Solstice and Squash Soup (recipe!), Revisited #farming #recipe

For the balance of the year and the first week of January, 2018, I'm reprinting some popular posts dating back to 2013. Hope you enjoy again or for the first time.

December, 2014

Tortuga Thursday 

In 2012, on the plains of Northern Arizona, two families joined forces and began the trials and tribulations of building a small family farm with nothing in the bank but love.

Playing with ribbon can be tricky

Christmas Day. Of course I wrote this in advance since we’ll be in Phoenix at my mom’s celebrating the holiday with family. Most of us have multiple stops today. Frank and I don’t so we’ll hang out at Mom’s and visit as the rest of the family wanders in and out.

Four days ago, we had our Solstice celebration on the farm. It was

The Solstice Fire

even more meaningful, and certainly more fun, with nearly two-year-old Sadi. We didn’t get through the entire fire ceremony since by that time she was overwhelmed with all the day’s activities. No problem. The day had tired all of us.

Sadi's first roasted marshmallow

Part of our Solstice celebration is to have as much of the food we grow ourselves as possible. By December, the choices are fewer. So in addition to a great Irish lamb stew that Frank cooked, Christie made butternut squash (from our fields) soup. The recipe is below. It’s excellent!

Lance is getting some veggies growing in the greenhouse again after the

Still working on it

early hard freeze practically wiped us out. So far we have chard, onions, collard greens and the carrots are still hanging on. It’s not very pretty right now, but it’s a work in progress.

The crows disruption

The garlic has started sprouting, and the crows are a menace. Apparently, they have yanked some of the tiny sprouts from the ground. Whether they are doing it as they dive for bugs or purposely going for garlic, we aren’t totally sure, but two rows are a bit torn up. We invested in a bb/pellet gun. When they come around early morning, Lance pops one with a bb and it clears them out for that day.

We’ve moved the RV to our home away from farm in Tonto Basin. I’ll save that story until next week. I have some good tips if you want to retire on limited funds that you might find interesting.

Butternut Squash

Christie’s Butternut Squash Soup

(this fed four adults, one child, and we had leftovers-our butternut are large)

Ingredients:

Two large butternut squash, cut in half and seeds scooped out

½ large onion, diced

(note here: If you want to include some other veggies you may. Christie added a small amount of fresh spinach)

Rice milk (or any milk product you prefer) as needed for a soup consistency

5-6 slices of bacon, cooked crispy and crumbled

Spices to your taste:

Salt

Curry powder

Cinnamon

Black pepper

Bake squash at 400 degrees for one hour and fifteen minutes. Baste with butter occasionally. In a pan, cook the onion and any other veggie you might like in a couple of tbs of butter. Puree cooked butternut in a blender adding the milk of your choice to the consistency desired. Pour into a pan, add seasoning and bacon. Heat for at least ½ hour to blend the spices. Enjoy!

Some Santa's in the RV