know about: We will be at the Local Beer Bar in Eureka this Saturday to help them celebrate their one year anniversary. And, Leira will be teaching a class at the North Coast Co-Op kitchen in Arcata. There are still a few seats left, so click on the link below to reserve your seat now. It promises to be a fun, and delicious evening. I hope your week is pleasant, and that I will see you at the window. My best, Leira

Chef/Owner Nature's Serving: World Food, Fast!