Digger's Cabbage Soup 1968

When I was a student in Madison, Wisconsin, in the late sixties and eartly seventies, I lived in a house with some friends and a few other people we found through a bulletin board at school, to help with the rent.  We shared shopping and cooking, and ate dinner together most nights. Over the sink in the kitchen was a list of who was going to cook each night, and who would do all those dishes.

Sometimes people did not do their jobs, and then there would be a bit of sniping . Once, someone bought some food which was private property, and wrote her name on her cantalopes, before she put them in the fridge. But mostly we ate together and talked, and it was often pretty nice. This was where I learned to cook.

My mother was an excellent cook, but she liked to be left alone while cooking. She was very tidy and organized.  The kitchen was her domain, and she was only happy with total control there. When I went off to school, she and my father wisely gave me the then current edition of the Joy of Cooking, and Craig Claibourne's New York Times Cookbook, both of which I eventually wore out and had to replace. In the house in Madison, we mostly tried to make things that were filling and very, very cheap.

There were 6 of us in the house at school, and we had various guests from time to time, so I really learned to cook for a crowd, first off.   Later, for awhile, my husband and I shared a house and kitchen with 4 other people, too.  So when we moved into our own place, and then became a family of 3, I had to learn to scale down. Bill died in 1987, and my daughter eventually grew up, moving on to kitchens of her own.  I then discovered the luxurious side to cooking for one- only what you want, and when you want it.   I still like to cook big though, so I often have friends and family to dinner.

The very biggest recipe we made in Madison, for sheer size, was Digger's Soup.  Our mimeograped recipe for this cabbage soup came from the Diggers, a group who lived in the Haight and fed people for free in Golden Gate Park. The Diggers derived their name from a 17th century English group who took it upon themselves to dig and plant in the public lands and distribute food to the poor.

We made only a fraction of the immense recipe for our Madison household.  I still make this tasty, elemental soup in largish quantities, and take it to work for lunch.  I n days gone by , I fixed it, with some extra effort, over a campfire on a couple of occasions. I can tell you that if you can keep a strong fire going for about an hour, you can do it.  I confine myself to the stovetop these days. (BTW, we were not the pictured cooks, who are some folks at Woodstock, I think. I have added them for general atmosphere, as I have no pictures of us cooking back then.)

a large whole cabbage, chopped

a thin pork chop, cut up, with bone

3-4 potatos, washed and cubed

3-4 carrots, cut up

3-4 onions, peeled and chopped up

A very large can of plain tomato sauce

A generous handful of oatmeal

salt and pepper

dried oregano or marjoram

The original recipe directed the cook to "burn the pork chop in a big pot." This added a feeling of boldness to the proceedings. I content myself with browning these scraps very deeply, in a bit of oil. Then, you add everything else, fill the pot with water and cook for an hour. The oatmeal is a thickening agent. It is extremely important to use plenty of pepper. I kid you not when I say this is really good.

You can eat your soup for a hearty lunch, or a light supper, with some crusty bread, or you can "dish it up and eat it with a spoon, sitting on a poncho in the dark." as per Gary Snyder's "How to Make Stew in the Pincate Dessert: Recipe for Locke and Drum." This soup does not differ from that stew so very much- except of course, with respect to literary merit .

It would be great if you could finish your meal with some "Guerilla Cookies," which were sold back then at the Mifflin Street co-op. They were very large cookies, full of good things like raisins,nuts and coconut, in what I believe was probably basically an oatmeal cookie. I never knew how to make them though, as they were a "secret" recipe. Addendum: I have just looked more closely at the photo I added. I believe these folks are tie-dying, rather than cooking. Either that, or the one girl has a startling lack of concern about the white stuff (mashed potatoes?) going up her arm. You may think we were all too out of it back then to know the difference between cooking and decorating our t-shirts. This was definitely not the case.

Comments

[Annie]

I vote for tie-dying - the one on the right does have white stuff going down her arm but the one on the left has a completely white hand or is wearing a glove - not sure - maybe that hand doesn't even belong to her - could belong to the middle girl. Your Digger's Cabbage Soup is appealing - perhaps more as a winter dish - and probably very economical to make. Have you kept in touch with any of your roommates from your schooldays in Wisconsin??

[Lindy]

I always forget that most other people do not eat hot soup in 90 degree weather.

Actually, I just saw one of my friends who lived in the Madison house. Probably it was seeing her that brought the Digger soup to mind. She was in Pittsburgh for a family wedding last weekend. But she was also a close friend from high school days and from our old neighborhood-we wound up at Wisconsin at the same time.

[Robin]

I love this recipe. thanks for your blog!
I live in Madison and long for another taste of a Guerilla Cookie!
I tried to imitate the cookie recently but failed.
I will keep trying though!