A Stone Soup Event

I was reminded of this fun variation on potlucks while answering an email for another list.
 
Here's how it works:
 
1)First you need a small team of volunteer Stone Soup Cooks.
 
2)On the day before the event, the participants bring something fresh from their garden to the Stone Soup Kitchen which would be a cup or so of food and 10-25 cents per person unless you already have this money built into your dues.  In general, ask families to bring a variety of foods unless someone has a lot of something rare and desirable like fresh strawberries for instance.
 
3)The Cooks look over the collection and decide what to make with it to serve the next night.  In early spring Asian stirfries might be an obvious choice.  In late summer using the tomatoes for pizza sauce, the peppers for toppings, and some of the other vegetables and fruits for salads might go over well.  The late summer produce could also make great tacos.  In the fall, soup or a potato bar could be popular.
You can also state in advance what your theme will be so as to get more focused produce.
 
There is no need to have everything the same.  For instance you could have minestone soup, chicken vegetable soup, and cream of potato soup along with some small batches of exotic options like Thai hot pepper noodle soup for people to sample.
 
4) The 10 to 25 cents per person can be used to buy food which is not grown in the garden such as flour, cheese, meat, eggs, olive oil, vinegar, tortillas, tea bags, rice, etc.
 
5) The next lunch/night the gardeners arrive for their Stone Soup Feast.  If it's in a fellowship hall, they may not need to bring anything, but if it's outside they might bring lawn chairs and washable things to eat with--plate/bowl/cup/utensils/cloth napkin.  This way no landfill trash is generated and each person handles their own dish washing.  If fellowship hall plates, etc are used, then there needs to be a dishwashing committee as well as a pot washing committe from among the feasters.
 
6) It's a fun way for people to combine the fruits(or vegetables!) of their labors into an edible group project and share some social time together.  It also makes for a fun break after a morning or day working on the plot.
 
Sharon
gordonse@one.net
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