By Marj Watkins and Suzanna Leigh
Suzanna: You are going to be 100 years old during Strawberry Festival this year! How long have you lived on the Island?
Marjorie: We moved to the island July 1969. Our furniture was due to arrive the next day, so my daughter Jeannie and I went uptown to get cleaning supplies and a few groceries. There was a parade! I said, “This place really knows how to welcome newcomers!” It was Strawberry Festival, but we didn’t know anything about Strawberry Festival.
Suzanna: One year you and I had a booth at the Strawberry Festival; it must have been 2010.
Marjorie: Yes, 2010. Oh my goodness, I never got so many hugs in the same day! I was selling some books my father and I had written, “I Remember Logging.” Someone came and bought three of them. I think we sold out of the copies we had.
My dad was a good bookseller. When he did a reading at the Vashon Bookshop, there were about 20 people there. He gave each one a book, and at the end, he said, “Now go up to the cashier and pay for your book.” That’s when the bookstore was where PSCCU is now. He started logging about 1922, and was logging when I was a child.
Suzanna: In one of the photos in the book, loggers were using one of those “misery whips” saws, with a man at each end, to saw through a thick tree. The blade was about six or eight feet long.
Marjorie: Oh yes! Because some of those trees were so thick, a man could lay across the stump. We have one picture of my Dad walking across a stump.
Suzanna: I think you had some of your Rotaida books at Strawberry Festival that year too: “Rotaida and the Runestone,” and “Royal Spy“.
Marjorie: Yes I did. A couple bought one. They had a baby and they said they would get a copy of my book for her, so that when she grows up they could tell her they know the author. That was one of the years when the vendors were in Ober Park, in the back. The booths were on the grass, and some were on the lawn in front of the library. There was music too.
Suzanna: I remember Gordon who makes the bells had a booth right next to us. I still see him and his bells on Instagram.
Marjorie: That’s right. Silver bells.
Suzanna: And he said, about you, “An old woman with a Peacock feather is more powerful than a man with a sword. “
Marjorie: Well said! I love that.
Suzanna: I think I was selling silk scarves and paintings, some cards and prints, and my book Atom’s Monster. And of course, someone was selling strawberry shortcake. Too bad they didn’t have your recipe for Almond Meal Crepes with fresh strawberries.
Almond Meal Crepes with Fresh Strawberries
Makes about 12 mini-crepes
Sift:
½ cup almond meal flour
¾ cup sorghum flour
¾ teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
Stir and beat in:
2 eggs
⅔ cup milk
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp honey
Have ready:
Cottage cheese or vanilla yogurt
Strawberries, sliced, with honey dribbled over them
Spray skillet with cooking oil. Heat to medium hot. Spoon a tablespoon of batter onto the skillet. Tip and turn the skillet to spread the batter. Cook until the surface is covered with bubbles. Turn and cook until golden brown on each side. Transfer to a platter. Repeat until the batter is used up.
Spread 2 tbsp of vanilla yogurt or cottage cheese onto each crepe. Top with sliced strawberries. Roll. Keep warm until eaten.
