Caterpillar Tunnels

Our caterpillar tunnels are up! One is protecting two beds of mizuna, which we hope to harvest in February, and the other is empty, to be seeded with carrots early next year.

Week 20!

The last week of the CSA pickup has arrived! It certainly felt like the end of the gardening season on Thursday when we were surprised by three inches of snow accumulation! We've been grateful for the warmer, sunnier weather the past few days, and the snowfall on Thursday was a good reminder that there is only a little time to get everything done in the garden before winter arrives. One of the big jobs that we just accomplished is planting our garlic seed for next season. Remember the garlic scapes from your shares earlier in the season? We harvested all the garlic bulbs in July and saved them to replant a much larger garlic patch for next summer. We seeded our garlic in raised beds and covered it with a thick layer of hay mulch. In total we planted about 100 pounds of garlic!



The other exciting project underway is the construction of two simple, portable greenhouses called caterpillar tunnels to extend the growing season. We were introduced to these structures by our friends Liz and Matthew at Muddy Fingers Farm when we visited a few weeks ago. In one of these we'll try growing mizuna, one of the more cold-tolerant greens, through the winter. We expect it will be ready to harvest in early March, and we can then seed an early planting of carrots in the same bed. In this picture Kara is pounding in the stakes for the caterpillar tunnel in the pathways next to the mizuna bed.



As for this week's share, you'll receive spinach/mizuna/arugula, winter squash, carrots, parsnips, cabbage, onions, and (better late than never) broccoli! Thank you all for your support this season. We simply would not have been able to make this happen if we didn't have the commitment of so many CSA members throughout the whole season. Thank you!

French Onion Soup
(This recipe is GREAT for the cold weather, and wonderful because some of you have said we have given out lots of onions.)

6 large red or yellow onions, peeled and thinly sliced.
Olive oil
dash of maple syrup
2 cloves garlic, minced
8 cups of beef stock, chicken stock, veggie stock*, or a combination (traditionally the soup is made with beef stock)
1/2 cup of dry vermouth or dry white wine
1 bay leaf
1/4 teaspoon of dry thyme
Salt and pepper
8 slices of toasted French bread
1 1/2 cups of grated Swiss Gruyere with a little grated Parmesan cheese (or your favorite cheese)


1 In a large saucepan, sauté the onions in the olive oil on medium high heat until well browned, but not burned, about 30-40 minutes (or longer). Add the maple syrup about 10 minutes into the process to help with the carmelization. (If you have a slow cooker, my favorite way to make onion soup is to throw the onions, olive oil, and white wine in the slow cooker the morning of or night before I want to eat the soup. Then that evening I will continue with the recipe.)

2 Add garlic and sauté for 1 minute. Add the stock, vermouth or wine, bay leaf, and thyme. Cover partially and simmer until the flavors are well blended, about 30 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Discard the bay leaf.

3 To serve you can either use individual oven-proof soup bowls or one large casserole dish. Ladle the soup into the bowls or casserole dish. Cover with the toast and sprinkle with cheese. Put into the broiler for 10 minutes at 350 degrees F, or until the cheese bubbles and is slightly browned. Serve immediately.

Serves 4-6.

*You can make your own veggie stock by collecting all the veggie pieces you cut off during the week (carrot ends, onion skins, celery leaves, actually ANYTHING) and storing them in a bag in your freezer. Then when you have enough accumulated, you can boil all them in water for awhile, and then strain your broth!


Want to make your own bread for this recipe?

24 hour No Knead Bread
(Many of you have asked for this recipe after coming to a work day, finally we add it to the blog. This has a fabulous crust, and we recommend at least making a double loaf, because somehow, it always comes out so good, there is never enough of it.)

3 cups flour
1 5/8 cup water
1/4 tsp yeast
1 1/4 tsp salt

Mix the flour yeast and salt together. Mix in the water. The dough will be very watery. Cover and keep in a warm spot for 12- 24 hours. After 12-24 hours, preheat the oven to 400 degrees, lightly oil a cast iron pan, or ceramic cooking dish (or I am sure a glass pan would suffice) and put the cast iron pan in to heat up for a few minutes. Scrape the wet dough into the preheated pan, cover (perhaps with a large oven safe bowl over the dish so the bread has room to rise), and put in the oven for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, remove the cover, and let it continue to cook for another 30-35 minutes. That's all!

