It’s soup season — that time of year when many of us like to sit down with a warm bowl of soup or stew made from whatever you can find in the fridge. At Venice Williams’ house on Milwaukee’s North Side, there’s always a pot of something boiling on the stove, always made with love.
“My family and friends know that this is the time to just ‘happen to stop by,’ because there's going to be a pot of something this time of year," she says.
Williams is the executive director of Alice’s Garden Urban Farm and the Fondy Food Center. She's a regular contributor for Dig In! — our series bout food, gardening, and community. For this month's episode, Lake Effect's Joy Powers joined Williams at her kitchen table full of fresh vegetables.
For Williams, the history of soup is a history of culinary traditions passed down by the descendants of slaves. But it's also a story of resilience.
"Prior to enslavement, we were still in our villages cooking up these incredible dishes with okra and sweet potatoes and beans and our cultural peas," she says. "We brought a lot of that with us when we were stolen and brought to the Americas."
Making soup often leads Williams to reflect on that legacy, along with memories of her grandmothers' cooking.
"It's very, very rare that I make a pot of soup and I don't tear up, that I don't get emotional," she says.
If you’d like to try some of Venice’s soup for yourself, she’ll be making up a big batch for the Sherman Phoenix Kwanzaa celebration on Saturday, Dec. 27.
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