Raspberry Festival

My oblate friends, Lisa and Regina, invited me to help with various tasks to help at the Raspberry Festival.  The Festival raises money for the Museum at the Monastery of St. Gertrude.  

It's all about the raspberries that grow behind the Monastery.  My mom helped pick these berries with Sister Wilma every year for over 10 years.  She would get up at 5 AM to beat the heat and the bees!  I noticed a sign up sheet with the names of lots of volunteers that have been picking berries for weeks.

Our dear Sister Wilma, now she and Mom are picking berries in heaven!

 The fun started early on Thursday, July 25, when several of the oblates gathered at St. Stan's Parish Center kitchen to make Raspberry Popcorn.  It was a long day, filled with sticky fingers!  It's quite a process - popping corn, measuring the ingredients, stirring the sryup, baking the popcorn, letting it cool, then bagging it!  We managed to get 108 bags filled and a profit of $540 for the festival.

Then on Thursday, August 1st,  I travelled to Cottonwood with friends to bake the cake that becomes the foundation for the famous Raspberry Shortcake on Sunday.  Carolyn called us Goddesses of Cake!  We baked 100 boxes of cake in less than three hours.  I think our Mother Mary helped keep us organized!

Goddesses of Cake - Regina, Lisa, Marcia, Theresa, Sondra, and Cecilia

 Marcia and Sondra cracked over 300 eggs!

 Cecilia opened 100 boxes of cake mixes.

 

Lisa and Regina poured and scraped!  I measured the oil and added it to the bowls!  We used the ovens in the Monastery that are used to bake hundreds of loaves of bread every month.  We could bake 12 sheet-cake sized pans at one time.  The pans were wrapped and then put in the freezer to stay fresh until Sunday. 

I loved my job on Saturday - picking roses at the Lewiston Rose Garden and Lisa's garden

Lisa nurtured a dozen of these petunias all summer so there would be raspberry color all around

My Oblate friend, Julie, and her sweet mother helped with the rose bouquets

So did Jack, Regina's husband.

The cart, filled with bouquets, ready for Sunday morning.

We did get a lot of compliments about our decor on the lawn in front of the Monastery.

Regina and friend!

I got to wear Sister Wilma's apron while I served up the watermelon!

They brought back the Quilt Show again this year.

This antique quilt proved to be my favorite in the quilt show because it's hand quilted and my Mom's favorite colors!

Pat Martin entered the T-Shirt quilt she made for Karlee Wilson

My purchased treasures - popcorn and jam for Marilyn

I stopped at the Mom's memorial along Highway 95 on the way home and put some new pink flowers in the holders so it would be more noticeable as we drive by.

I got the sweetest handwritten thank you note from Sister Clarissa, the prioress, which said, "we could never have completed the Raspberry Festival with your help, the help of our oblates, volunteers and friends.  We don't know how much money we made, but we do know that the Festival was a delightful, fun, and delicious community building event."  

There you have it - her sweet note made it all worthwhile!