Pit For Your Supper

A great initiative from the folks at Heather Hospitality; Pit For Your Supper.  Volunteers get a free beer and meal in exchange for their time pitting and coring fruit for numerous coulis, sauces, jellies and even beers served/sold in the Heather Hospitality businesses in Vancouver's historic Gastown. 

I had just heard about this last year and luckily found a spot for the last one of the season.  I found a seat in the middle of a table so long that I couldn't even holler to the folks at each end.  We were issued a cutting board and paring knife, and shared buckets full of fruit and yet-empty of cores.  I marvelled that they would issue knives to strangers without signing a waiver and trusted we don't stab ourselves or each other.  The theme for this session was apples, and we appled and appled until we reached the end of our apples - then the staff brought out pears to round out our hour (or was it two?) of labour.  I had a great conversation with the couple seated next to me, and was spurred to work faster by the fella two seats down who was racing through the apples in front of him.  I would've lost all track of time had the staff not cleared our table.  Our beer was the Fat Tug IPA and our dinner was pork loin with an apricot coulis (probably the previous volunteers' project), potato salad and coleslaw.

This year the venue changed and we were divided up into smaller tables.  Personally I preferred the long table, but here had more space to move around and fetch our own fruit from the stack of boxes in the center of the room.  I'm sure it made it easier on the staff.  Our theme was peaches, which were easier or harder to pit depending on the ripeness of each - the firm ones chipped apart in shards almost, and the soft ones just smunched in my hands.  Good thing they weren't focused on presentation, the fruit's getting pureed anyway.  I think we finished all the fruit they'd provided in just over an hour, and patiently anticipated dinner.  Our beer was the Blood Alley Bitter and my dinner was beef brisket (everyone else got pork tenderloin? I suppose they just ran out in the kitchen, no worries, it was fantastic) with roasted red pepper coulis and red wine au jus, and a slice each of zucchini, bell pepper, and golden beet.

I think this is a creative initiative that benefits both owners and guests.  The restaurants get publicity through word of mouth, and our labour cost is essentially the cost of ingredients used in our meals, which is likely whatever tail-end remnants they want to finish up in the kitchen and beers they want to rotate on tap.  Guests get to a free beer+artfully crafted meal, and the opportunity to work together with strangers at a common task which is a great way to meet new people and spark conversation.  As this explodes in popularity it's getting more difficult to grab a seat on the guest list.