This interview provided me with a lovely afternoon.  I had the pleasure of getting to know Steve and was treated to a tour of his property.  Steve is surrounded by nature on a farm inside the city limits.  The house and barn were built in 1918, and other outbuildings were built around the time of World War II.  One interesting building is the cold house. It has walls a foot thick filled with sawdust.  Steve keeps fresh eggs and summer produce in the cold house where the insulation keeps things nice and cool.

Steve has 9 sheep, 2 goats, and 60 chickens.  Five of his sheep were pregnant, likely with twins, so Steve will have many new lambs. The chickens are various breeds and lay beautiful eggs. Steve gathered some pretty baby blue and brown speckeled eggs while we talked.  Because the property is zoned as farm/ranch he can also have roosters.

Joseph started working at the Co-op nine years ago and is currently a grocery clerk, but over the years has done everything from kitchen purchaser to barista to prep cook.  It’s important for him to feel good about the place he works.

Sam has volunteered for three jobs at the Co-op – driving recyclable materials to the recycling center, bringing newsletters to the Co-op from the Daily News, and peeling garlic. The Co-op kitchen uses 15 pounds of garlic a week and the kitchen staff did not have time to peel all it all. You probably enjoyed some tasty garlicky dishes thanks to Sam. (The kitchen now only uses garlic that comes pre-peeled.)

Kristy and her husband, Bill, were both recently hired by the Co-op.  Kristy is a Wellness Assistant and Bill maintains the facilities.  But Bill is certainly not the only handy one in the family.  Kristy has an AAS degree in automated manufacturing from Lewis Clark State College.  I wondered how she got an interest in that field.

“I grew up watching my dad doing everything from working with sheet metal and welding to working on cars.”

In high school in Colorado, Kristy took just about every kind of “shop” that was offered including machine, welding, small engine, and drafting.”  Welding is her favorite and she worked for a time in Lewiston at a shop building trailers and doing repair work.