*Options: Substitute some beer in place of water. Substitute 1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese in place of 1/2 cup flour. Add caraway seeds. Add rosemary and garlic when you mix up the dry ingredients. Sprinkle sesame seeds in the pan before the bread goes in and sprinkle them on top of the loaf. Try any of these options together or alone!

Week 19

Yowzer Wowzer! It's already week 19! This week's share contains a small but special surprise for the end of the season: sweet potatoes! We opted to try growing some sweet potatoes this summer and we just dug up the tubers. They're a heat loving crop that's better adapted to more southerly climates, so we didn't get a huge yield, but we still managed to grow enough to send some home with the shares. Our favorite way to enjoy them is (take a guess...) sweet potato fries!! Give it a shot or try out your own favorite sweet potato dish.

We just had our first hard frost of the season last night that knocked out the tender crops still left in the garden: our basil looks quite sad. Although it's common to associate frost with the end of the growing season, there are many cold-hardy vegetables that can survive below freezing temperatures. In fact, all the rest of the items in this week's share--carrots, parsnips, rutabaga, spinach, pac choi, and brussels sprouts are all frost hardy and are still growing in the garden. Some folks say that brussels sprouts become sweeter after a frost.



Another frost hardy vegetable is broccoli, which is ever so slowly poking along towards maturity. As the days get shorter into the autumn there's fewer and fewer hours of sunlight, which means that plant growth slows down significantly from the long summer days. We started our broccoli plants back in early July, but they're still not quite ready to harvest. We hope that they'll be mature for the final week of pickup. Next year we'll be sure to get our fall broccoli seeded sooner!




Root Vegetable Gratin
1 T butter
3 cloves garlic
3 cups heavy cream (1/2 milk, ½ cream optional)
Salt and pepper to taste
¼ tsp nutmeg
1lb parsnips
1 lb sweet potatoes
1 lb rutabaga
8 oz sharp cheese, grated
1 tsp thyme
3 T minced fresh parsley

Preheat oven to 400 and butter a 3 quart baking dish. Make cream sauce: In a medium saucepan, melt the butter and sauté the garlic for a minute. Add cream, salt, pepper, and nutmeg. Heat just until bubbles form around the edges of the pan, 5 minutes. Remove from heat stir in the herbs and let stand for 10 minutes. Thinly slice vegetables. Assemble gratin: Arrange a layer of half of the vegetables: parsnips, then sweet potatoes, then rutbaga. Sprinkle with half the cheese and pour over half of the cream sauce. Repeat layers with the remaining ingredients, ending with cheease. Cover with foil and bake for 1 hour. Remove foil; lightly press gratin down with a spatula. Return to oven for another 15-30 minutes, until the vegetables are tender and the top is golden brown. Let stand 15 minutes before service. *Optional: add sliced onions to your vegetable layers if you are an onion lover.

Week 18 Share

Next year's soil fertility: this compost pile is primarily donkey manure, but also includes hay, wood shavings, chicken manure and our old pea and bean plants that we pulled from the garden. Microbial activity within the pile digest the organic matter and will turn it into an earthy, dark, crumbly finished product. In the spring we'll apply the compost to the soil. Even though we're lucky to be growing on good soil, we've been amazed at the extent to which applying compost has influenced healthy, vigorous growth of plants. We're lucky to be living on a farm with animals to generate so much of our compost!


This week's share contains red or green cabbage, spinach, carrots, onions, beets, peppers, and spaghetti or butternut squash. If you plan on making the squash pudding recipe below, go for the butternut squash. If you plan on making the spaghetti squash casserole recipe below, go for the spaghetti squash. Ah, decisions!

Check out the end of this post for the recipe for kimchi-- one of our favorite foods!

