Best trade ever

I’ve made some good trades in my day.  I routinely trade shellfish, smoked bluefish, and eggs for my friend Christl’s expertly grown vegetable seedlings.    We got venison in return for the use of one our shotguns, and a bottle of wine for a half-peck of clams.  I’ve gotten raspberries in return for chicken poop.

But this one tops all of those, because all I had to do was give up something I wasn’t going to use anyway.

Last week, I posted a turkey update in which I mentioned that the birds had only one month left to live, and I got a comment from Jocelyn asking me whether I had any plans for the feathers and offering up the possibility of a trade: turkey feathers for home-cured olives.

Olives!

I sent her an e-mail, quick, before she changed her mind, and we made the deal.  And today, in the mail, I got a box with three — count ‘em, three! — jars of beautiful olives.  There was also a lovely letter explaining what kinds they were, and wishing me well with my new acorn-feeding program.  (“Bigger turkeys = bigger feathers?” she wondered.)

On the Sunday before Thanksgiving, I will be packaging up all my turkey feathers and sending them to Jocelyn, who is a jewelry designer.  (Her company is called Nous Savons — you can read about it in this Daily Candy item.)  The feathers will certainly find themselves in much more elegant surroundings than they have enjoyed thus far.

I like the idea that the feathers are going to be used, that Jocelyn is going to turn them into something beautiful that will make someone happy.  But I like olives even more.

Thanks, Jocelyn.