Done

Cleaning up, packing up, starting the rest of our lives.
Debriefing and updates to follow.
Thanks y'all.

Final Hours/ American Refugees

Today and tomorrow are our last days. Honestly we are giddy with delight. We are so excited to go get on with the life we've been yearning for for so long. That's the good news.
The not so good news is that as of right now there will be no more GreenGo Food, and we will be jobless, homeless people adrift for several weeks until we reach the farm. Property manager has thwarted every attempt by prospective buyers, and no one sees the wisdom in moving GreenGo to a better location.
We had hoped to just make enough money to pay our debts and move on. We also have a need to see family in the East and midwest. (My last visit was my little brother's funeral 3 years ago. We would have liked to be able to go see new babies, new graves, and old folks who won't be around much longer.)
With no chunk of $ coming, we are selling things piece by piece and prioritizing bills and payments. We really need to have enough cash left after Sunday to make a 3,000 mile road trip and make any emergency repairs along the way. Visiting family appears impossible at this point.
Looking at the cold hard facts, we are in a way American Refugees. Things are very bare bones, but there are others in much worse shape than us.
In the classic Fable The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho, the lesson is that when you follow your dreams, the Universe conspires to help you. The Universe has definitely conspired to help us with our Farm Dream...we're almost on our way.
Thank You to the folks who've stopped by our Sidewalk Sale and Fire Sale to buy stuff and help us with travel $$. Thank You to our Ballard community who has been so supportive.

Free Lunch!

Seattle Parks and Recreation offers free lunch for kids at various community centers around the city. Cypress asked for one and it was very interesting...an eat cold "pizza kit". This is much better than chips and pop. Everything in the white tray was a real food group. (Except the tomato sauce with the second ingredient being sugar) Why chocolate milk with 26 grams of sugar? Why "X-Treme Fruit" rather than real fruit?

Everything must Go!

Part of being the change we would like to see in the world means letting go of all of the material clutter we have been collecting and dragging around, and housing for so long. Six years ago, we downsized keeping only what we could drive cross country in our small pick-up with a small trailer. Since then we've again collected a lot of stuff. Over the past few weeks we've taken massive amounts of stuff to Goodwill, but we still have lots of things which have some value and may be of interest to others.
We had a good friend named Will who we met working at Union Bay Cafe back in 2000. Will was our minister who married us, he was also a great friend, my fondest memories were of many hours spent walking around the city and parks while I was very pregnant. Will waited around to see Cypress born, then took his own life due to an ongoing battle with depression. In his "note" left behind, he left some valuable words of wisdom, as well as most of his worldly posessions to our family. When we cleaned out his apartment, we assimilated most of his belongings with ours. Much of it was good stuff which we've used, but a lot was good stuff which we have not used but only dragged around out of sentimental value. A whole set of lovely dishes, this beautiful Asian Motiff carved chess set, surround sound computer speakers.......
Outside our shop, we are having a "sidewalk sale" of sorts. We're not really selling things, but putting them out and asking people to donate whatever they feel like toward our moving fund.

