Stone Soup

Hi All, Spring is getting closer, especially today! I just ran outside with NO COAT, as snow melted and cardinals called. We have been trying to meet for the Forest-Garden Eco-Community every few weeks. How would next week work for people? I would love to host a STONE Soup supper where you could bring another person or so if you have a spouse, kids, or other at home who needs to eat, too. Stone Soup,** is a soup where everyone brings one (cooked) item to add to the pot. It could be a leftover, or anything that would go good in soup. I will have two large crockpots one with a veggie stock, the other with a meat stock, and we can add what we want to each. We could also have bread and cheese, if someone want to bring either of those. If the food is precooked, we can just add it and warm up the whole thing. If you can't bring anything, that's okay too. So, at this meeting I would like to talk about these questions: 1. Can we move forward on a local urban agriculture project though the "Forest-Garden," project? What steps do we need to take to move to urban agriculture. 2. I would also like to set up a Local & Organic Foods Coop that lists farmers and connects farmers with customers. We could follow the Des Moines "www.iowafood.com" pattern, where farmers can list what they have for sale, and customers can get online and order it and pick it up at a central location, and/or we could do the "Buy Fresh/Buy Local" advertising campaign of PFI. The UNI campaign for BF/BL has a budget of over $300,000, which I think is a good way to make money while promoting local foods. I feel strongly that there is a need for this. Michael & Lynette previously had planned for a Organic Food store to sell Cologna Organics. I see this as a continuation of that plan to make local organic food affordably available to low as well as high income people. 3. I see this as establishing an eco-community that would stretch over the whole side of CR, and eventually, Linn County. 4. Name: Last meeting we came up with "Forest-Garden" Village/Eco-community/Coop which I like because I would like to include forest farming, creating an "edible forest," in addition to more traditional gardening. I am still continuing plans for the ecovillage as part of all of this. I have a 11-page document that I'm trying to whittle down listing my ideas for that. The unfinished website/blog I have started on the Forest-Garden Project can be found at: www.carolberg.typepad.com/forest_garden/ Please check in for updates and information. Thanks loads....please get back to me to RSVP and for questions. Yours truly, Carol Berg **The Story of Stone Soup. In a small country, years ago...A traveler stopped at a home in a small village and asked for a meal and a place to rest for the night. The village was very poor, and the woman of the house said they did not have food for the traveler. The traveler said, "Do you have a pot and some water? I will make stone soup for everyone!" "How can you make soup out of a stone?" her husband asked incredulously. "It's easy," the traveler said. "Get me the pot and I will show you." The man ordered his wife to get out a pot with water and put it on the fire. The traveler watched until the fire boiled, the brought his 'magic stone' out of his knapsack and klunked it into the large soup pot. "Do you have a large spoon for me to stir with?" the traveler asked. The woman brought him a large spoon, watching as he carefully stirred the pot, and carefully tasted the soup. "This soup is coming along well," the traveler said, "but it would be so much better with a bit of salt and pepper." "We have salt and pepper," the wife said, handing him the salt and pepper. He tasted the soup again. "Not bad," the traveler said,"But it could really use a few leaves of the thyme and basil I saw growing beside your garden path." "Go fetch the leaves of thyme and basil," the husband said to his son, while he stayed intently watching as the traveler stirred the Stone Soup. "Yummm," said the traveler as he tasted the soup again. Good smells were beginning to come from the soup. "It is good, but it could really use a couple of carrots and some of that Lambs quarter I noticed outside." "Of course," said the wife, "I'll get it." She ran outside and pulled three carrots from the ground, and snipped the lambs quarter. "This is sooo good!" the traveler exclaimed, "You don't happen to have any cabbage or onions left from last summer's crop do you?" "Why, we do!" said the woman,"they're in the cellar. I'll bring them up." "It will be ready soon," said the traveler,"just one little thing would do so much and give this soup the gourmet touch...do you happen to have an old ham bone sitting around, like the one your dog was chewing on?" "Why yes, I just happen to have one left from last night's supper," said the woman. "Perfect," said the traveler. The man, woman, and son stood watching the traveler as he stirred and stirred the stone soup, while wonderful smells filled the house. Mouths began water. "Do you have bowls and spoons?" said the traveler politely,"And I will serve everyone the Stone Soup!" "Oh thank you so much!" said the grateful wife, taking her bowl of soup. "I would never have believed it!" said the man, as he tasted the delicious soup. "Boy this is good," said the boy as he slurped up more soup, giving a tiny bit to his dog. "My pleasure," said the traveler as he enjoyed his huge bowl of Stone Soup. It's amazing what you can do with a magic stone and a little creativity. THE END.

Comments

[Steve]

I don't think you get working with others very well. You do get going to things here and there and collecting information, but we don't know what you expect of us, because you haven't a real understanding of how we fit in to whatever it is you are doing. You are looking into a marketing stratigy when you have nothing to market. You talk about perma culture, but what is that really and who is going to do it. Most things start from something and grow. You have a place to grow but have you grown anything beyond what you used yourself? Was that even enough to sustain you, let alone feed others? If you want sustainable and self sufficent that is fine, but you don't have to be everything at once. Just start, be gentle on the land and find what works in the dirt, them figure out what needs to be done to care for things in the long term. You don't need a committee for that.