Why Swap Soup?

In the city of Spokane, December and January are typically cold, snowy and gray. We experience snowfall, then snow melt, snowfall, snow melt etc.
When the snow melts, the streets get slushy and grime sprays all over the vehicles until the color has dulled to a grayish-brownish shade of ??? This then transfers to anything it comes in contact with. Often that would be gloves, coat, pants, or shoes. This filth follows these items to their next destination which could be the seat of the car, the sofa in the house, office chair, or…I guess you get the picture.

By late January, Spokanites are ready for anything except numb fingers scraping ice off windshields, boots laden with snow tracking into freshly vacuumed carpet, and freezing gloomy days ending by 4pm. It’s time to add some spice into the winter routine!

In November, while looking for new soup recipes, I happened upon soupswap.com. What a great idea! What we don’t have one in Spokane? Well it’s about time we did. Little did I know that when I committed (in my own mind) to starting the 1st Annual Spokane Soup Swap, that in the near future we would have a December to Remember!

Thanks to the National Weather Service for providing me with these numbers:
Daily snowfall records in Spokane were broken on 5 days in December (the 17th, 18th, 22nd, 24th, and the 29th) and 1 in January (the 5th).
New 24-hour record of 19.4" on the 17th and 18th of December. Old record was 13.0" on January 6th/7th 1950.
The snowiest 2 consecutive days, 23.6" on the 17th/18th. Old record was 16.4" on January 6th/7th 1950.
The snowiest 3 consecutive days, 25.1" on the 17th-19th. Old record was 18.4" on January 1st-3rd, 1899.
Snowiest December ever. New record 61.5". Old record 42.7" in 1996.
Snowiest month ever. New record 61.5". Old record 56.9" in 1950.
The above 2 records are even more impressive when you consider that all of the snow fell in just 20 days.
With no melting periods, the entire snow fall of 77.8" at Spokane Airport from 12 December through 6 January was on the ground (and roofs) at one time.
Spokane averages only 4 calendar days each winter of 3" of snow or more. This winter so far saw 9 such events. Six winters have seen 10 or 11 such days, but this was over an entire winter, not just 20 days.

So much for the typical snowfall, snow melt! I spent most of December shoveling snow and spending time with my mother who fell and broke her arm on the 14th. Where did December go? With schools out 2 days in December, and 3 the first week of January, at least I had help with the shoveling.

As you can see, we in the city of Spokane have lots of Soup eating days ahead of us. What a delight to pull out of my freezer a soup I typically would not make. What a treat! A meal I don’t have to cook. I would rather have variety than eating my soup leftovers for 4 days straight. Others' cooking always tastes so wonderful, doesn't it? I was totally convinced I could not pass up the opportunity to host the 1st Annual Spokane Soup Swap and place Spokane on the map on the soupswap.com website!

By the time I took a breath it was Friday, January 9, 2009! The kids were in school after an incredibly snowbound, icy week.
Oh, when was that Soup Swap supposed to be????
I went back to the bookmarked site to discover The National Soup Swap Day was in 2 weeks, January 24th! As I read the How To section, I discovered that I should give people 2 weekends notice so they can cook the soup. January 27th would be the date! As soon as I decided that, I adapted the suggestions on soupswap.com to create an invitation, and emailed it to numerous friends.