Coming Together with Soup

Soup as Community

People have been gathering around soup as long as it has been bubbling away in cooking vessels. And it makes sense, soup is restorative, economical and it is extremely flexible (remember reading “Stone Soup”?). Soup is inherently practical and is a great place to use leftovers of all kinds, whether they come from your garden or your fridge and pantry. And soup can tell stories about family and history and culture. Your Grandmother might have made a killer borscht or you have a neighbor that always brings you a big batch of minestrone when you’re under the weather.

One big pot of soup can easily feed a large crowd, whether it be a in a church basement, a high school gym, a neighbor’s kitchen or a local community center. And while soup might be a simple, humble concoction it can also be powerful. Many cultures believe soup has healing properties: whether it’s a bowl of “Jewish Penicillin” or a simple cup of Miso. In her memoir The Year of Magical Thinking, Joan Didion, who lost both her daughter and husband in the same year, says that a neighbor saved her life by quietly leaving a container of Sweet & Sour soup at her door twice a week for one full year. Soup can feed the hungry and raise money for basketball teams and field trips. Soup can bring together people who might not necessarily sup together and it can help make healthy connections and even healthier communities.

Lately there’s been a resurgence of soup events that bring people together while raising funds for a wide variety of programs. All across the country towns and cities are hosting Empty Bowls events. Folks purchase hand-made bowls which are then filled with steaming soup and the money goes to support local food pantries. Click here to see if there’s one in your community, or better yet, see how you can host your own. In downtown Chicago, every Tuesday at noon you can enjoy a free bowl of piping hot, homemade soup at Re-Thinking Soup (at the Jane Addams Hull-House Museum) while local activists and experts speak on a variety of social and food-based issues. And most likely somewhere in your community this winter there will be “Souper Bowl” or a Chili Supper or Soup-a-Thon that will serve up some sort of soup. It may be thick and chunky or silky smooth, slightly spicy or mild and mellow but as you wrap your hands around the hot bowl, know that you’re making a small but powerful investment in your community. And even if you can’t make it to a community-soup event, you can always bring a container of soup to a friend, family member, neighbor or co-worker, just when they need it most. And yes, it might be an old folk tale and a popular children's story, but that stone soup did bring the whole town together--and it was delicious.

Tomato Basil Soup
This recipe is for Tomato Basil soup, because it seems like everybody, from toddlers to grey-haired Grannies, loves tomato soup. And if you grow your own tomatoes, they can be frozen or put up in 1 quart jars and used next winter to make this soup.

Ingredients
1 28 ounce can crushed tomatoes
1 11.5 ounce can tomato-vegetable juice cocktail
1 14.5 ounce can chicken or vegetable broth
20 fresh basil leaves, cut into thin strips
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup butter

Directions
In a large saucepan, combine the tomatoes, vegetable juice, and chicken broth. Bring to a boil, and cook for 30 minutes. Remove from heat, stir in the basil. At this point, you may puree the soup if you wish. Add the cream and butter; return to medium-low heat, and stir until butter is melted. Sprinkle a few fresh strips of basil on top. Serve immediately.

GODMOTHER WORKSHOPS & EVENTS

February 19 - Chocolate Fest
Auditorium | 2020 Chestnut Road, Homewood, IL
11:00 AM to 2:00 PM

PRAIRIE GODMOTHERS has entered the amateur chocolate bake-off contest with a no-bake chocolate nibble that will satisfy a chocolate urge in a very low-calorie, heart healthy way.

Sample and shop sweets from local and regional business owners turned confectioners, bakers, and chocolatiers!

Call Village Hall for event details at 798.3000 or PRAIRIE GODMOTHERS at 708.205.5126.

For the Birds

Winter in the Midwest can be impressively harsh (hello Blizzard of 2011!) but there are actually some hearty birds like the Darked-eyed Junco that migrate here from much colder climates up north. There are others like the Cardinal and Black-capped Chickadee that simply stick around by choice. And while birds are expert foragers, with all this snow they have to spend more time and energy looking for food, which leaves less energy for staying warm.

If you thought digging out your car out after the storm was a pain in the neck, consider this: a huge portion of the food source that birds eat in winter is still partially buried under all that snow. The thought of slogging to the store when it’s 11 degrees out only to find our favorite foods gone from the shelves isn’t a pretty picture. That’s kind of how the birds might be feeling these days. So we thought we’d provide simple tips for getting some food out to the birds and a few suggestions for longer term food and shelter sources that not only help our feathered friends, but actually improve the aesthetics of your garden.

Seeds are a crucial protein source for birds and can be difficult to find in the winter. The top seed across the board for putting in feeders is the black oil sunflower seed. Its high oil content packs a protein punch and it isn’t too expensive. Place it in a feeder that has some sort of a cover (so that the snow won’t pile up on it) and is somewhat sheltered from the wind. (Near a window works well for birds and allows you prime bird watching.) For more information on other seeds and grains, check out this informative article over at birdwatching.com.


Suet is another popular food for feeding birds, particularly in the winter, because the fat used to create the cakes is a highly concentrated form of energy essential to maintain body heat. It is typically placed in a wire or mesh cage so birds can cling to the cage and peck at the suet block. Suet can also be chopped up and fed in platform feeder, or it can be hung from trees or feeder poles. A super easy way to provide protein for birds is to go smear peanut butter on the bark of a tree. Yep, that’s it. Just make sure your smear is high enough so that the birds aren’t in danger from potential predators. And don’t worry if your neighbors think you’ve gone a little looney in the winter, the birds will be grateful.

Finally, if you enjoy having birds in your garden, consider adding some native grasses, shrubs or trees to your yard or garden this spring. These will provide the necessary shelter of a safe place--protected from wind and potential predators—for birds to rest, raise and feed their young and sleep. With their seeds and berries, they also provide nutritious and “local” food options. And to make it a trifecta, they will make your garden more attractive to all that visit your garden, including those that get around on two legs. Add grasses like Northern Dropseed and Little Bluestem, shrubs like the Black Chokeberry and Elderberry and our favorite tree for birds, the Juneberry. All are native to the Midwest.

If you think about the magic, movement and color that birds bring to your garden when so many things or dormant or dying, it seems like giving back in winter or year-round just makes sense.