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Annie Rauwerda, a resident of Bushwick, Brooklyn, began making a perpetual stew in the first week of June. This not only led her to get millions of views and thousands of viewers, but it also got hundreds of hungry locals who were prepared to help her with and eat a portion of her marathon stew.
The history of the perpetual stew dates back to the Middle Ages when friends and family members continuously cooked a pot of thick soup. They kept it cooking as they added fresh ingredients on a weekly basis. It is a slow-cooking dish that is continuously refilled, heated, and made available to anyone who requests some.
The Bushwick, Brooklyn version of this stew is a vegan one that Annie has been serving to people every Tuesday since June 13.
Rauwerda keeps the stew running on a generator in the park and gradually adds ingredients from a communal pile. It has gone through several stages over the past month, beginning as a simple mixture of vegetable stock, potatoes, leeks, and spices.
Rauwerda also began posting about the stew on a website she created - the Stew Club website. She started the blog on June 7, 2023, and a few days later, on June 13, 2023, she posted that they were looking for someone named "Stew or Stu to be the guest of honor."
Annie has been updating the website since June 7 and it also has a number of reviews from people about the stew.
Annie Rauwerda has been preparing and serving perpetual stew for more than a month
According to the New York Times, Annie Rauwerda began cooking the stew on June 7 with her boyfriend and her friend and hasn't stopped since. Their initial gatherings, which Annie referred to as the "stew nights," were only held for their close friends. Annie would invite them to the Bushwick playground to have some of the perpetual stew.
However, as the stew's popularity grew, so did the lines in the Fermi Playground in Bushwick, every Tuesday. The stew has been around for 43 days and counting.
This tradition of creating the perpetual stew started on June 6 by Rauwerda and has been continuing ever since with no end date in sight. She serves a growing community on Tuesday nights at the playground. She also documents her journey on her TikTok account for people to see. Her account on TikTok, @depthsofwikipedia, has over 10M likes and 174K followers.
When she was asked by Fox 5 about the stew, Rauwerda said that the idea of a perpetual stew "was charming." She added that although it was a hot summer, she thought "Why not."
The idea of this stew is that if people keep adding stock and veggies to a boiling pot, the liquid would become flavorful and hearty while still being safe to consume. This specific stew is vegan with a distinctly 21st-century twist to accommodate a variety of diets.
Visitors to the event bring one ingredient to add to the bubbling pot. In order to maintain a balanced flavor, the event's organizer, Annie Rauwerda, presides over the pot and approves each addition. Annie even asked the visitors about their contribution, made a video of the entire thing, and uploaded it on her TikTok account.
When the news spread on social media, people started to arrive, and six weeks later, the stew is still popular and in high demand. Some even return each week to sample the fresh flavor.
Annie posted a video on TikTok on June 10, 2023, where she said that it was something she always wanted to do and was finally getting the chance to do it.
“It’s perpetual stew summer," she said.
For Rauwerda, the initial popularity of her perpetual stew and its viral success was overwhelming. She told TODAY that she found the concept itself and the idea of things continuing to be "pretty charming."
“I feel that lately, especially where people can find community when you’re in your 20s," she told the publication.
It was as high as 90 degrees outside on July 11, 2023, and despite that, nearly 100 people showed up to taste the stew. Pat Little, a newcomer, jokingly referred to himself as "brand stew." He said that he was there "for a fleeting chance at a medieval moment."
Guests spent hours together as they have conversations with each other over the perpetual stew. While some came with their friends, others showed up by themselves and formed bonds over bowls and cups of the stew.
It is worth noting that the next stew event will be held on August 6, 2023, at 7 pm ET as Annie is going on vacation. However, her website is currently updated with all the recent happenings of the perpetual stew.
