The other day, we had all the OG Kutelopes over. While the boys started some kind of cult ritual involving our Rody (a bounce toy from when Silas was tiny), Petra, Elisabeth, and Lillian went into the woods, returning with a bowl of beautiful greens—dandelion, wild onion, dead nettle, chickweed.
They asked me for a pot (we have one reserved for outdoor experiments) and matches (I hesitated at this one and suggested they try banging a few rocks together to start a fire, and then remembered that Lil will be driving in six months so she probably can handle the responsibility of matches).
As parents, Laura, Bethany, and I are all used to our kids making crazy concoctions. We know how this story goes: Kids toss a bunch of stuff in a pot, maybe heat it up, dare each other to eat it, and it tastes gross. We did check that all of the ingredients were correctly identified and not poisonous, and then we left them to their own devices.
A couple hours later, we went to check on them and found that they had built a good stick fire, set the pot on top of it, filled it with water, and added the herbs. After it boiled for a bit, they declared it done and asked for bowls.
After they ladled it out, I got my camera ready, expecting some good YUCK faces. Imagine my shock when it was….actually good.
I can’t get over how impressed I am with them. They’ve all got great knowledge of our local ecosystem and the plants and animals within it.
I asked them if the recipe had a name, and they said, “Stewart.” Because it’s stew.
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