“I remember writing a journal entry when the account reached a few hundred followers,” she tells me. Most of the people in attendance know Rauwerda as the creator behind Depths of Wikipedia, a Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok account where she surfaces obscure and absurd Wikipedia entries, such as umarell, the Bolognese word for retired Italian men who spend their time gazing at construction sites, and Long Boi, a “renowned, exceptionally tall male duck.” She started the account during the early days of the pandemic when she was a sophomore studying neuroscience at the University of Michigan. But, as Rauwerda eventually tells me, “It’s not really about the stew.” By the time I tried some, it’s mostly cumin-y water, slightly raw onions, and beans. Over the course of the past month, the Crock-Pot has undergone various phases, starting off as a humble mix of vegetable stock, potatoes, leeks, and spices. In the park, she keeps the stew hooked to a generator, gradually adding in ingredients from a communal pile. Rauwerda is not a stew-maker by trade, but she has taken on the project of organizing weekly stew meet-ups for the next few months - or as long as people keep showing up. The stew thing is Perpetual Stew: a slow cooker that is endlessly replenished, kept over heat, and offered to anybody who wants some.
“This is the stew thing!” says a beaming Annie Rauwerda, the woman behind the pot. “Is this the stew thing?” asks one timid man standing by the monkey bars, potato in hand. The one requirement, per the invitation, is that each person contribute an ingredient to the pot, so, tonight, those in search of stew come bearing loose produce or bags of legumes. The flyers posted around the neighborhood don’t offer much by way of explanation - “Join a bunch of strangers for stew” - but the mystery (and the promise of free food) has proved alluring. The sun is just beginning to set on a warm summer evening in Bushwick, and Fermi Playground is alive with the sounds of children, the occasional ice-cream truck, and dozens of people waiting for some stew. Annie Rauwerda began hosting stew parties earlier this summer.
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