Recipes:

Vegetable Strudel
This is a variation from Mollie Katzen's Enchanted Broccoli Forest. You can freeze leftover squares and bake them again! Serves 6-8

1 tablespoon butter
2 1/2 cups minced onion
1 large carrot, diced
4 cups shredded cabbage
1 pepper, diced
3/4 cup spinach, chopped
1/2 lb. mushrooms, minced
1 teaspoon salt, or to taste
1 teaspoon caraway seeds
4 cloves garlic, minced
1-2 tablespoons lemon juice
3 tablespoon dill
fresh black pepper to taste
1 cup crumbled goat cheese or feta cheese
3/4 cup fine bread crumbs

1/3 to 1/2 c olive oil
1 lb. filo dough

Options: Have any kohlrabi, rutabaga, or parsnips left over? Shred them up and throw them in as well! For a lighter dish, use less layers of filo dough.

Preheat the oven to 375°F. Have ready a 9" x 13" baking pan.

Melt butter in a large deep skillet or Dutch oven. Add onion, and cook for 5 minutes. Add carrot, cabbage, pepper, mushrooms, and salt. Cook over medium heat until vegetables are just tender. Remove from heat. Stir in the caraway, garlic, lemon juice, dill, spinach, black pepper, cheese, and 1/2 cup of the bread crumbs.

Brush the pan with a little olive oil. Lay a sheet of filo in the pan and brush lightly with oil. Repeat this until you have a stack of about 12 layers. Sprinkle the stack of filo with the remaining bread crumbs, then add the filling, spreading it to within 1/2 inch of the edges. layer more filo over the filling, brushing each layer with olive oil, including the very top. Use the entire box of filo.

Cut unbaked strudel into squares (leave in pan) and bake at 375 for 35 minutes or more until crisp and to desired brownness.


Spaghetti squash casserole:

1 spaghetti squash
1 bag spinach
1 can tomato sauce
1-2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
salt and pepper to taste

Cut the spaghetti squash in half lengthwise. Put 1/4 inch of water in a baking tray and put the squash halves face down on the tray. Bake at 400 for about 45 minutes: the flesh of the squash should be soft. Let cool (or use gloves) and scrape out the spaghetti strands into a 9" x 13" pan. Chop spinach and cover squash, and pour the can of tomato sauce over the spinach. Top with the cheese. Bake casserole at 400 for 15 minutes or until cheese is lightly browned.


Braised Cabbage in Maple Mustard Glaze
From the book The Vegetable Dishes I Can’t Live Without by Mollie Katzen.
Serves 4 to 5.

2 TB olive oil
¼ cup minced onion
4 c/1 lb cabbage roughly chopped into 1-inch "cubes"
½ tsp salt
4 to 6 TB water
¼ c. Dijon mustard
2 TB maple syrup
freshly ground black pepper

Place a medium-sized skillet over medium heat. After about a minute, add the oil and swirl to coat the pan. Add the onion and sauté for 3 to 5 minutes, or until it begins to soften. Add the cabbage and salt, and sauté for 5 minutes. Sprinkle in 4 tablespoons water, shake the pan, and cover. Cook over medium heat for about 5 to 8 minutes. (You might need to add another tablespoon or two of water during this time to prevent sticking. Just keep your eye on it, and your fork intermittently in it.) Using a small whisk in a medium-small bowl, beat together the mustard and maple syrup until smooth. Add this mixture to the pan and stir to combine. Serve hot, warm, or at room temperature, topped with a shower of fresh black pepper, if desired.

Squash Pudding
This is ridiculously delicious. Get ready for the best dessert ever. Seriously.

2 cups squash purée
3/4 cup light brown sugar, packed
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ginger
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 eggs, slightly beaten
1 cup cream
3/4 cup milk

(Cut your winter squash in half, remove seeds, bake, scoop out, and puree OR peel your squash, cube it, boil, drain the water, and then puree it. If you have too much squash for the recipe, serve the puree as a side dish with a meal, add it to bread, soup, or freeze it for later use!) Blend all ingredients; pour into a buttered 1 1/2 quart casserole. Bake at 350° for 55 to 65 minutes or until a knife inserted near center comes out clean. Cool and garnish with dollops of whipped cream or whipped topping.

