My Vegetable Soup Recipe

By : Patrice Hall

My regular go-to website for cooking ingredients is Nuts.com, they have a wide selection of spices, nuts and organic foods.  I decided to try their organic harmony soup blend so I can use it with my CSA veggies for soups this fall.  The carrots and garlic really made this soup golden…

Ingredients

3 cups of Organic Harmony Soup blend (Nuts.com)

7 medium carrots

2 bulbs of garlic

3 Leeks

6 cups of water

2 tablespoons of dried basil

2 tablespoons of black lava salt (or Himalayan sea salt)

1 teaspoon of red pepper flakes

First, take the soup blend and boil it in the water for at least 10 minutes then let it sit for 1 hour.  Meanwhile peel the carrots and slice into 2 inch pieces.  Clean and cut the leeks into 2 inch pieces.  Peel and dice the garlic.  Add the carrots, leeks and garlic into the pot with the soup blend, along with the salt, basil and red pepper flakes.  Add enough water to the pot to cover the ingredients by 2 inches, then bring to a boil, then bring the pot down to a very low simmer to slow cook the soup for an hour.  After it is done, remove from the heat and serve. 

Picture from Nuts.com

A Tasty Way To Use Eggplant

By :Vaughan Myers-Jennings

In one of our most recent CSA vegetable hauls, we received eggplant, tomatoes, and garlic (amongst a host of other tasty veggies). While researching potential eggplant dishes, my wife and I came across an amazing Indian dish called Baingan Bhartha. Using all of the aforementioned 3 vegetables, it’s a dish that’s both healthy and delicious.

First, take 3 or 4 eggplants, place on a baking sheet, cover them in oil, poke holes in them using a fork, and broil them until blistered.

While that’s happening, cook down a combination of tomatoes, garlic, ginger, onion, and spices.

When the eggplants are done; peel them, mash them, and mix into your sauce. Yum!

For a more in-depth recipe, use this link:

http://chefinyou.com/recipe/baingan-bhartha

My First Canning Experience

By : Patrice Hall 

Hello all, this week I began my canning for the fall season, and I started with pears.  My family does not eat pears much, so they used to spoil in the refrigerator season after season.  I had 2 lbs and 10 ounces of pears from the delivery this week, a substantial amount to fill 4 each of the Ball pint size jars:

I peeled and cored the pears, then cut them into halves, in the meantime I made a simple light syrup with 5 ¾ cups of water with 1 ½ cup of organic sugar.  Then I took the pears and placed them in the syrup and brought the pot to a boil then simmered for 5 minutes.  The aroma of the pears in the syrup was heavenly, I wondered why I didn’t do this before!

Next, it was time to fill the jars, which I sterilized by boiling the jars, lids and rings.  I used the Ball canning kit (which was helpful😊) to fill the jars, wipe the rims and measure to make sure I left ½ inch space at the top before I placed the lids and rings on.  I placed the rubber Ball cushion in the pot and placed the jars inside.

Next, I made sure to fill the pot with water to ensure that the jars were covered with at least one inch of water, and I covered the pot with the lid and brought it to a boil and continued to boil for 25 minutes.

Time to remove the jars! Using the jar lifter, I removed each jar from the pot and placed them on towels which I placed on my countertop to ensure they won’t break on a hard, cold surface:

Next, it is time to wait for the jars to seal, which you will know by the popping sound from the lids, I was excited when I heard one pop within 5 minutes! I let them sit for 24 hours to allow them to seal and cool. After 24 hours all of the jars were properly sealed, and I tested them by removing the ring and gently tugging at the lids with my fingertips. All jars were sealed, cooled and ready to store in my cabinet. I was so proud of myself! Here is the picture of my finished product: