Mix and match

We had volunteer day yesterday at A Rocha. There was a busload of twenty or so refugees that came, supported by a local refugee agency. I was weeding with a shopkeeper from Burma and a lady from El Salvador who's been in Canada all of five months. They were given empty paper shopping bags and invited to essentially help themselves to certain things, which quite quickly got a bit out of hand. I supervised the 'thinning' of the amaranth, which needed the smaller plants taking out to leave one every 12 inches or so. Evidently for some of the them, these small plants are quite the delicacy and it was all I could do not to have them rip the whole lot up. In the end it was fine, and if anything they under-thinned but our assistant gardener's head nearly exploded. I wonder how long it would take me to get out of the 'it's free, grab it now because it might not be there tomorrow' mentality as a refugee, as someone who may well never return to my homeland. A long time, I would imagine.
I learned from them how you can cook these plants and also the bigger leaves from our two-foot quinoa plants. We could learn a lot from them about the plants we discard or call weeds.
There was also a dicey moment as butter was put on the table and we were asked if it was halal. It was quickly removed although later some insisted on wanting parmesan cheese on their pasta so who knows what the rules are.
It was an interesting day.