The Adventures of the Reese's Pieces Gang

Today we did a lot of planting in our garden. All of our beds are full of veggies or seeds now, YEAH! The kids helped me plant the snow peas, shelling peas, and 2 types of green beans. Then I planted broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, brussels sprouts, monnopa spinach, giant winter spinach, Romaine lettuce, buttercrunch lettuce, and black simpson lettuce. I will also try to plant more leeks this week for fall and winter use.

We spent the afternoon blanching and freezing 5 more quarts of beans (green, purple, white with purple speckles, and yellow) and 1 quart of broccoli. The purple and white with purple speckle beans were part of our weekly veggie share from our local CSA. What is a CSA you ask? It stands for Community Supported Agriculture. In many communities you are able to find a CSA where several farmers work together to provide chemical free or organic food to local consumers. The consumer pays a fee for a ½ or full share and receives a box or bag(s) full of food anywhere from once a week to once a month. I was so excited to find a CSA only 3 miles from our new house! It is run by a young couple who have a sweet little 2 yr old boy. They are currently the only farmer contributing to their CSA. They grow over 35 types of veggies and often more than one variety of each type of veggie. I was able to join their CSA even though 2 months are already gone for an adjusted rate. So far we have had the opportunity to try: candy cane beets, purple potatoes, red & yellow onions, leeks, fennel, basil, green zucchini, yellow summer squash, cucumbers, red leaf lettuce, green leaf lettuce, red potatoes, purple beans, white with purple speckle beans, green onions, and swiss chard! It is really fun going to pick up our bag of produce each week then coming home and unloading it with the kids. We also receive recipes! I'm so excited about being able to buy organic chemical free food that is VERY local, so FRESH, and very reasonably priced!!

This evening I decided to make creamy broccoli soup with another quart of broccoli that I didn't freeze. Often I'll add potatoes to the creamy broccoli soup since the recipe is actually a Potato soup recipe that I converted to a broccoli soup because the kids like the Potato soup so much. I decided not to use potatoes so was looking for another root veggie to add to the soup. I have so many lovely veggies in my fridge right now but beets are the only root veggies that I have in excess right now. I was hoping to disguise the beets in the soup so the kids wouldn't realize they were eating beets. I boiled them, deskinned , cubed and added them right at the end of the cooking time. As I stirred the soup it started to turn a very nice creamy shade of pink. :-) Each of the kids started to come in asking what was for dinner and I told them, “This soup is a gourmet variety only sold in the best restaurants, it is called, Valentine Soup! It tastes a lot like my potato soup but has a secret ingredient!” After our Bible and prayer time I served this lovely pink soup to the kids. We were all totally shocked to absolutely LOVE the soup!! The beets were VERY sweet and added a really nice flavor to the soup. Each bite was a bit different because sometimes you'd get a beet which was very sweet, others a bit of broccoli or some freshly cut celery, which was also very sweet. I went out and cut the celery right before making the soup and used all the beautiful green leaves in the soup. I have never tasted such a sweet full flavored celery as the celery cut from our garden. The kids and Phil just raved over the soup the entire meal!! I've been making a wide variety of “enthusiasm soups” lately because I want to use all the fresh veggies in a variety of ways: breakfast egg soufflés, soups, side dishes, grilled, etc. I was very thankful that my beet experiment ended a little better than another great chef who once tried liver in her enthusiasm soup.