Shelly Stern stands at the head of a table in her backyard on the southern edge of Charlottesville, a rope of pale dough in her hands, demonstrating how to make a classic pretzel: make a U, cross and twist the dough in the center, flip the ends down and fasten to the bottom. At the table, friends and neighbors mimic the technique — some with more success than others, but all with grins and laughter.
It is a warm, late-spring afternoon, and Shelly is readying dozens of pretzels for baking in an earthen oven that rises up behind this pretzel assembly line. Once baked, the pretzels will be salted, then placed in a large wicker basket on the back of a vintage adult tricycle and carted down a few blocks away to a friend’s house, where Shell, as the Pretzel Pedaler, will set up shop, handing out free pretzels to neighbors as they walk or drive by, encouraging them to stop, converse, and swap stories.
The inspiration for the Pretzel Pedaler came out of Shell’s efforts to canvass her neighborhood—the city blocks bordered by Monticello Road and Carlton Avenue, sometimes called the Hogwaller—as she sought to gauge the support of her neighbors for the addition of garden plots to the neighborhood’s Rives Park. These conversations were often lengthy ones, especially with the older residents of the neighborhood, and Shell became increasingly aware of the many stories her neighbors had to share.
“I do appreciate the history that I continue to learn from my older neighbors who have been here fifty, sixty or more years of their lives,” she says.
With an earthen oven already built in her backyard and a love for sharing its creations, she began to mull the right project to encourage those stories to be collected and shared. In late winter 2014, she applied for and won a microgrant through Charlottesville SOUP, funds she used to make Pretzel Pedaler a reality. And thus, periodically throughout 2014, scenes like today’s played out in Shell’s backyard, as pretzels were crafted, baked, and shared with neighbors. To Shell’s delight, the project took on a life—and following—of its own.
“It became more than just an immediate neighborhood project,” she says. “I think we have all these sweet surprises bubbling out of it.”
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Read the full story and try out Shell’s delicious pretzel recipe—both featured in Our Local Commons—Charlottesville, Volume II, which is available for order or at one of several local retailers around town.
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