Order Only

[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_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_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.)