End-Of-Storage Soup

Blessings Darlings!

Tonight there is a late spring snowstorm happening in the north east US.  Trees, which have already pretty much leafed out, are losing branches and bringing down power lines. Nevertheless, I'm fully in Spring mode, and have started making batches of "let me clean out last years dried veggies' soup. 

Today's soup is a pretty typical one: dried tomatoes, wild onions, jalapenos, celery, zucchini, along with wheat berries, chickpeas and the plantain leaves I posted about on Monday, in chicken stock.  I'll make another pot in a few days, with eggplant in for the zucchini ... and maybe dock weed in place of the plantain.  This weekend I'll make a pizza and turn the dried tomatoes into pizza sauce.

Very soon I'll be getting lots of veggies from the garden and fruits and veggies from local farms - I'm going to need every inch of shelf space and every available jar for canning.  If I don't use the older yummy stuff, I won't have room for the NEW yummy stuff.

And I need to start experimenting with this recipe for coffee jelly I ran into on line.  I'm thinking about kicking it up with cinnamon and/or hot pepper.  And giving it out as Yule gifts.

It's NEVER too early to get started on Yule gift when you're a reconstructionist, since preparing gifts by hand takes longer than spending money on 'em.

Frondly, Fern

Dry Soup

Blessings, Darlings!

The other day I did a soup experiment.  Well, let me back up a little.....

Over the past few years I've dried a whole LOT of veggies. I have not USED most of those veggies.  Now that the food storage and I share the same office, I've heard them calling my name, asking to be used.

So I did.

Dried veggies aren't always the easiest things to re-hydrate.  Therefore I decided to make them into an experimental soup.  A quart of water.  Two bouillon cubes. A double handful of dried tomatoes - I chose the somewhat ... uh ... over-dried ones (some might call them burnt, the Chubby Hubby generously calls them 'smoke flavored'). A handful each of dried wild green onions, eggplant, carrots, potatoes. Cover.  Simmer for a few hours.  Add leftover cooked wheat berries and some just-cooked chickpeas.

It worked! The tomatoes even DID add a nice smoky flavor.

This food drying stuff might just be a good idea.

Frondly, Fern

Other vaguely connected links: Drying Pumpkins
                                                     Tomatoes