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[alt_poppy]

Alice,

I'm not going to be back this evening. No need for concern. Simply following up on things and enjoying the chance to be out and about in Spring. I've just had quite an interesting appointment with a collection of dodgy individuals at a disused tin mine on Bodmin moor. (From Albus' list; did not disappoint.)

Am on my way now to Merrymeet beyond Liskeard. Felton Parish has invited me to a listening party this evening at the Waymark Inn: he tells me they're collecting quite a crowd that are completely taken with 'The Tuckers'.

(Do tell Ms Morgenstern that she has a burgeoning audience. Parish says it reminds them of a programme from back in the days when a bit of jiggering would get the BBC to come in over the wireless. And they're all on edge whether Tertius Apsted will let his daughter continue seeing young Bran Jones, so I hope we get a bit of progress on that front tonight!)

More farmers in this lot. Parish thinks they're ready to consider new possibilities. Even risky ones.

Which brings me to my report: I'd an excellent visit with Walter Legman out in Torpoint. He's continuing to push me on whether we couldn't Fidelius the lot of them. It's fourteen significant farms in his collective, all of them ready to put in with us if we can protect them and supply them once they're under the enchantment. They know the financial end can't work as they're accustomed, but they've had nothing but falling prices for years now, and they have a vision for being the ones that survive into the 'new era'. That's how Legman put it to me, and he was quite clearly being literal about surviving.

So. May I offer him terms?

Comments

[alt_alice]

Good. Very good work.

We'll need to outline what such support might entail, to make certain it's an agreement we can maintain to the benefit of both parties, but it's a very good move all round, I think. We ought to be able to fold them into the black market and back-door end of the food and barter network we've been growing, and offer a sustainable (if not necessarily enormously profitable) alternative.

We might also tap them for storage and stockpiling as well, depending on space considerations.

[alt_pansy]

That's brill, Madame P!

[alt_poppy]

As for added possibilities: Torpoint is just on the water across from Plymouth. It's been a ferry point for hundreds of years. And a smugglers' haven. Both of them are.

And as we've said from the outset, it's a key location for us given that it's just across the inlet from Saltash.

For the rest of you: that's why they were eager to talk to us initially. They're all very much aware of what happened at Saltash and they've got ties to the people who were interned there in addition to having done business supplying the camp. Legman and his family have been farming at Torpoint for generations, but most of the other farms were owned by Muggles until they were forced into Saltash camp. The farms were taken over by wizards, obviously, most of them related to Legman one way or another, but they've basically been hiring the farmers back out of the camps all along, and they'd worked out a collective that kept the original owners as parties of the agreement with a secret, but explicit promise that if the Protectorate ever ends, they'll all share ownership, Muggle and Wizard alike. Sadly, they lost a lot of folks to the uprising at Saltash, and it was because they wanted information about people there that brought us together at first.

They're a good fit for us for all those reasons. If we're able to Fidelius on the scale required.

[alt_poppy]

I've made plans to meet with several of the people on Jeremy's list this coming week, so I trust I'll soon have more fruit (as it were) to offer your operations.

[alt_sirius]

I'm sure that if we plan it out properly, we can manage it.

[alt_pansy]

I've been setting up some meetings over hols on my end of things too -- a few distributors who've been struggling with the new restrictions who might be eager for someone who'll pay reasonable prices. It helps that I've got a bit of a reputation when it comes to associating with halfbloods.

[alt_nymphadora]

Oooh, what a cliffhanger! And I could tell Kenton was hiding something, but it was a nice enough twist for him to reveal he used to be a guard for one of the camps. Didn't see that one coming. I have no idea how on earth Muriel will react to that one.

Unless she already knows, that is...

[alt_poppy]

Oh, that would be an excellent twist! And... she might know, mightn't she? There was that conversation she had with Bauer Knockton three or four episodes back that the programme cut away from. He could have told her. Not sure he would have done, but it's a very interesting notion.

[alt_poppy]

That you do!

[alt_poppy]

There's certainly demand for it if we can manage it. I could find us half a dozen new properties a week to Fidelius, and many of them would pay a pretty sum for the service.

[alt_sinistra]

I've been thinking all day.

Pansy, Sally-Anne, you remember the Archetype Cafe, yes? We met there, two springs ago. It's a women's collective, several branches. There's the cafe, Poppet (the bakery with the excellent marzipan), and a farm to table ingredients box that goes out all summer. Other things, too.

Their goals mean they need to be aboveboard in any way that can be traced, but I know they'd not mind a safehouse, and they've got connections to all sorts of people. And I've been thinking about them a lot with people talking about the new restrictions, because Tamsin, who runs the cafe, is a pureblood, but her partner, Thalia, who's the chef, is a halfblood.

Anyway. The reason I was thinking of them specifically was that they might be a way to funnel food for coin, depending on the details.

I think they'd be safe to approach, carefully, even if they decide they can't take the risk. (They've deliberately cultivated a diverse customer base, and that means Ministry and MLE among others.)

[alt_pansy]

I'll see if I can make a soft approach over hols.

After all, I'm a fellow woman who's very interested in this farm-to-table business, and while we're exchanging tips, have I mentioned the really phenomenal rubbish removal service I've started using recently? It's very much worth checking up. Even picks up things I'd consider scrap and pays me for it.

Or something like that.

[alt_sinistra]

I'll write up some notes for you, so you know where to hint.

If you think it'd be useful to have one from me to her, in case you need it, I can do that too. (I bought into a share in the collective a couple of years ago, at her suggestion., which is why I know as much of the background as I do.)

She's the sort of Ravenclaw, Tamsin, who likes her arithmancy to be about 'if you have 1/2 a bushel of peas and 2 dozen carrots, 5 onions, and a chicken, along with 3 loaves of bread you'd really like to use up today, and if your jam stocks are lower than you'd like, what can you put on a lunch menu that's satisfying?' To give you an idea.