The communal cauldron will now blog.

An Introduction / I love jars.

The Brooklyn Soup Swap was started about two months ago by the brilliant Jenny Levison. Jenny will further  be known in this blog as "One in Ten". We are an exclusive but not elite group of cooks and community-seeker. Exclusive because we only have so many stock pots, New York kitchens could almost routinely double broom closets, and there are only so many weeks one can keep track of. Mason jars, however, one can never have too many. That is a non-issue.

For about two weeks we worked out the distribution plan, the necessity and arithmetic of jars, the itemized, prioritized review of our dietary needs, preferences, allergies, and what we each consider to be a reasonable amount of soup to swap. And it began.

I believe we all came to the swap from different places. We have not had a big existential discussion about this. I still have not met some of the people in it, actually. But I feel nonetheless like it has helped to foster a sense of community that I have been feeling lost to at times lately. This blog is another opportunity to work towards this larger goal, as well as simply share who you are, about your soup, and other related thoughts.

For instance, I would like to share this:

From Full Moon Feast by Jessica Prentice:

Everything we do on a daily basis--from what we eat to how we treat the stranger in the checkout line to how we get to work--is an opportunity to reverse this trend, to salvage our true beings from their sense of homelessness and alienation. When we buy eggs from a local rancher who lets his chickens range freely, we build a relationship and a community, a place where we belong, a home. When we soak our grains or brew our own herbal ale, we are doing something that is indigenous, natural, subtle, and hard to explain. When we ride a bike to the local farmer's market to do our shopping, we are making a change that is generous, gradual, and village-oriented. Not only do such activities help heal our hearts, but they create networks of support, ingenuity, and cooperation that will help us solve the problems we may soon be facing. Our survival may depend upon re-creating the village.

 Time for me to watch the sun set from my big office windows facing the Hudson.  Good night.