A note from the editor:
Shannon Joyce, a volunteer for Indy’s Strawberry Fest, wrote a Culture Journal as she prepared for last year's festival.
Interested in submitting a Culture Journal? Please email Jennifer Delgadillo, arts & culture editor, at jennifer.delgadillo@mirrorindy.org
Day One
10:45 a.m. I arrive at the Christ Church Cathedral (CCC ) kitchen — late because I was picking up cleaning supplies! The other volunteers are already dismantling the parish kitchen. Anything not bolted down gets moved to make room for baking. Everything else will get scrubbed down tomorrow.
11:15 a.m. Finalizing details for the transportation of hundreds of biscuits from the church to a commercial freezer until Indy Strawberry Festival day. Finding an open week on the church calendar is no small feat so we often need a few weeks of storage.
Day Two
10 a.m. Meeting with the Strawberry Festival leadership team to deep clean the kitchen. Aprons: Laundered. Baking trays: Washed. Scale: New batteries. Bilingual instructional signage: Posted. Time to print out the rosters, delivery schedules and the baking shift goal charts.
Day Three
10 a.m. It’s officially bake week. We have a last-minute callout for volunteers — we still have some shifts that could use extra hands.
3 p.m. After Sunday service and coffee hour are over, we jump into action transforming the Parish Hall into a biscuit factory: Tables winding in a serpentine fashion, fans stationed to create a cooling cross breeze, and workstations for each step of the baking process.
4 p.m. The first night is traditionally men’s night and they are ready to go. The shift leader, Tim, fires up the ovens, offers the bake week blessing, and within two hours, the entire church smells like a French bakery.
The bake week blessing was written in 2014 by Meghan McConnell and it goes:
O Lord Jesus Christ, we thank you for the life and ministry of Christ Church Cathedral and the cathedral women. We pray that you will bless these endeavors and show us your important joy. Give us accurate scales and measures, constant ovens, clean water, good ingredients, airtight boxes, faithful refrigerators, strong bodies and cheerful hearts to make a wholesome food for your people. This we pray, Amen.
Day Four
4 p.m. Tonight is Spanish language night. CCC has a vibrant Latin American congregation and they bring a dynamic atmosphere to this shift — they organized a pitch-in. A syncopated musical beat keeps them moving as they work. They might finally get us to make the switch to the metric system for measuring.
Day Five
9 a.m. My young adult son has agreed to lead a shift. This gives me a chance to encourage his leadership skills, and also time to get to know our volunteers.
Each year Cathedral Women distributes tens of thousands of dollars to non-profits around central Indiana, and we request volunteers from their organization participate in either Bake Week or Strawberry Festival. I’ve found it to be a great way to connect and learn from our partners and how our grants further their work in our community.
2 p.m. Staff members trickle in after their meeting to “inspect” the reject table (some biscuits don’t pass muster). We lament that we have run out of lemon curd. Again. We do still have strawberry jam, however.
Day Six
4 p.m. It’s the penultimate day and I’m having my annual “last push panic” — will we have enough supplies to reach our goal? It’s not an exact science.
5 p.m. Stand-up meeting with the Strawberry Fest chair and shift leader for some back-of-the-envelope calculations. She’s a budget wonk and he’s an actuary, so those are some pretty accurate envelope backs.
Day Seven
6 a.m. Our volunteer coordinator, April, picks me up and we head to the store for some last-minute supplies. We make a note to adjust the ordering algorithm next year.
9 a.m. We start our very last shift! Because rain is forecast for tomorrow, our biscuit transporters will need to adjust their last pickup accordingly.
12:40 p.m. The last batch is out of the oven. Final count: 15,320 handcrafted shortcakes that will await the festival, when they will be drenched in strawberries and topped with vanilla ice cream and whipped topping.
3:27 p.m. The last supplies are packed up and the Parish Hall returns to its regular schedule.
6:30 p.m. April and I put up our tired feet and treat ourselves to pedicures. Next stop: Indy Strawberry Festival!
Bake Week By The Numbers:
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