The Big Soup

Well we did it!

Hundreds of cups of soup given away on the Artists Soup Stall at Woodstock farmers market last Saturday. We had a fantastic day - Martyn's Apple Soup recipe was a winner at breakfast time, and by the time we got to 12.00 and the market was really busy, we had two huge soup kettles full of soup to give away. People were really interested in the concept of Artists Soup and the response was so positive that we all ended the day feeling uplifted and empowered by the event. The other stall holders thought it was a brilliant idea, and were hoping we'd be back every month to give out soup, and some were sweet enough to barter Windrush Valley goats cheese or Crudges cheese, or Isle of Wight Garlic in exchange for some warming soup!

At lunchtime Tom Cox arrived with a mountain of his wonderful homemade warm bread which really added to the offer and gave people something substantial. Luckily for us all there was some left to take home.

Some people are truly unnerved by being offered something FREE! They almost ran away, as if we might try to flog them a timeshare on the way past....its a sad reflection of culture that people need to feel afraid of the generosity of others. However most people got it, and once they stopped for a chat and some soup, it seemed they went away feeling really positive. And we felt that somehow the giving away of a commodity in a market, with no intention other than to please, was in itself pleasingly anarchic.

With the souvenirs we did try selling our hand printed serviettes but with almost no luck - amazingly you just can't sell a hand printed limited edition for 10p. But we had much more success with recipes, almost everyone would have bought the recipe for the soup they tasted - so although that meant we sold lots of Squash Soup recipes, if we'd had printed versions of the others they would have done well too, so seems like a good idea to revisit our Artists Soup Recipe book for next time.

Lots of artists and kind people from arts organisations made the pilgrimage to join us during the day and really enriched the sense of Woodstock being a creative meeting place - introductions and connections were made, so the networking actually worked.

Thankyou's are due to Riverford Organic for providing a veg box (which I traded with myself for a squash box to make the squash soup), Hampers Deli for loaning us two brilliant soup kettles and Vickers hotel for letting us heat soup in the kitchen. ITN turned up and filmed, and we featured on their ITV local spot last night - so thanks to Art in Woodstock for making that happen and to Denis Allen for putting up the dreaded gazebo at 8 o'clock in the morning.

The Soupers on the day were: Martyn Brown, Lynn and Helen all the way from Exeter and London, Paul Davies & his friend Simon from Oxford, Janine Charles (artmummy) & Michael Harris, Suzanne O'Driscoll, & Tom Cox the breadmaker from Oxford.

Sweet Squash Soup

The stall plans are coming on - we've even got the promise of a soup kettle now, so along with the camping stoves should all be ok. Have written up a soup recipe and done a little illustration for it. Also been stamping soup cups with the logo and circulating the information on e networks to hopefully get people coming along. Weather turning colder so soup will hopefully be the perfect offer for a cold day. Now just worrying about having enough big pans!

progress on the western front

We're actually making progress! I've bought all kinds of important ephemera (if that's not a contradiction in terms?), mainly from the £ shop in Witney....table cloths, jugs, rubber gloves. And with Martyn's help we've worked out that the stall can run in two phases (breakfast & lunch), and that the morning session will appeal to market goers with the later session being more about inviting people, especially artists, to join us. The technicalities of heating soup all day on a stall outside are my biggest worry - especially after a huge box arrived from the government Food Safety quango, with a 6 point plan just to explain how to wash your hands. Apparently it involves lather? The responsibility is huge, but we're trying to cope with it. Have also picked up the gazebo from Allie today and we worked out how to design the stall, with our soup can logo on laminated sheets hanging from a washing line.
So next thing is to mail out to everyone and post the event on listings - I'm hoping lots of artists will come along to really make it an Artists Soup!

The First Artist's Soup Blog

A first posting from artmummy on behalf of the Artist Soup Group! We are very busy at the moment planning our first public event, which will take place on 1st November at Woodstock Town Farmers Market and as part of Art in Woodstock 2008.

The Artist Soup Group are: Martyn Brown, Michael Harris, Janine Charles, Suzanne O'Driscoll, Alun Ward, Neil Smith, Rachel Barbaresi and a guest appearance by artist breadmaker Tom Cox.

The event, which features home made soup, artisan bread and artist's souvenirs - and hopefully lots of conversations, will aim to introduce the idea of soup as a metaphor for bringing together people and practice, through the gift of soup itself.