Vegetarian Chicken Grill
Long Fall 2012 was an exquisite excursion that consisted of relaxing by a lake, eating great food, and hanging out around a fire with old and new friends. Dawn and Nathan Zweig, faculty members at the Putney School, took a group of twelve students, new and returning, on a camping trip to Half Moon Pond. In addition to the students and faculty, Dawn and Nathan’s two year old daughter Gwen, joined us on the trip. This trip ended up being one of my favorite camping experiences. I believe it is an understatement to say that everybody on the trip had a superb time.
Prior to leaving for the pond, Nathan had a mini grill that needed to be built. It consisted of over over fifty pieces, and an instruction manual that looked almost impossible to read. As a team building activity, Dawn had us build the grill together, but to make it challenging, she broke us up into three teams. One team read the instructions and another team assembled the grill. These two teams were not able to communicate with one another. The third team was the mediator that communicated with the other two teams but could not look at the instructions or touch the grill. At first it was difficult, but after all the teams understood the directions, and we went through our first rotation of jobs, it became easier. In the end, the grill worked beautifully.
The food that we prepared was not typical camping food. Dawn and Nathan are vegetarians, but they provided for the meat eaters, vegetarians, and vegans alike. On the first night, we had raw chicken that needed to be cooked before it spoiled. I volunteered to cook the chicken because I happen to be a fan of grilled chicken. As I was putting the chicken on the grill, I had a feeling that something was wrong. I realized I was cooking on Nathan’s brand new grill. The first thing that went on a vegetarian’s new grill was chicken. At first I felt a little bad and thought I tainted it, but Dawn comforted me and said that it was not a big deal. Everybody enjoyed the the chicken that was cooked on the vegetarian grill we assembled and a big pot of delicious corn risotto that Nathan made.
As a group, we bonded over the entire trip and now we all enjoy many fun memories. I think it was a great start to my senior year of high school.
-Jonathan Spence
