Ringing in the new year with Black Eyed Peas

This is a year of fire for me (ask me about the past Beltaine sometime).  After ringing in the New Year with a bonfire down by the Detroit River I decided to make a spicy black eyed pea dish for my first dinner of the year.  Black Eyed Peas are a traditional new years dish for southern African Americans, though it actually dates back to ancient Jewish New Year (Rosh Hashana) celebrations.  In this country they are usually cooked with ham hocks, but this recipe is vegan.

Fire-y Black Eyed Peas for New Year
A couple cups of black eyed peas, soaked over night
Vegetable broth (optional)
Onion, chopped
Leek, sliced
Celery, chopped
Carrot, chopped
Clove of garlic, chopped fine
Olive Oil
Spices and herbs (suggestions: cayenne pepper, basil, oregano, black pepper, rosemary, coriander)
2 cups canned tomatoes
1/4 cup pepper vinegar (optional)

Start cooking black eyed peas (bring to boil then turn down to a simmer).

In another heavy pan saute the onion, garlic and leek in a little olive oil.  Add the dry spices (wait to add herbs) and cook a little longer.  Add carrots and cook and stir until covered with oil and spices.  Add the beans and enough vegetable broth (or water) so that beans and veggies are just covered.  Add herbs.  Cook without lid over low simmer until beans are done cooking.  Add tomatoes and pepper vinegar (if you don't have pepper vinegar you might want to add more cayenne or some other source of capsicum spiciness).

Serve hot with sweet potatoes, greens and cornbread.

Queensland Blue Squash Soup

There are is a severe lack of recipes online specifically for large squashes, other than pies.  This soup is based on a pumpkin soup recipe, but I think is much richer.

1 Queensland Blue Squash (about 5 lbs)
4 Tbsp butter
1 Tbs coriander seeds
2 medium yellow onions, chopped
2 small garlic cloves
1/2 tsp crushed red pepper
3 tsp curry powder
5 cups veggie broth +
3 cups milk
1/4 cup maple syrup

1) As much as 40 minutes before starting most of the soup, quarter and gut the squash and stick it in the oven at 400 F.  Also start making your broth if you don't already have some (the guts of the squash can go into the broth).  If you are running low on time you could also just peel and gut the squash and put the pieces in the soup early on.
2) Melt butter in the bottom of a heavy pot.  Add coriander seeds and cook on medium heat for a couple minutes.  Add onions and cook until they are translucent.
3) Add garlic and spices and cook for about a minute.
4) Add squash and enough broth to cover.  If the squash is soft cook at a simmer for 10 minutes.  If squash is uncooked or not yet fully soft simmer until it is soft.
5) Once squash is cooked blend the whole thing with an immersion blender or in batches.  Return to pot.
6) Add 1/4 cup (or less) maple syrup and slowly stir in the milk.  Taste and adjust spices and syrup.  If too spicy you can add more milk.  Serve hot.

Charity vs Sharing

Today I went and helped out at the BBQ for the Homeless/Forgotten Workers that is put on by the Wobbly Kitchen and some other informal groups on the 2nd and 4th Sunday of every month.    It made me think a lot about what the difference between sharing and charity is.

One of the things I like about this BBQ is that it is out in the park and set up as more of a party.  Those cooking and serving food interact quite a bit with those coming to eat and all of the people serving take a break and get some of the food as well.  To me it seems a lot more like a "sharing" of food and other resources, but I couldn't put my finger on what exactly the difference between charity and sharing is.  So of course, I asked Facebook.


My friend Nick said "Sharing in my mind is more of a two-way street than charity."  To me that didn't seem quite right.  I feel like if I share something and expect something else in return it is more of a trade or transaction than real sharing.  There is some aspect of mutuality though.  And I think Margaret's comment: "Charity entails a power differential - the "haves" beneficiently bestowing upon the "have nots." Similar distinction between Serving and Helping."   I think she hit it just right that there is a feeling of equality between people who are sharing as opposed to folks that are engaged in offering charity.  Even with that I felt like there was still something I couldn't quite put my finger on. 


To me part of what sharing is about is not feeling diminished afterwards.  You can share an umbrella with something and never give anything up.  When people engage in charity even if they have a lot of money at the end of giving there is a feeling that they have less than they did before.  Realizing this made me feel like I was getting to something but I still feel that you can "share" food, where you might by definition have less food at the end than you did at the beginning, but you don't feel like you "gave" food, you can feel that it was shared.


The key I think is contained in my good friend El Barto Grande's comment: "Charity is something the [C]hristians do. Sharing is something [S]ocialists do."  Perhaps it is because I was sharing all this food at the BBQ for the Forgotten Worker with the Wobblies, but that really rang true for me.  And I don't think it is just a matter of syntax.  


Handing someone a bowl of soup can only feel like charity if you recognize that soup as yours and that now you have given it away to someone else and now you have less soup and now are poorer.  If you recognize that the riches of society were built by many hands before you and with you and that without the richness of the whole we would all have nothing, then the soup is no more yours than it is mine than it belongs to the guy on the corner than it belongs to the President.  The richness of our country (of our world) is a result of the work of so many hands that to claim any of it as our own and therefore ours to give in charity to someone else is preposterous.

To bring it to another example, many feel that welfare benefits, such as cash assistance, rent assistance, food stamps, etc are charity to the poor, others feel that they are unearned wealth.  Who truly creates that wealth though?  And what person creates that wealth on their own.  Even if we accept that someone like Steve Jobs earned all of his wealth, what of the teachers who taught him the basics?  What of the roads he traveled on to get his goods to market?  What of all the people who grew the food that nourished him?  What of the police that protected the places he lived and worked and created?  Are not all these public goods part of the wealth creation machine?  Without a society that includes all of these goods there could be no millionaire, there could be no wealth and there could be no soup.  And there could be no society with out all of the individual people within it, so we can never give the money, or soup, as charity, we can only share it.