Kimchi!

What is it? Kimchi is a traditional fermented Korean food, currently very popular with the local foody-ism that is arising in our country. (Hoorah!) Kimchi can be made from many different vegetables, and then is allowed to lacto-ferment until you enjoy the flavor. Lacto-fermentation is a traditional process of aging and preserving food in the absence of oxygen. It usually makes some of our foods more easily digestible for our bodies, as well!

How do I make it? Thinly slice a head of cabbage (red, green, napa), a few carrots, some beets, and two or three onions. (You can also slice up radishes, daikon, peppers, hot peppers...) Weigh your sliced vegetables: You will need 1 TBS of salt for every 3 pounds of veggies. Then in a food processor make a paste of a few cloves of garlic, a few inches of ginger root, optional cayenne powder or fresh hot peppers, the proper amount of salt, and a similar amount of honey (as salt). Mix your sliced veggies and flavor paste in a clean bucket or ceramic crock. Then mash (with a potato masher, meat tenderizer, timber framing mallet, or whatever you've got to wail on vegetables) the mixture until enough of its juices cover the vegetables. Fill a plastic bag with water and SEAL WELL. Place the bag over the vegetables, so that no vegetables are exposed to the air. The salt preserves the veggies while the fermentation creates its own acid. Keep in a warm, undisturbed place for 1 to several weeks. Try your kimchi every now and then to see if it's at the flavor you enjoy. Always put the plastic bag back on, and when it is fermented as much as you enjoy, jar it up in the fridge. Have fun with this and email us with questions. Making kimchi because easier the more you do it, but the first time, there will certainly be questions.

Some thoughts on kimchi from kimchi-flavored folks:
"Delicious, unheated, raw, organic, cultured vegetables are one of the richest sources of healthful lactobacilli and enzymes. Lacto-fermentation is a natural poetic food preservation method that enhances the life in the vegetables and the eater. Studies repeatedly have shown that daily consumption of lacto-fermented vegetables helps in reestablishment and maintenance of beneficial intestinal flora, and aids immune function. These raw fermented vegetables aid digestion, relieve constipation and are associated with decreased allergies and infections. Fermented cabbage is an excellent source of a protective factor called DIM, which is lost by standard cooking methods. Raw unfermented cabbage and its relatives depress thyroid function." --Flack Family Farm, Enosburg Fall, VT

"The process of fermenting foods—to preserve them and to make them more digestible and more nutritious—is as old as humanity. From the Tropics—where cassava is thrown into a hole in the ground to allow it to soften and sweeten—to the Arctic—where fish are customarily eaten “rotten” to the consistency of ice cream—fermented foods are valued for their health-giving properties and for their complex tastes.

Unfortunately, fermented foods have largely disappeared from the western diet, much to the detriment of our health and economy. For fermented foods are a powerful aid to digestion and a protection against disease; and because fermentation is, by nature, an artisanal process, the disappearance of fermented foods has hastened the centralization and industrialization of our food supply, to the detriment of small farms and local economies.

The science and art of fermentation is, in fact, the basis of human culture—without culturing, there is no culture. Nations that still consume cultured foods, like France with its wine and cheese, and Japan with its pickles and miso, are recognized as nations that have culture. Culture begins at the farm, not in the opera house, and binds a people to a land and its artisans. Many commentators have observed that America is a nation lacking culture—how can we be cultured when we only eat food that has been canned, pasteurized and embalmed? How ironic that the road to culture in our germophobic technological society requires, first and foremost, that we enter into an alchemical relationship with bacteria and fungi, and that we bring to our tables foods and beverages prepared by the magicians, not machines." --Sally Fallon, author of Nourishing Traditions

Week 17 Share

Winter squash, oh my! We surprised ourselves when we harvested our winter squash this weekend by filling up almost a whole trailer load of different squashes: mostly spaghetti, acorn, butternut, buttercup, and a cool Japanese squash called Tetsukabuto.


