The sun streams down through the rows of berry bushes, revealing glistening berries and intermingling with giggles as bigger and bigger patches of blackberries are found. Hands dart in, avoiding the prickly branches and beetles munching on the leaves. “How many containers have you filled? I have already gotten two!” my sister Zoe calls from further down the row, always wanting a competition. Wet grass clings to our feet as we happily search for the hidden berries inside the tangled mess of vines, popping a few in our mouths when the other isn’t looking. After cartons, and bellies (shh!), are full, we run inside to begin our project. A few raspberries at the farm! A crumble is a perfect treat to end a hot summer day. Juicy, crisp, and too sweet, it can be garnished with a scoop of cold, creamy vanilla ice cream or eaten plain. Though I love a good crumble in the winter, curled up on a couch in front of the fire with a book (click here to read my blog post about a delicious winter treat!), no one can beat a delicious summer crumble. A crumble tastes of humid summer days, a cool crisp breeze, a running stream. With one bite it pulls me away to previous happy summers, while making me feel content and lucky where I am. What reminds you of summer? Please, please, please leave a comment below! My family’s favorite crumble recipes are from Smitten Kitchen and Martha Stewart, but in my opinion, nothing is better than my sister’s summer crumble (inspired by these two recipes) that she whips together to create the perfect summer night. The beauty of a crumble is that it is very forgiving. It can contain any kind of fruit that you can dream of (my favorites are blackberries, blueberries, and peaches), with just a thickener (flour or cornstarch), a little bit of sugar (not too much!), and a topping of flour, sugar, salt, and butter. A crumble is like tie dying, any way it is created it will look beautiful. If you make this recipe, take a picture and send it to me! Ohh, those summer days. Although Zoe can make any recipe overly delicious, with this recipe the rest of us can at least can be assured that we can make a pretty good summer crumble. Here is Zoe’s recipe and happy baking: Zoe’s Summer Crumble (Inspired by Martha Stewart’s Peach Crumble) Yield: 12 small servings Time: 30 minutes Ingredients: Filling 7 cups of any fruit (I just made mine with blueberries and sour cherries–you can use frozen or fresh fruit) 6 teaspoons cornstarch or 4 tablespoons flour A scant 1/2 a cup sugar (or as little as 1/4 a cup, depending on how sweet your fruit is) A splash of lemon juice (it is okay if you don’t have this–I often leave it out) Heaping 1/2 teaspoon of salt Topping 5 tablespoons unsalted butter Scant 1/4 a cup brown sugar or 1/4 cup granulated sugar mixed with 1 teaspoon molasses 1 cup all-purpose flour 1/2 teaspoon salt Directions Preheat the oven to 375 degrees For the filling: In a bowl, gently (so that you don’t mash the fruit) mix all the ingredients for the filling, flour/cornstarch, sugar, fruit, lemon juice, and salt. Pour fruit mixture into a 12″ by 8″ baking dish. For the topping: Cream the butter and brown sugar in an electric mixer for about two minutes at medium to high speed. Add salt and flour in a few batches. Mix until the dough starts to form a ball. Crumble the topping into little pieces over the fruit mixture. Bake for 40-50 minutes—if it looks like it is browning too quickly on top, cover with aluminum foil. It’s done when the fruit is bubbling and the topping has some color. A heaping 1/2 teaspoon of salt! Pouring the flour and salt into the fruit. Berries galore!!! Preheated to 375 degrees. Ready to bake… Putting it into the oven! Finished crumble! SaveSave
Stone Soup Magazine for young readers, writers, and artists
Front Desk, Reviewed by Nina Vigil, 11
Immigration, poverty and racism are all really important topics in the news lately. Last month, I read a fantastic new book in which all three of those topics are central themes. What is this book I’m talking about? Front Desk by Kelly Yang! The main character in the story is Mia Tang, a ten-year-old girl who has recently immigrated with her parents from China. Her parents are now working at the Calivista Motel while Mia runs the front desk. Sounds easy and fun, right? It’s not. Mia’s family is really poor, and the motel’s Scrooge of an owner, Mr. Yao, pays them very little. And on top of all that, Mia’s family is hiding Chinese immigrants in the motel, and if the owner discovers their secret, they’re going to be in serious trouble. But there’s hope! Mia finds out