The story of "stone soup" exists all over the world. In my favorite variation, a hungry traveler appears in a village with nothing but an empty cooking pot, a spoon, and his appetite. When the suspicious villagers will not show him any hospitality, he sets up his cooking pot in the village square and begins to boil water with a simple stone in it. As the curious townsfolk pass by and ask him what he is doing, he stirs the pot and tells them that he is making stone soup. Further, he explains that at the end of the day when the soup is ready, everyone will be welcome to come and share it with him. Eventually, one person ventures that the soup might taste better with a few onions. Soon the villagers are each bringing a couple of carrots, a potato, a little salt, whatever they have on hand to add to the stone soup. At the end of the day, the whole town shares a delicious pot of soup (minus the stone, of course), and they have also learned a valuable lesson about the joys of shari...
We are incredibly grateful to our local Ayer Police Station, along with the Shirley Police Station and the Rotary Club for kickstarting our month-long food drive. I don't have a final total yet, because there is technically one more day left, but I will estimate that we received around 140 grocery bags full of food, through the generosity of our community of big-hearted donors, along with those organizations I listed and the Shop n' Save grocery store. Thank you thank you thank you to all of you who helped us get ready for the fall! And just like that, the kids are back in school and August is over. Garden season is not over yet though...not by a longshot...and Rachel K is busy gleaning around town where people call her for help. Don't miss the story in One Small Thing below! Other things that are not over include all of the tasks that are done for the sake of our community each and every week of the year: Pauline picks up bread. Nicole, Rich, and Alison pick ...