What part of the pitch was most appealing? Probably the catch phrase, Do you have a stash of like new items, possibly gifts you've received in the past, but you can't figure out what to do with them? Bring them to the barter fair!

The occasion was Sustainable Ballard’s annual holiday potluck and barter fair, which encourages members and new attendees to bring homemade goods or offer services, in addition to trading unwanted items. It was easy to spot the regular 4th Monday of the month attendees versus those of us who stood on the outskirts clutching items that we hoped to offload.

As members trickled in with food to share and boxes of stuff the tables became laden. One end of a table was jewelry, hand-crafted over the last decade. A member of the Northeast group brought in a box of VHS tapes: Star Trek Next Generation. He had 27 episodes spanning four seasons. That box was joined on a table by two paper bags of wire hangers, a Shop-Vac, an old (but working) microwave, carved animals from Oaxaca, a plant mister and many handbooks on how to reduce one’s carbon footprint. After all this is Sustainable Ballard, their stated mission.

is to inspire and engage neighbors to take action to live more sustainably both individually and collectively.

On the other side of the room the goods were even more varied, or variegated in the form of fresh-picked holly, loaves of Julekake, an unopened box of Oral-B electric toothbrushes, forks mounted on the ends of golf clubs, canned smoked jalapenos and original oil paintings and sketches by the Ballard Farmer’s Market artist Susan Schneider. The bowling pins from Sunset Bowl were a late arrival along with a pencil sharpener, “that doesn’t work very well” and a young girl’s well-worn paperback.

Sustainable Ballard meets in Sunset Hill Community Club, which is the site of so many different activities and groups it should be allowed to host its own reality show. One night earlier it had hosted Ballard filmmaker Kevin Tomlinson presenting, “Back to the Garden” his documentary about revisiting a communal living situation over the course of time.

Everyone with something to share had a chance to make a sales pitch. Eric and Alice Smith offered canned marinara sauce from tomatoes grown organically at their micro-farm located where NW 61st forms a T against 34th NW. Their sunflowers were a fall backdrop for the Olympic range, and an inspiration for Susan Schneider. SB’s President Jenny Heins proudly flourished the forks mounted on golf clubs, ideal for roasting marshmallows. I was toting wine glass charms, a fancy corkscrew set and a like-new copy of The New Basics Cookbook (essentially stolen from Martin).

Jim Bristow started interacting with Sustainable Ballard when he was leading the campaign to save Sunset Bowl. Although the building is gone and the lot an intermittent eyesore between Christmas tree sales and artistic efforts he has an amazing collection of former lanes, bowling pins and bowling balls. Erik Lacitis of the Seattle Times chronicled his all-out efforts to halt the ultimate pinsetter and has remained in contact with plans to use some of the wood.

With all the products explicated, it was time to barter. I was so focused on acquiring smoked jalapenos that I almost forgot my determination to acquire the plant mister. I’d let Martin use mine for olive oil instead of water, not realizing it was virtually irreplaceable.

But that’s the thing about a barter fair. It flushes out items that are no longer for sale, that have inexplicable nostalgic connections for people. The candy dish just like great grandpa had sitting next to his armchair filled with disgusting hard candies, the Jean Harlow poster from Vanity Fair, a kite just like the one that got away.

The items traded were secondary to the connections. I met a woman from a small town just like mine in Massachusetts. Alice of the micro-farm told me how much her recently widowed mother in Denmark loves her weekly Latin dance Zumba class. There was a man who kept making jokes about who would be going home with the “Mister.”

When my load was heavier than it had been at the beginning, I knew that it was time for me to leave. Everyone else was still talking, friends and strangers getting acquainted with objects as an excuse. Kathy Pelish of Salish Sea Trading Cooperative commented there should be photograph of how proud I looked with my two Sunset Bowl pins, a jar of jalapenos, set of note cards with
recipes, and the mister. I have no idea why I wanted the Sunset Bowl pins, but what went home along with my bag was the fact of three new acquaintances, and the mister that was meant to be mine.