Autumnal Harvest Soup

I love Autumn, not only do I get to break out my sweaters, but it's also the best time to make soup. Not just because the weather gets a little chilly, but also because there are so many fantastic things available at the farmer's market that make for good soup. Also this year I am once again participating in the Juniper Hill Farms CSA. They are fantastic, they deliver to my worksite, which is awesome, but I can also customize my picks from week to week. Earlier this summer, I was able to get a canning package of beets from them, and now I have canned beets sitting in my cabinet, just marinating in goodness, waiting to be eaten!

But I digress. Autumn is soup weather, and one of my favorite "recipes" is something I call Autumnal Harvest Soup. It changes slightly from year to year, but the point is that it clears out what I need to use up, and makes one heck of a tasty soup. I also notice I tend to make it around the time of the Autumnal Equinox. So here's this year's recipe, all the ingredients were purchased at either the farmer's market, or received from my CSA:

2 leeks (white parts online, sliced really thin)
3 carrots (peeled and sliced)
1 butternut squash (peeled, seeded, and cubed)
4 cloves of garlic (chopped)
2 medium apples (peeled, cored, and cubed)
4 potatoes (peeled, cubed)
2 quarts of stock (I used vegetable, but I've also used chicken)

Basically toss all of the ingredients in a slow cooker, turn it on high and then walk away for a few hours. Anywhere from 4-6 hours. Then take your immersion blender and blend it all up. Or carefully put small batched in a blender and blend until the soup has an even pureed consistency. Then grab some bread, or make yourself a grilled cheese like I did, and ENJOY!

It has been too long my friends!

There is a lot of news, and a lot of stuff has been in the works. I can't believe how long it has been since I have posted on here. I really regret such a long absence. On the upside, I have some wonderful topics to blog about coming up, as I have been up to some interesting things (fermenting, canning, experiments galore!). However, first I'll have to take a minute to talk about why I've been gone over a year.

Well to begin with, I'm a single mom, and that doesn't give me a lot of time to do anything, and I work and have recently also returned to college. So that's a lot of work in itself. One of the most exciting things is that I am now enrolled in an online certification program for Permaculture Design, so expect some wonderful things to be going on with that soon. But on top of that, I've moved back into town, and have had a few life upsets. Although not all of them have been negative, I'm no longer working overnights, and that has been immensely positive not only for my health, but also for my life in general. However, on the flipside of that, since I am now sleeping on a regular schedule again, I am also getting 6-8 hours a night, and that's cutting into my free time. I was seriously skipping sleep, and getting about 2-4 hours here and there every day, it was a really unhealthy cycle.

Also, and not to bum everyone out, but a few days after I posted my last post, a very dear member of my family passed away somewhat unexpectedly, and it was really difficult to deal with. It still is sometimes, but that kind of killed my energy level, and I began just focusing on the day to day. It's taken me a while to get back into my hobbies (and we also throw winter, and a ton of other random life events in there), and really generate anything I thought was interesting enough to post, but I am back, I am ready to share, and I may even throw in some crochet stuff here and there.

So I'm back, and I am excited to get back on this blog! If there are things you want to see let me know and I will do my best to accommodate!