Left to right: Buttercup, Butternut, Red Kuri, Delicata, Acorn, Tetsukabuto, and Spaghetti Squash.


You'll find winter squash in this week's share, along with a recipe below for basic winter squash. The spaghetti squash is particularly unique: when you scoop out the flesh you get these cool little spaghetti strands. We enjoy it just like pasta: with tomato sauce, pesto, parmesan cheese, or butter. It's a great pasta substitute if you're trying to cut down on your carbohydrates.

Lots of other goodies in this week's share, as well: carrots, onions, celery, green beans, lettuce/spinach/arugula, and the funky new vegetable of the week, rutabaga!



The rutabaga.

Hurray! Rutabagas are great! If you haven't had one before, try making french fries out of them (can you tell we like fried food?) Slice them into little sticks, drizzle some olive oil and salt on them, and bake them at 400 for 45 minutes or so (stirring once or twice partway through baking) until they turn golden and look like french fries. We call it rutabaga fries. Enjoy!

Recipes:

Mashed Rutabaga
This is a simple way to enjoy the flavor of rutabaga (and disguise it from skeptical eaters!)

Peel rutabaga, cut into chunks and boil in water until you can pierce it with a fork. Drain water, add milk, butter, garlic, salt and pepper. Mash until the consistency of mashed potatoes. Yum.


Or try this variation:
Rutabaga Puff
about 1 large rutabaga, mashed
4 tablespoons melted butter
1/2 teaspoon dried dill weed
1 teaspoon salt
dash pepper
dash paprika
4 eggs, separated

Preparation:
Combine mashed rutabaga, butter, dill, salt, pepper, and paprika. Blend in egg yolks. Beat egg whites until stiff peaks form; fold into the rutabaga mixture. Lightly pile into a greased 1 1/2-quart casserole. Bake in a preheated 375° oven for 30 to 40 minutes, until set and top is golden brown. Spoon into a serving dish and serve.
Serves 4 to 6.
*Delicious optional addition: Mash up a carrot or two with the rutabaga before proceeding with the rest of the puff recipe to add an extra sweet burst!


Basic Baked (Winter) Squash
(Thanks Muddy Fingers Farm)

1 winter Squash, halved
2 pats of butter
2 teaspoons of honey or maple syrup
Salt & pepper

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Scoop the seeds out of each half with a spoon. Add 1 pat of butter, 1 teaspoon of honey or maple syrup, and salt and pepper to the hollow scoop of each half. Place upright on a greased cookie sheet and roast for 20 to 30 minutes or until tender when flesh is poked with a fork.
Enjoy just like this as a delicious, quick and easy side dish that is great anytime of the year. Or, leave out the butter and honey/syrup and use the baked squash as a great base for soups, put chunks of cooked squash into baked goods to add great nutrients and a little natural sweetness and nice texture to a quick bread, yeast bread, or pancakes.
*The skins of the delicata squash are edible



Red Lentil Dahl
(Journey's End Farm Camp cookbook)

1 cup dried red lentils
4 cups of water
pinch of salt
1 c diced carrots
1 celery stalk
2 TBS miso

1 t olive oil or butter
1 T mustard seeds

1 t corriander
1 t tumeric
1 inch piece of fresh ginger root, grated
1 tsp cumin

2 T soy sauce

Rinse lentils and add first group of ingredients to a stock pot. In a skillet, heat the butter and mustard seeds unil the seeds sputter and pop. Add third group of ingredients. Add soy sauce and simmer over low for 15 minutes. Enjoy over rice or with chapatis!
*Optional Bonus: Chop up some green beans, and throw them in the dahl for the last 2 minutes of cooking. Or finely slice some of your greens into the dahl at the end!

