Most Fridays I walk from the house here in Richmond Beach across Shoreline to the Great Harvest Bread store in Lake Forest Park. It is a very engaging walk in that I pass along the main road into Richmond Beach, up over the plateau between 8th NW and Aurora, across I-5 and then down into this stunning, road along MacAlear Creek in Lake Forest Park. Once I get that far, it begins to look more than a bit like the road into Cade’s Cove in Smokie Mountain National Park.

I do this walk while Gary goes to a yoga class…one for moms with little kids and a few “geezers.” I do some reading, and note-taking etc. while drinking tea and listening in on the work of the bread store. I have been doing this for long enough now that they know me by name and I have begun to feel that I belong there on Friday mornings.

The reason we go to that store on Friday mornings is to pick up the Challah, the sabbath bread, that will be part of our “special dinner” that we celebrate almost every Friday night.

Two Fridays ago there was a power outage, the store was dark and quiet. It was a good place to read, good that is until a TV crew showed up to interview Jeff (the owner of the bread store).! Since when is wind news? This interview took place maybe 6 feet away from the table where I am trying to read something…heavy.

Last Friday was a more rewarding experience; the wheat arrived.

“The wheat is here!!” It was the announcement of a great event, as though an important person had just shown up. (It was MUCH more interesting than that TV crew from the week before. The arrival of 2,000 lbs of organic wheat in a huge reusable bag, IS news. )

It was not clear to me just how it is that the wheat “arrives.”

Outside in the parking lot was a WA statewide freight truck…Harbour Freight, or something like that.  Then Jeff, the owner, went out to “get” the wheat. The wheat is 2,000 lbs of organic, whole wheat from Bridgeport WA ,  in a huge reuseable bag, complete with handles, set on a wooden palate and moved by hand with palette mover through the doors of the store into the back of the bakery. That wheat will be used to make bread for the next three weeks.

I had no idea that the arrival of wheat could be so exciting. I had no idea that wheat arrived.  It had never occurred to me that the Great Harvest bread I have been eating for the past 10 years or more comes into being by means of such an elaborate procession from Eastern Washington into the Great Harvest Bread Store and eventually up and over the hill to our house in Richmond Beach.

Maybe one does NOT want to know what goes into sausages, but I am thrilled to know what goes into this bread with which we celebrate every Friday night.

And now I have to wonder about the processions behind the rest of my food.