First Annual Stone Soup Supper
Friday, January 29, 2016, 5 – 8 pm
Unity Center of Cedar Rapids, 3791 Blairs Ferry Road NE
Join your UnityCR CommUnity for a traditional Stone Soup Supper to benefit the Elayne Fisher CommUnity Cupboard. (If you’ve never heard the story, read it below!) Please bring your donations of canned goods throughout the month of January. One can will go to the cupboard to feed others, one can will go to the pot of soup to feed the congregation. Spread the word and invite your friends on Facebook!
The menu includes:
Vegetarian Vegetable Soup
Chicken with Rice & Vegetables
Fresh baked rolls, beverages & desserts.
Gluten free options available!
Tickets available now. Adults $10, age 11 & under Free
Elayne Fisher CommUnity Cupboard Needs:
- Cash donations (for thrifty bulk shopping!)
- Canned Fruits
- Feminine Products
- Tooth Paste
- Toilet Paper
- Spaghetti Sauce
- Healthy Soups
- Kidney/Pinto/Black & Chili Beans
The Original Stone Soup Story
“To Make Stone Soup” from 1808
A traveler, apparently wearied, arrived one morning at a small village that lies to the north of Schauffhausen, on the road to Zurich, in Switzerland. A good woman sat spinning and singing at the door of her cottage; he came up to her; talked first about the roughness of the roads, and then of the prospect of a luxuriant vintage along the banks of the Rhine: at last he asked her if she had any fire?
“To be sure I have! How should I dress my dinner else?”
“Oh, then,” said the Traveler, “as your pot is on, you can give me a little warm water.”
“To be sure I can! But what do you want with warm-water?” “If you will lend me a small pot,” said the Traveler, “I’ll show you.”
“Well! you shall have a pot. There, now what do you want with it?”
“I want, said the Traveler, “to make a mess of stone soup!” “Stone soup!” cried the woman, “I never heard of that before. Of what will you make it?”
“I will show you in an instant,” said the man.
So untying his wallet, he produced a large smooth pebble. “Here,” he cried “is the principal ingredient. Now toast me a large slice of bread, hard and brown. Well, now attend to me.”
The stone was infused in warm water; the bread was toasted, and and put into the pot with it. “Now,” said the Traveler, “let me have a bit of bacon, a small quantity of sour krout, pepper, and salt, onions, celery, thyme.” In short, he demanded all the necessary materials.
The good woman had a store cupboard and a well cropped garden; so that these were procured in an instant, and the cookery proceeded with great success. When it was finished, the kind hostess, who had watched the operation with some anxiety, and from time to time longed to taste the soup, was indulged. She found it excellent. She had never before tasted any that was so good. She produced all the edibles that her cottage afforded; and spreading her table, she, with the Traveler, made a hearty meal, of which the stone soup formed a principal part.
When he took his leave, he told the good woman, who had carefully washed the stone, that as she has been so benevolent to him, he would, in return, make her a present of it.
“Where did you get it?” said she.
“Oh,” he replied, “I have brought it a considerable way; and it is a stone of that nature, that if be kept clean, its virtue will never be exhausted, but, with the same ingredients, it will always make as good a soup as that which we have this day eaten.”
The poor woman could hardly set any bounds on her gratitude; and she and the Traveler parted highly satisfied with each other. Proud of this discovery, she, in general terms, mentioned it to her neighbors. By this means the recipe was promulgated; and it was in the course of many experiments at length found, that other pebbles would make as good soup as that in her possession. The viand now became fashionable through the Canton, and was indeed so generally approved, as to find its way to most of the peasants’ tables, where stone stoup used frequently be served as the first dish.