By: Susan Den Herder
Coracle Business Developer

It started almost three years ago, with a simple email exchange about “makers.”  It was an early idea about helping Coracle create products, working closely with Tara Haley and the good things she was already doing and making.  Fast forward several months and the idea had a name, I had a new role and Common Good Things was born as a collection of products and a business ministry of Coracle.

One particularly resonant phrase from that initial description was, “how we might do something beautiful…”.  Those words are a quiet and steady beat behind every label, flavor and partnership we put forth and a strong vocational pull for me personally.  But since the early days of imagining this extension of Coracle, Tara and I talked about a very particular “something beautiful”: a meal. A gathering.  A feast. A beautiful one.  What would it be exactly?  A meal, yes. That much we knew.  We imagined lovely space in which we would celebrate delicious food, beauty, makers who make things well and the goodness of the Lord in all of it.  But more than that, it would be a chance to use the work of our hands to craft an evening that might be for those gathered around the table a taste of God’s kingdom now and a foretaste of the kingdom to come.

After years of praying and dreaming, the details of the would-be event have slowly unfolded.  And so, we are thrilled to share that on Sunday, August 26th we will host “Barn & Vineyard: a Coracle Feast” in partnership with the stunning Faithbrooke Barn & Vineyard in Luray, Virginia.  Our hope and aim is for this dinner to be a gathering, celebration and feast of many of the things we do as Coracle/Common Good Things.  Tara will bring her creativity and garden harvest to the table with a delicious seasonal menu which we will enjoy alongside thoughtfully crafted and local beverages. Our maker-partners will grace the tables and walls with the beauty of their created products. And we’ll be surrounded with beautiful views, music and company. After some words from Bill Haley and others, our evening will close with dessert and coffee around the fire pit or continued conversation around the table.  Guests will have an opportunity to purchase work from several of our makers/artists, and everyone will head home with some lovely gifts from them and Common Good Things.

There will be much to come “taste and see,” and we would be honored to have you join us. Our capacity is limited and tickets are available now.