Hi everyone! It's been quite some time since my last update, life could not be busier around here (as well as for most folks out there). It's the holidays so there are people to see and places to go, it's also been a busy time at work and I've been doing a lot of planning for the growing season next year already. I'm really looking forward to putting all of my energy into managing the SEEDS Farm come January 1st, at this point I will unfortunately be resigning my position at the co-op but live only a block away so am sure to be there a lot still! I'll also still be serving on the Board so I'm excited about that, oh and teaching classes. I'm very happy to report that starting next year I will be teaching the "Introduction to Natural Foods" class for new employees at the co-op which I'm looking forward to, I've put a lot of time into planning for this already, it's going to be a 5 hour class taught over two sessions so there's a lot of planning (but, oh so much fun:).
The sad sad news to bring up is that Dan and I had to put poor Daisy down. She was almost 12 years old and we discovered that she had a tumor in her abdomen and had cancer. She reached a point where she wasn't eating anymore, drinking like a horse, and could barely walk:( We knew it was time, she gave us the doggie sign that her time had come. On a nice note, her veterinarian is in town and he was willing to come over to our house, so she was comfy on lots of blankets and pillows and we were with her. She is missed dearly but we're doing alright around here. I love this picture of her, she was happiest on the farm hanging out with our chickens:
The sad sad news to bring up is that Dan and I had to put poor Daisy down. She was almost 12 years old and we discovered that she had a tumor in her abdomen and had cancer. She reached a point where she wasn't eating anymore, drinking like a horse, and could barely walk:( We knew it was time, she gave us the doggie sign that her time had come. On a nice note, her veterinarian is in town and he was willing to come over to our house, so she was comfy on lots of blankets and pillows and we were with her. She is missed dearly but we're doing alright around here. I love this picture of her, she was happiest on the farm hanging out with our chickens:
We're still doing a lot of cooking around the house, last week I took home a HUGE butternut squash from the co-op that no one was going to buy (it was just to darn big!). I'm guessing it was at least 20 pounds. So, I made some butternut squash soup, of course. Most of it went into the freezer for later eating and some has been consumed daily for the last several days. I made a very basic soup so after I defrost it I can add more flavorings later on, so here's the recipe in it's approximate most-basic form:
BUTTERNUT SQUASH SOUP
-Pat of butter
-Carrots, sliced
-Celery, sliced
-Onion, chopped
-Butternut squash, skin and seeds removed and cut into 1" cubes
-Stock
-Salt and Pepper
1) Melt butter in pot over medium heat and then add chopped carrots, celery and onion. Cook approx 10 minutes until everything is fragrant and onions are carmelized.
2) Put cubed butternut squash on a cookie sheet and bake at 400 degrees for 30 minutes.
3) After veggies are fragrant add about a pint of chicken stock and salt and pepper. Brink to a boil and then down to a simmer. Allow to simmer for 20 minutes while squash cooks (this will soften the carrots).
4) Once squash is cooks it will be nice and tender. Add this to the soup mixture and stir.
5) If you have an immersion blender, blend the soup and you're done! If not then remove pot from heat and ladel soup into a blender, blend until combined, and pour finished soup in a seperate pot (you will have to do this several times).
**You can more to the soup to jazz it up such as cream, dried herbs, cumin, curry, etc.
BUTTERNUT SQUASH SOUP
-Pat of butter
-Carrots, sliced
-Celery, sliced
-Onion, chopped
-Butternut squash, skin and seeds removed and cut into 1" cubes
-Stock
-Salt and Pepper
1) Melt butter in pot over medium heat and then add chopped carrots, celery and onion. Cook approx 10 minutes until everything is fragrant and onions are carmelized.
2) Put cubed butternut squash on a cookie sheet and bake at 400 degrees for 30 minutes.
3) After veggies are fragrant add about a pint of chicken stock and salt and pepper. Brink to a boil and then down to a simmer. Allow to simmer for 20 minutes while squash cooks (this will soften the carrots).
4) Once squash is cooks it will be nice and tender. Add this to the soup mixture and stir.
5) If you have an immersion blender, blend the soup and you're done! If not then remove pot from heat and ladel soup into a blender, blend until combined, and pour finished soup in a seperate pot (you will have to do this several times).
**You can more to the soup to jazz it up such as cream, dried herbs, cumin, curry, etc.