David Robert Lambert

Stone Soup is an old folk story in which hungry strangers persuade local people of a town to give them food. It is usually told as a lesson in cooperation, especially amid scarcity.

Some travellers come to a village, carrying nothing more than an empty cooking pot. Upon their arrival, the villagers are unwilling to share any of their food stores with the hungry travellers. The travellers fill the pot with water, drop a large stone in it, and place it over a fire in the village square. One of the villagers becomes curious and asks what they are doing. The travellers answer that they are making “stone soup”, which tastes wonderful, although it still needs a little bit of garnish to improve the flavor, which they are missing. The villager does not mind parting with just a little bit of carrot to help them out, so it gets added to the soup. Another villager walks by, inquiring about the pot, and the travellers again mention their stone soup which has not reached its full potential yet. The villager hands them a little bit of seasoning to help them out. More and more villagers walk by, each adding another ingredient. Finally, a delicious and nourishing pot of soup is enjoyed by all.

This story was the basis of a 1947 children’s book, Stone Soup (ISBN 9780689878367), by Marcia Brown, which featured soldiers tricking miserly villages into making them a feast. The book won a Caldecott Medal in 1947.  This book was read aloud to the viewers by the Captain (played by Bob Keeshan) on an early episode of Captain Kangaroo in the 1950s.

What is scarce in DC?  What gifts, talents and resources, however large or small, could be made available if cast in the light of cooperation?

Ref: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stone_soup

This entry was posted on 2011/03/13 at 15:10 and is filed under DC, Food & Culinary Arts, General, Washington DC Region. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.