Every year, my family celebrates the fall with Harvest Home, a lovely tradition we started since we moved to our beloved, century old farmhouse over fifteen years ago. Harvest Home is an old English tradition celebrating the annual harvest. After all the fields were gathered the community would come together for a community feast to rejoice in their bounty of blessings. We do this by having family and friends join us for homemade apple cider, lots of apple and pumpkin pies and our delicious stone soup.
Stone soup starts by adding a small stone to a large cooking pot filled with broth and vegetables over an open fire. Each hungry guest and/or family contributes a vegetable of their choosing to the bubbling brew until a rich and hearty soup created for all to share. Some guests are creative and bring bottles of wine, fresh herbs and homemade noodles or pasta. This is always fun, because each year the soup is different, but always, always yummy. Guests take turns stirring the massive copper pot, which is especially fun for the young and the old.
The pot is very similar to the one my Grandma Ferrell used for canning enormous batches of apple butter in the fall. My mother remembers the family stirring the great pot of her homemade applesauce and seasonings all day until it became thick with a lovely deep ruby hue. I threw an apple butter party one year too, which is loads of work and fun too!
When the soup is ready, our family and friends gather around the copper pot and fire. My sweet mother, adorned with her West Virginia hillbilly hat, tells the story of Stone Soup aloud to the crowd, and then my daddy says the blessing. Then joyful ladles of soup are dispersed to the hungry, patient crowd. It is so sweet to hear the sounds of happy folks eating bowls of hot and hearty goodness on a crisp fall day. And for favors, we intentionally make more soup than we can eat, so each family leaves with a container for their next day’s Sunday dinner!
Later, we watch old Disney movies on our vast barn doors, as folks are wrapped in quilts and comforters to stay warm. Some stay by the cozy bonfire to sing songs, tell stories and enjoy the bountiful day filled with good family, friends, food and fun!
I wholeheartedly suggest you put a party like this on, if space and time and hard work are plentiful in your circle of family and friends. As it really is another delicious memory for you to share with those that you love and a special event to remember all of God's sweet blessings!
Eat pie, and celebrate God's bounty -- xoxoxo Linda