Traveling Stone Soup Events
The Traveling Stone Soup Events are organized by Peppermint Jim and culinary professor Chef Nick to feed people, raise money for a charity and create a fun event.
How it works
When the stones travel to your business, organization, club, store, church or event, you will be provided with two pans of 55 gallons with soup of your choice, prepared on site. We provide the pans, gas, utensils, silverware, preparation, cooking and serving.
You can have the ingredients donated by local farmers and businesses and in some situations we may be able to help you with this. You can also choose to what charity the proceeds will go. For example; Volunteers of America or a local food bank.
Costs: $500 plus gas mileage (we are located in St. Johns, Lansing MI).
Want the Traveling Stone Soup Event to come to your business or organization??
The Traveling Stone Soup event is a great way for your business, school or organization to raise money for charity, feed people and have fun!
Send us an email with the following information to peppermintjim@yahoo.com
Name of business, group or organization
Name of organization to benefit
Location
City
State
Event Date
Contact Email
Contact phone#
The Story of the Stone Soup
Once upon a time, somewhere in post-war Eastern Europe, there was a great famine in which people jealously hoarded whatever food they could find, hiding it even from their friends and neighbors. One day a wandering soldier came into a village and began asking questions as if he planned to stay for the night.
"There's not a bite to eat in the whole province," he was told. "Better keep moving on."
"Oh, I have everything I need," he said. "In fact, I was thinking of making some stone soup to share with all of you." He pulled an iron cauldron from his wagon, filled it with water, and built a fire under it. Then, with great ceremony, he drew an ordinary-looking stone from a velvet bag and dropped it into the water.
By now, hearing the rumor of food, most of the villagers had come to the square or watched from their windows. As the soldier sniffed the "broth" and licked his lips in anticipation, hunger began to overcome their skepticis
"Ahh," the soldier said to himself rather loudly, "I do like a tasty stone soup. Of course, stone soup with cabbage -- that's hard to beat."
Soon a villager approached hesitantly, holding a cabbage he'd retrieved from its hiding place, and added it to the pot. "Capital!" cried the soldier. "You know, I once had stone soup with cabbage and a bit of salt beef as well, and it was fit for a king."
The village butcher managed to find some salt beef . . . and so it went, through potatoes, onions, carrots, mushrooms, and so on, until there was indeed a delicious meal for all. The villagers offered the soldier a great deal of money for the magic stone, but he refused to sell and traveled on the next day. The moral is that by working together, with everyone contributing what they can, a greater good is achieved.
Past Traveling Stone Soup Events
The staged events were kicked off by Peppermint Jim and Chef Nick on December 19th 2009 in Lansing at the City Market from noon till 7PM. The second event took place at Lansing Community Library in April 2010. For both events, the ingredients were donated by local producers, and there were two soups, prepared on site; vegetarian and chicken.
Participating local farms and producers:
Westwind Milling Co. (http://www.westwindmilling.com/)
White Pine Farms from North Branch (http://www.localharvest.org/farms/M19716)
Otto's Chicken
Wetman Organic farms
Aggie Mae's Bakery
Bella Harvest
Alice's Kitchen
Hickory Corners
Sweet Seasons Orchards
And more!
On the December 19th event, bread bowls of soup were sold for $5.00 each and the goal was to sell 500 of them, raising $2500. This money will be donated to Volunteers of America (www.voa.org) who can feed 1250 people. Remainders of the bread and produce will be used for the next event or go to the Community Kitchen in Lansing.
Click on the logo to go to Michigan's VOA website.
Click on the logo to go to the Market's website.
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