Stone Soup is a European folk story in which hungry strangers convince the people of a town to each share a small amount of their food in order to make a meal. In varying traditions, the stone has been replaced with other common inedible objects, and therefore the parable is also known as axe soup, button soup, nail soup, bolt soup, and wood soup.  Some travelers 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 very hungry travelers.  Then the travelers go to a stream and fill the pot with water, drop a large stone in it, and place it over a fire.  One of the villagers becomes curious and asks what they are doing.  The travelers answer that they are making "stone soup", which tastes wonderful and which they would be delighted to share with the villager, although it still needs a little bit of garnish, which they are missing, to improve the flavor.  The villager, who anticipates enjoying a share of the soup, does not mind parting with a few carrots, so these are added to the soup.  Another villager walks by, inquiring about the pot, and the travelers again mention their stone soup which has not yet reached its full potential.  More and more villagers walk by, each adding another ingredient, like potatoes, onions, cabbages, peas, celery, tomatoes, sweetcorn, meat, milk, butter, salt and pepper.  Finally, the stone (being inedible) is removed from the pot, and a delicious and nourishing pot of soup is enjoyed by travelers and villagers alike.  Although the travelers have thus tricked the villagers into sharing their food with them, they have successfully transformed it into a tasty meal which they share with the donors.  Other uses of the term:    Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup, a computer game which expanded on an abandoned project using contributions from many different coders       Stone Soup, a children's literary magazine published by the California-based Children's Art Foundation since 1973        Stone Soupercomputer, a computer composed of many small units      The film Fandango (1985) contains a wedding sequence towards the end which builds on the Stone Soup theme.  The protagonists need to hold a wedding ceremony, but they lack the necessary funds.  Therefore, they set up a folding card table by the main street of a sleepy Texas town, dust it off, and invite passersby to come to the wedding.  As they concoct stories of delinquent caterers and crashed champagne trucks, the friendly townspeople contribute their time and resources, the result being a magical wedding ceremony.

Gerald P. Murphy's stage adaptation of "Stone Soup" was published by Lazy Bee Scripts in 2008 and has had successful productions in US, UK and France.  Gerald Griffin wrote "The Collegians" (1829) which includes a version of limestone soup in chapter 30.  William Butler Yeats' play The Pot of Broth (1904) tells a version of the story in which a clever Irish tramp uses his wits to swindle a shrewish medieval housewife out of her dinner.   The story is the basis of Marcia Brown's 1947 children's book Stone Soup: An Old Tale (1947), which features soldiers tricking miserly villagers into cooking them a feast.  The book was a Caldecott Honor book in 1948 and was read aloud by the Captain (played by Bob Keeshan) on an early episode of Captain Kangaroo in the 1950s, as well as at least once in the 1960s or early 1970s.  In 1965, Gordon R. Dickson published a short story called "Soupstone", where a headstrong pilot is sent to solve a problem on a planet under the guise of a highly educated and competent official.  He succeeds by pretending to understand everything, but actually merely making the locals apply their already present knowledge and abilities to the task.  "Stone Soup" (1968), written by Ann McGovern and illustrated by Nola Langner, tells the story of a little old lady and a hungry young man at the door asking for food, and how he tricks her into making stone soup.  The book was reprinted and reissued in 1986 with Winslow Pinney Pels as the illustrator.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stone_Soup  

Myoga is a perennial herb that grows wild in Japan, from the islands of Honshu to Okinawa, and is a member of the ginger family, Gingeraceae.  It is available all year round when grown in greenhouses, but when grown outside, its peak season is summer to fall.  Along with ginger and other herbs, both the flowers and stems have long been popular in Japan as a savory vegetable.  In fact, there are references to the plant in literature going way back to the Heian period (794-1185).  Myoga, although containing overtones of western ginger, is slightly less pungent.  It has a highly distinctive taste with a zesty tang.  This, added to its crunchy texture and refreshing feel on the palate makes it a firm favorite for use in a variety of dishes.  https://japanesetaste.com/blogs/japanese-taste-blog/what-is-japanese-g  Thank you, reader.  

May 22, 2025  The penny was one of the first coins made by the US Mint, entering circulation in 1793.  But over the past 10 years, the cost of producing it has risen from 1.3 cents to 3.69 cents per coin, according to the Treasury.  The Mint estimates that stopping production will result in an immediate annual saving of $56m (£42m) in reduced material costs.  Critics of the zinc and copper coin say producing it is a waste of money and resources, while those who want to keep it argue it keeps prices lower and boosts fund-raising for charities.  The phasing out of the coins will mean businesses will need to round prices up or down, according to the Wall Street Journal (WSJ), who first reported the story.  "Confirming the WSJ story, the Treasury has made its final order of penny blanks this month and the United States Mint will continue to manufacture pennies while an inventory of penny blanks exists," a Treasury spokesperson said.  Other countries have discontinued similar coins. Canada ditched its one cent coin in 2012, citing the cost of minting it and its falling purchasing power due to higher prices.  https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cx2j07858lno 

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2945  May 23, 2025