The Open Day was initiated by Dick Barton in the summer of 1977. We opened our doors to visitors, with tours, teas and slideshows – all designed to reach out to the local community. In the evening we held a big banquet in the magnificent Cluny dining room. Guests included the Earl and Countess of Moray and Winnie Ewing – MP for Moray and Nairn, Scotland’s first Scottish National Party MP. The evening was hosted by Peter and Eileen.

Peter wanted to ensure that the food was of the highest quality and so sent two cooks from the Findhorn Park kitchen to preside over the meal. We, of the Cluny kitchen had other ideas – as the meal would be cooked in our kitchen. We found a way through. We would make steamed turbot with a béchamel sauce, a vegetarian alternative, salads and a dessert. The two Park cooks would make the sauce and the alternative, we would do the rest – all under the supervision of our focaliser, Janet.

The two visiting cooks arrived suitably dressed, with a crate of white wine. As we attuned at the start of the cooking process, I remarked that if we used all the wine on the table for cooking, the turbot would be swimming in it. We were assured that all the wine would be used. Needless to say the wine bottles were cracked open long before they were needed in the culinary process.

As we approached the crucial time for serving the meal, I was cooking the turbot on a small stove to one side, and noticed that the sauce cook had passed out on the table in front of the main stove, while the sauce was bubbling away. The veggie alternative cook had disappeared altogether and couldn’t be found. We strained the sauce through sieves to get the lumps out and retrieved the trays of veg alternative from the oven before they burned. After a frantic search the veggie cook was found to have passed out in the walk-in fridge. We just made it out to join hands round the serving table to bless the food. Afterwards Peter congratulated on us on an “excellent meal!” I don’t believe he ever heard the full story.

Then there were the crabs. The couple who requested crab meat as part of their wedding feast probably weren’t aware crabs that have to be cooked alive. The wretched decapod crustaceans arrived immersed in buckets of sea water. Somehow they escaped so that the red clay tiled floor of Cluny Kitchen was soon teaming with them, rushing frantically under all the furniture while several of the kitchen crew – probably vegans – had mounted the kitchen tables screaming “this is a vegetarian community!” I won’t describe the cooking process.

Dominic Stuart

PS all is not as it may seem in a spiritual community!