Practical gestures to uplift your friends, family, and community. Plus, a soup recipe you’ll want to save.

Despite every attempt at mindfulness – journaling, meditation, scripture, sitting in the sun, wherever you find a moment of peace – it seems like the final months of the year possess some novel power to accentuate the heights of our generosity and (inevitably) the depths of our selfishness.

Blame the surplus of sweets or festive cocktails, but it’s easy to lose sight of the big picture and become fixated on the proverbial blade of grass. This holiday season? Don’t take anything personally. Give without expecting something in return. And observe. Maybe you’ll find that the trivial, trite matters that once concerned you…no longer demand your attention.

Three Ways To Show You Care:

1. Make a cozy soup for your family. Bonus points: invite the neighbors over for dinner too. Recipe below!

2. Extend an invitation. Make plans to do something different with a friend you haven’t seen in a while. Ask them to join you at our weekly market, go for a walk, or grab a croissant at Niedlov’s or Bread & Butter.

3. Listen – Without judgment, without trying to solve someone else’s problem, without actively formulating a graceful response. Give the gift of your full attention.

What You Need:
One large onion, mild or hot Italian Sausage, potatoes, kale, heavy cream.
For this batch (6-8 servings), we visited Pig Mountain for 2 packs of Italian Sausage, grabbed an XL onion from Hernandez, lots of kale from Red Clay, potatoes from Ada’s Heritage Farm, and cream from Fall Creek Farms. If you can’t find cream this week, you can usually find some locally at Gaining Ground. Pro tip: substitute the sausage for Midway Mushrooms or just add mushrooms in addition to sausage.

Method:
In a large pot, saute sausage links until fully cooked, remove from pot, and set aside. In the same pot, saute onions until browned. While onions are cooking, slice sausages into small pieces. When onions are translucent, add garlic to pot and cook for another 2 minutes. Add water (or chicken stock), potatoes, thyme (or other seasonings like fennel) and sausages to pot. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer until potatoes are fully cooked, about 20-25 minutes. Add kale, cook until wilted (around 5 minutes), and add heavy cream to your preferred richness. Serve warm and enjoy!

All trees are Frasier firs from a small family farm in Tuckasegee, North Carolina. 100% of profits go to rebuilding Western North Carolina farms.

Go to our pre-order form, choose from 5-9 ft. options, and select a pick-up date.

To provide extra support, you may also choose to add a donation amount to your tree total upon checkout.

Pick up at the market located at Chestnut Street and 19th.