In which the garden is the ultimate source of soup ingredients
Today, we cleaned out the garden in preparation for winter.
This was an extremely productive year for squashes....
Foxie Loxie stands on the largest pumpkin. |
We call these the bi-colored python rock snakes, and they all grew from a single plant that sprouted in the middle of the carrot bed. Alas, these squashes don't taste good except to chickens and dogs. |
Apparently, it's Decorative Gourd Season. Who knew? |
The butternut squashes are the tastiest, and this year we had an awesome crop.
25-gallon Rubbermaid box of squashes. |
The largest butternut squash, shown beside a 14-pound Shetland Sheepdog for size comparison |
Speaking of soup ingredients
The dogs are not delicious in soup. But the beans are! |
The beans will spend time air-drying, and then we'll put them in jars so they will be handy to throw into soups this winter.
Sadly, the beans don't keep the beautiful color through the soup--making process. But they taste great! |
Farming is not for the weak. |
I will deliver a couple of these to friends and neighbors,
Santa Jim sez these punks will NOT fit in your stocking! |
The biggest pumpkin took four people to move up the hill |
and the rest will decorate our yard
wrasslin' the big pumpkins into place |
Awesomest FB profile photo for Decorative Gourd Season |
Annual picture of the kids |
Yay, pumpkins! |
our pumpkins get turned into
Roo, Foxie and Luna are more photogenic than usual when surrounded by these beautiful pumpkins! |
BEST GARDEN SOUP recipe
A butternut squash peeled and cubed. Save seeds!A chunk of pumpkin half the size of the butternut, also peeled and cubed.
Some corn.
Beans, soaked, if you like chunky unpureed soup. If you like smooth soup, leave out the beans.
A couple tomatoes, if you have them. Fresh tomatoes are best.
A carrot or two if there are some handy.
Some half-and-half.
* Roast the cubed butternut and pumpkin for about 20 minutes on a cookie sheet in the oven at 350 degrees. Then dump the cubes into your soup pot and add some water.
* While the oven is still hot, toast a few handfuls of squash seeds on the cookie sheet for 10 minutes or until they get crunchy. If they turn black and catch fire, they're too done. Don't try to use the burnt ones. Allow the toasted, unburned seeds to cool, then chop them up for a garnish.
* Add corn. Corn makes the soup sweet--if you like sweet soup, add a lot. Otherwise, just a handful.
* Add soaked beans if you intend to serve chunky soup. If you are going to puree the soup, leave out the beans.
* Tomatoes brighten the flavor. Add as many as you have.
* Carrots add good body and bright color. Chunk them up small and toss them in if you have some.
* Warm the ingredients over medium heat. Before the soup starts to boil, reduce the heat and simmer for a while.
* Puree if you like smooth soup, don't puree if you like chunky soup.
* Add the half-and-half right before serving. Don't use fat-free half-and-half, that stuff is disgusting.
* Sprinkle with chopped toasted squash seeds to impress guests and make people think you really know what you're doing.
Serve with fresh bread to people you like.
I still have two of your soup recipes in my box, the butternut squash being one of them.
ReplyDeleteThis year I got FOUR zucchinis - that's 4 times as much as every other year here. I was soooo happy! And, I got enough purple beans for the side dishes for about 4 or 5 dinners. (And one day I got a rash on my arms from the leaves, wth!) I never hulled the beans though, I just chopped them up completely for soups or frying. I got 3 tomatoes total (from 4 plants) but they didn't taste good.
At my gardening success rate here, it's almost not worth the effort. Especially given that the government has strict controls on food prices, and groceries are cheaper than the dirt I buy to try to grow food in. In fact I must do a post on our food prices. We don't have selection, we don't have all those wonderful things I miss from home, but the basics are cheap. Then again, you can't buy bulk, so maybe it just seems cheap?
Why are you BUYING DRT when you have perfectly good horse/donkey compost available?!?!
Delete*dirt
DeleteWhat about people you don't like?
ReplyDeleteThose people get zucchini in their cars. Or some of those pretty, tasteless squashes!
DeleteThis is my style of recipe! :)
ReplyDelete