about an essay contest. If she wins, the people holding the contest will grant her family ownership of their motel in Vermont. She does have a few issues with writing in English, but she hopes that she can fix that. Although, there’s just one problem…it costs $300 to enter the contest. And how is Mia going to scrape together enough money to pay for it? The problem of making friends in her new country is resolved quickly-Mia meets another immigrant girl, Lupe, and they become best friends. But over the course of the book, many more complications pop up in Mia’s life: a stolen car, a pencil theft, money worries, their friend Hank’s difficulties (Hank lives at the Calivista – he’s one of the “weeklies”), bullying, and more. Mia tries to help solve many of those problems by writing letters-helping Hank find a job, for instance, or writing a letter to store owners in town about a racist list of “bad” customers going around-even though she is still having issues with English. Want to know something fascinating? Front Desk is semi-autobiographical! Kelly Yang actually immigrated from China and lived a lot like Mia-running a motel with a horrid owner. A lot of what happens to Mia in the story happened to Kelly Yang. Front Desk is an inspiring, uplifting story that is impossible to put down. All the difficulties Mia confronts and how she looks for solutions until she finds one teaches us to persevere. The fact that much of the story is nonfiction, and that despite all the hardships the author faced, she went to a good college and became a writer reminds us how much immigrants contribute to this country. Front Desk by Kelly Yang. Arthur A. Levine Books, 2018. Buy the book here and support Stone Soup in the process! Have you read this book? Or do you plan on reading it? Let us know in the comments below!
Hidden in Plain Sight
A graphic novel approach to a current issue, a collaboration between two friends. Click through to read the complete comic strip Hidden in Plain Sight (1) Hidden in Plain Sight (2) Hidden in Plain Sight (3) Hidden in Plain Sight (4) Hidden in Plain Sight (5) Transcript Page 1: Hidden in Plain Sight Written by: Maia Hodgin & Illustrated by: Juna Hume-Clark What is Racism? “First of all, when you ask someone what racism is, they are probably going to say something like ‘racism is one person being mean or cruel to a POC.*'” *Person of Color Page 2: When actually those are just the most obvious forms of racism. Most people can only agree that this type of racism is not right. But – let’s think of that type of racism as overt – obvious – the tip of the iceberg. “But ignoring your problems won’t help either.” “Eh, not true, I ignored all 7 of these bees around me and all of them died after stinging me!” Some examples of overt racism are: racial slurs, swastikas, KKK, Neo-Nazis But covert – not obvious racism – is at the bottom of the iceberg; “I don’t see color,” “Make America Great Again,” Euro-Centric School curriculum, Denial of White Privilege These kinds of racism are everywhere, like the other day at school… Page 3: Har, har, har, snort, hee, hee Why can’t they just shut up? “Young men, do I have to call your parents, or will you be quiet?!?” “No, miss.” What is that about? Why did the teacher reprimand them instead of the ones making all the noise? Should I say something? “Uh, Maia?” I thought that the teacher reprimanded these two students of color because she expected them to be noisy even when they weren’t. Page 4: … And it is so important to call out, but I didn’t, and I really wish I did. Here is some of the possible answers if I had said something: The Positive way: Teacher: “Thank you for pointing that out, I will work on my snap judgements.” The Negative way: Teacher: “No, of course not! I don’t see color! They were just louder.” (Here she is denying that she has an unconscious bias) Page 5: “To sum it all up, race isn’t the problem, racism is. And the reason it’s still around is because well-meaning white people contribute to it thinking they are doing the right thing or not doing anything at all.” “An example is voting for our current president, lots of well-meaning white people did it, and they may never in their life physically hurt a person of color, but voting for him means that they are okay with other people doing it.” An example: The Washington Redskins logo* *We will not reproduce this racist image Thank you for reading this comic and we hope you think about these concepts. About the illustrator: Juna H-C : Going into 8th grade, Juna Hume Clark, age 12, is a passionate artist and activist.
