First harvest soup - Archives 2008

This morning I made some lovely harvest soup - carrots, turnip, potatoes and onions with a handful of barley and lentils thrown in to the pot too. It is delicious and all the more so knowing that the ingredients are as fresh as they could possibly be and home grown... *smug, smug, smug*



The potatoes came up at the beginning of the week and the good ones are now bagged up, still drying a little then we can store them away for the winter. Unfortunately lots of them were badly slug damaged, which is horrid. We had some in a potato salad at the weekend and as I was cutting out the bad bits I sliced right through a slug.

The red onions have been bagged up, a few of them I pleated into a string of onions, which look lovely, though I don't know where to leave them to store over the next few months. We don't really have anywhere cool and dry to hang them.

Turnips (English readers - swede, American readers - Rutabaga) are as nice as turnips can be - I am not a big fan but it is nice to have them for soups, stews and to go with haggis.

Carrot, oh carrots.... I can't even find the words to describe the beautiful long, slender bright carrots I pulled from the soil this morning, absolutely glorious, not a blemish, not a kink, just glorious beautiful fresh carrots. I also planted a globe variety this year and they are small, split, cracked and forked in every direction possible. I will need to double check the variety Nantes I think (with the bad ones being Paris Market)

I will need to pick and pickle the beetroot in the next day or 2, some of the beets have become very large... I'll need to see if I can find very large jars for them to go in

There is still lots in the ground waiting to grow - broccoli and leeks haven't been touched yet and a few butternut squash plants are growing though not looking fruitfull. However, these, along with or thriving herb garden should see us through winter with some fresh garden produce.

I have discovered that self-sufficiency is not a money thing (I doubt we can justify the lost wages purely for the sake of raising fruit and veg) but the general sense of achievement I got this morning when I pulled up those glorious carrots, then the second wave of achievement when eating the soup for lunch, It makes life better, and we can all do with a little bit of that now and then.

Thanks for reading ;o)