The sweet and the unsavory

The past 7 months have certainly been a roller coaster ride. We've had plenty of sweet moments mixed in with some crushingly painful times. We want to express gratitude to the people who have really helped us on our journey. (This is by no means a comprehensive list)
A few weeks ago a biker guy pulled up, looked at Felony Flyers Bikeshop briefly, then came around the front of the restaurant. He ended up having a BLT and sitting on the front bench for close to 2 hours reading stories to Cypress. Several times I tried to encourage Cypress to let the man eat in peace, but I was deterred with a firm look and the reply, "We're reading books". Beautiful.
On several occasions the Strachan family from Divine Spine has come to take Cypress away from the shop for some kid time. (The beach, the zoo, a park) Tremendous, lifesaving kindness.
The whole family at Plaka is just heartwarmingly nice. We've borrowed sugar, shared Basil, encouragement...Yannis the patriarch has shared nice business advice...real community people.
Our neighbor Rick at Canal station who did our website for us. Cooklocal for huge support. Sustainable Ballard such an inspiring group of people. Devra for showing up often when I'm sitting in the window, head in hands desperately in need of a perspective shift. Shane the rad mechanic 2 doors down who is helping get our mini-van in shape for our long road trip. Jay and Rosa who met in this very building years ago, they come regularly for fish Friday and share the most warm, understanding energy.
Then we have the unsavory moments where we just say, "I can't wait to get the fuck out of here" like when I come around the corner of the building loading the van and Cypress has a used needle/syringe in one hand, and a broken lighter in the other. When people are speeding and honking and being obnoxious in their city driving rage in front of the restaurant. When some woman is shouting at me from the back of line at farmer's market demanding the ingredient list for the seasonal relish because she is far more important than the customer I am currently waiting on. When I go to Cash-n-Carry for gloves and packaging and see another burger joint owner who looked me in the face and told me her burgers are "Local and organic" and there she is buying massive quantities of meat........and I am still paying sales tax at Cash n Carry because they are so disorganized that after 6 months they still haven't gotten my business info into the system.(Except when I go to the North end location where the nice manager Paul rings me up special) When we're at Farmer's Market and we've paid $333 for a fire permit, we are operating in full compliance, and a fire office guy on a power trip gives us ridiculous hassle over petty paperwork infractions. The King Co. health Department for outrageous gouging and services never delivered.........This could go on and on. We thank the bad stuff for helping us to realize that we are not happy doing what we're doing, where we're doing it. We build strength and determination to get out.

GreenGo for the greater Good

Many times over the past year, we've thought that GreenGo should be a non-profit organization, based on our missions of education, supporting local agriculture, and a sustainable food future. I'm putting a call out to anyone who believes in these values to step up and help evolve GreenGo Food. As posted in the main body of the blog, a combination of Farestart and Quillisascut would be phenominal. Obviously, a larger location would be necessary. Interestingly enough, the restaurant Via Verde was just evicted 2 blocks away on Ballard Ave. I see an ampty restaurant in the community already supporting GreenGo Food. (Even funnier, Via Verde translates roughly to Green Life)
"You may say I'm a dreamer..." I am. Everything I've ever done began with schemin' and dreamin'
So if anyone out there shares our passion and has any means to help form a community-driven, education and sustainability focused kitchen/restaurant project, let's talk SOON! We're leaving Seattle, but we want to leave it slightly better.

September will be the end

GreenGo Food is for sale. We started over a year ago in the farmer's markets. In February, we took over this little kitchen from our friend and mentor Devra of Patty Pan Grill. We have invested every ounce of our being, every cent we could scrounge up into this business. We have always refused to buy cheap food or just have the industrial feed truck drop off our supplies. We've slept well knowing we are doing the right thing. Unfortunately, neither of us have trust funds or family $$, or any savings from scraping by in the restaurant biz for many years. So while we have finally achieved sales goals, are getting a little recognition, and seem to be growing, it's so bittersweet......we have nothing left to give. We incurred too much debt during the first few lean months to recover from. Our family unit has been taxed to damn near broken. Our personal bank account has been empty for a while. (Because all money we pay ourselves goes to our debt. Dev always reminds us that if we're paying our debt, we ARE making it, even if it doesn't feel like it)
I had this conversation with Cypress
"Mama when are we going to camp in Jerry's orchard again?"
"I don't know"
"This summer?"
"Probably not"
"How about camping in the desert?"
"Probably not soon"
"Don't you love to camp"
"I do"
"Why can't we just go camping? Summer's gonna be over soon"
"Because our restaurant owns us, and we can't take the time or $$ away to go camping"
I don't want to be this parent. I do not want to live a life where making money is the primary objective or activity. It's so strange that wanting to support small local farms and artisianal food producers with our business has put us in this situation.
But we have learned many important lessons. We are willing to share those lessons with any buyer and set them up for success. I know that an evolution of GreenGo Food has huge potential. Every day, people come from up the street and as far away as Kirkland and even Sweden and tell us "This is really great. I'm so happy someone is doing this."
I really hope someone will recognize the value and potential of what we've tried to do. If not, there's a great little kitchen spot for sale. All set up and running. Turn key.