Soup celebration

Marie Daphnie Pierre squeezes along the narrow aisles at Burton Meat Farm on Burton Street SW, poking through the shelves and bins an ocean away from her native Haiti. With the hands of a chef, she fills her arms with buttercup squash, plantains, beets, rutabagas and green onions, pigeon peas and Goya seasonings and spices.

Pierre, 30, who grew up in a large family in Petit Goave, a small city about two hours southwest of Port-au-Prince, assembles ingredients for one of the biggest Haitian holidays, Independence Day.

Celebrated on New Year's Day, every Haitian household -- like many families of Haitian descent living in the United States -- will savor pumpkin soup (though she makes hers with buttercup squash).

"Everybody would make this soup," Pierre says. "If people haven't had a good meal all year, they would still make this soup."

This celebratory soup is deeply rooted in Haitian culture and history, explains Pierre's husband, Mathieu, 37.

After the French colonized Haiti, the slaves were not allowed to enjoy soup on special occasions; it was a delicacy reserved only for French colonists. On Jan. 1, 1804, when Haiti celebrated its independence, a huge pot of pumpkin soup was served to symbolize their equality.

"This soup means freedom to us," says Mathieu Pierre, who left Pignon, a small town in the central plateau of Haiti, to attend Reformed Bible College in Grand Rapids in 1995. After graduating, he became the multi-cultural liaison at First Church of the Nazarene, now Grand Rapids International Fellowship, which has a sizable Haitian congregation. Now, he is pastor of Galilean Worship Center. He estimates the Grand Rapids area is home to about 300 Haitians, with a slightly higher number in the Lansing area.

When visiting friends and family, Haitians often share their version of the pumpkin soup.

"People expect you to serve this soup," Mathieu Pierre says. "And you must have it ready as early as possible because people want to come together. The kids expects gifts, the elders extend blessing and everyone gets dressed up, even if they walk from miles away."

Walking isn't just about getting to a destination. It also is symbolic, says Zeeland resident Phillip Snyder, who has lived off and on in Haiti for the past three decades doing mission work.

"It's a day of liberation to walk away from last year and into the new year," Snyder said.

The leader of the Zeeland-based mission GLOW Ministries International, Synder made headlines earlier this month when he was kidnapped with a young boy he was bringing to West Michigan for medical treatment. They were released less than 36 hours after an anonymous supporter paid $2,000 -- a pittance compared to the $300,000 ransom demanded earlier by the street gang.

Snyder attributes much of the crime in Haiti to the desperate living conditions. The country leads the Western Hemisphere in poverty and illiteracy.

He plans to return to the country next year. In the meantime, the father of nine will celebrate New Year's Eve with his wife, Amber, and their children here.

One tradition he'll miss, is spending the day meandering from house to house, visiting people.

"Haiti is true community. People don't hang out in their houses watching TV or eating. They are out on the street, hustling for life. It's really cool. That's what has my heart on fire for Haiti. The lifestyle is so simple, it's almost pure," Snyder said.

As a child, Pierre remembers her mother, Solange Fine, rising early on New Year's morning to prepare hot chocolate served with cassava flat bread. Before long, her mother assembled the pumpkin soup and dressed in her Sunday best to await visitors. Daphnie learned to cook by watching her mother who ran a road stand from their home.

"My mom would get up early, like 2 o'clock in the morning, and make enough food to feed anybody who walked by," recalls Daphnie Pierre who works at Lear Corporation. "By 7 a.m., the people would come, get a plate and pay money for it. I've been around good food my whole life."

Pierre enjoys emulating that tradition, teaching Haitian cooking classes at various churches in West Michigan. Haitian cooking is characterized by familiar Caribbean ingredients such as plantains, yucca, rice, beans and tropical fruits such as coconut, mangoes, pineapples and citrus. The Creole-inspired dishes are vibrant with garlic, green onion, parsley, thyme, lime and tomato paste. Pierre often demonstrates how to Creolize rice, peas, chicken, plantains and potato salad and a fried marinated pork dish called grillot. For information about her next class, contact CareForce International at (616) 365-0838, or doug@careforceinternational.org.

Good Haitian cooking tastes exactly like it smells, Mathieu Pierre says. "Have you ever smelled something good but when you tasted it, it didn't live up to that smell? Well, you get exactly what you smell when Daphnie cooks Haitian food. Oh yeah, it's good."

Reporter Shandra Martinez contributed to this report.