How to Plan a Soup Swap

A couple of years ago, I remember reading in a magazine (BHG I think) about doing a soup exchange instead of a cookie exchange. While I thought that was a great idea for December, I think it's an even better idea for January. I would need a shoe horn to cram another thing into the month of December, and would love to have something to look forward to and to celebrate in January. I get so sad when Christmas is over! So while combing the Internet for the article in BHG, I came across this really cool website, http://www.soupswap.com/ . I am going to post some of it below. Another variation on the theme of this event would be to invite several girlfriends over to cook soup, and of course drink wine. Don't forget the wine!

How To

Soup Swap Guidelines
So you want to host a soup swap? It’s a fun, easy way to get to know your neighbors and get a wonderful mix of homemade soup for your freezer! After six years of trial and error, out in Seattle, we've come up with these guidelines to help simplify yours.

Planning a Soup Swap

Schedule soup swap so there are at least two full weekends to make soup. We’ve generally found that scheduling on a weeknight works best, an event where folks can chat a bit, drink a little wine, and meet some new folks without an investment in a long party (remember they’ve already invested a lot of time making soup!)

Invite everyone you know, and then ask them to invite everyone they know. There will be plenty of picky eaters and skeptics, but you’ll want as many folks to show up as you can find!
Ask folks to bring SIX quarts of a frozen soup. Six quarts is generally the biggest stock pot in most kitchens. Often the recipes will need doubled or tweaked to get this amount. Every year someone shows up with two kinds of soup so that they have the required SIX quarts, which is fine, because the real requirement is that everyone has the same amount of soup in same size containers.

We’ve never set a rule on what types of soup to bring, though some soups don’t freeze particularly well, potato and cream soups for example. If this is important to you, by all means specify, but in order to get the biggest number of swappers, we always tell the vegetarians that they may only get back a certain number of veggie soup and may be left with a few meat soups they’ll have to give to their friends.

The weekend before Soup Swap, remind folks and by all means, start dropping hints on all the wonderful soup you’ve been hearing about. After six years in Seattle, Soup Swap is up there with full-body contact sports in competitiveness! Remind people that it is important they be on time to swap soup. Generally, we swap soup an hour after the party begins: Party at 6:30, Swap at 7:30, people are leaving by 8:00, though some may stay later…

At the Soup Swap

Chit chat and drink some wine. And by all means try to start swapping soup on time!
Gather the soup (and the chefs) in a central location. Admire the quantity and variety.
Being the “Telling of the Soup”. This is each chef’s opportunity to talk about what makes their soup special. Is it organic? It is spicy? Does it have anything someone might not be able to eat? Is it a treasured recipe?

Place “Soup Selection” numbers in a hat equal in number to the participants and each person will draw a number.Number 1 picks the first soup, Number 2 the second and so on, until everyone has selected a soup. Repeat six times until all the soup is gone.

We always find it best to remind folks to save the bags they came with, as they will need them to take the soup home!Everyone should now be leaving with the same amount of soup, but now it is a wonderful mix of soup!

Special Issues: Proxies and Gifts When you are planning your soup swap, someone will undoubtedly ask if they can just drop off their soup and have someone else pick for them. Of course! The more soup the better. They should plan on “Proxy pickers” and let those folks know what’s in their soup. We let the Proxies in on the draw, but swap Draw Numbers so that the proxies always pick last. You need not be present to win, but you do need to be present to get first crack at selecting.We started giving out small door prizes, in Boston and Seattle, wooden spoons for the first and last soups picked. We previously had little loaves of homemade bread for everyone to take home, and occasionally, someone will bring something like crackers, raisins or frozen pesto to accompany their soup at the swap. We consider all these things delightful!
Doing Good Now that you’ve got all this wonderful homemade soup in your freezer due to the generosity of your friends and the goodness of your life, it’s a great time to open up your cupboard and get out a dusty can or two of your emergency stock of canned soup. We’d like you to suggest to your swapping pals that they bring a can or two of canned soup to donate to a local food bank of your choice.