When uncertain times arrive, do not be afraid. Plant what you can. Share what you have. Keep a soup pot simmering.
H A R D T I M E S S T O N E S O U P
All parts of this website are copyright by Kenneth McCormick.
A living piece of American history, rich, resourceful and hiding in plain sight. And once you taste them, you’ll wonder why no one told you about them sooner.
Hard Times Stone Soup is a deeply American story about resilience, memory, and the enduring wisdom of ordinary kitchens.
At a moment with increased anxiety about rising food costs, fragile supply chains and climate uncertainty, this beautifully photographed, narrative-driven cookbook offers something rare in the marketplace: Hope Grounded in History.
I’ve gathered thirty, historical one-pot meals — soups, stews, and other humble communal dishes that sustained generations of Americans through hardship, economic collapse, and war. These recipes are more than meals. They’re stories of scarcity and survival, lovingly carried forward through family kitchens.
Opening this weekend at Louisville’s Portland Museum will be a collection fine art prints taken from the book. Drop by on Saturday, September 26 for a closer look.
This is not merely a cookbook. It’s cultural preservation wrapped inside an accessible culinary format, illustrated with imagery that brings an authentically American vision to that narrative.
IN the BEGINNING, there were the RED IRON CAVES.
Since the beginning of time, the underground caves of the world provided us safe spaces for exploring our relationship to the Earth. In these underground caverns, our ancestors painted the walls with the stories of their kinship with the animals that fed them, the community that bound them together and how they fed their tribe. This is the history of humanity in all its historical rawness.