Week 16 Share

Welcome to Autumn! This week is the first CSA pickup of the fall, and although some of the vegetables are old favorites, there is definitely an end-of-summer feeling to the gardens and the vegetables in this week's share. You'll find two vegetables from the beginning of the season--kohlrabi and pac choi--back in the share. If you weren't here for these veggies the first time around, they are both excellent sauteed or in a stir-fry (perhaps along with the carrots, onions, and red cabbage also in this week's share: see Kara's tips on stir fry sauces from week 3 in June.) Kohlrabi can also be sliced like carrot sticks and eaten raw with a dip. (If you joined mid-season, the entire kohlrabi can be eaten. Most people peel the bulb and cut and cook with the bulb, but the green tops can be used as a cooking green as well. Refer to early blog posts for kohlrabi tips.) Also in this week's share is choices of spinach/mizuna/arugula, beets, and parsnips!

RECIPES

Marlene's Mother's Sautéed Red Cabbage with Cloves
(This is a great autumn recipe to warm your belly on a brisk evening. Our friend Marlene-- who was helping us here two weeks ago-- introduced us to this recipe. This dish is a delicious way to enjoy red cabbage-- even for folks who don't think fondly of cabbage. Give it a try.)

1 red cabbage, chopped
2-3 onions, chopped
4 TBS butter or olive oil
4 TBS maple syrup (or 8 TBS brown sugar)
3 TBS whole cloves
2 apples, peeled and chopped
Salt and Pepper to taste
2 TBS red wine or cider vinegar

Sauté red cabbage and onions with butter or olive oil until onions are tender. Add the remaining ingredients and let cook on low for a bit until all the flavors mix.

Roasted Roots
(Hooray for the arrival of parsnips in this week's share! We love roasted roots, and this is the season for it! As the weeks go on and our root crop bounty expands try this recipe out with other veggies as well!)

Carrots, beets, parsnips, onions, garlic
Rosemary
Olive Oil
Salt and Pepper

Chop roots into bite sized pieces. Toss with olive oil, rosemary, salt and pepper. Bake at 400 until you can pierce the beets with a fork.

Parsnip Puree
This makes a great stand-in for mashed potatoes (especially during years when late blight kills potato crops.) It's lighter and sweeter and a great side dish.

parsnips, cut into 1" pieces
1 TB salt
1/2 cup milk or cream
3 TB butter
1 tsp vanilla extract
dash of nutmeg
salt & pepper to taste

Place parsnips in a large pot of cold, salted water. Bring to boil over high-heat. Partially cover, reduce heat and simmer for 12-15 minutes, or until parsnips are very tender but not yet mushy. While parsnips are cooking, heat milk and butter together until butter melts. Add vanilla and nutmeg and keep warm. Drain parsnips, return to pan, and add heated milk mixture, salt and pepper. Mash until smooth. Taste and season with additional salt and pepper if necessary. Remove puree to bowl.


Barley Stir Fry
(I cannot remember where I found this recipe)
2 handfuls of greens, chopped (spinach, arugula, chard, kale, mizuna, tat soi...)
kohlrabi and/or pac choi, sliced thin
3 carrots scrubbed and sliced crosswise, very thin
1/2 head cabbage, sliced into thin strips
olive oil
1 small onion, minced
1 garlic clove, minced
Fresh ginger, a 1-inch piece, peeled and minced
Pinch of red pepper flakes
lemon juice
soy sauce
Toasted sesame oil
3 cups cooked (leftover/cold) pearl barley

Heat enough oil to cover the bottom of a large skillet. When hot, add the onion, garlic, ginger and red pepper; cook, stirring constantly, until fragrant. Add the cabbage and kohlrabi or pac choi and cook, stirring occasionally for about 5 minutes. Add the carrots and cook over medium heat until almost tender, stirring often. Add the greens and continue to stir-fry until almost tender (or turn the heat down, add a bit of water and cover, to steam instead of stir-fry).

Turn the heat up to medium-high (removing the lid first, if you were steaming) stir-fry for a minute or two, lower heat to medium, then add a big splash of soy sauce and a drizzle of sesame oil and lemon juice. Stir to mix, then push vegetables to the outside rim of the pan and dump barley into the center. With a large wooden spoon spread it out in the pan. Once the barley is warmed through, stir the vegetables into the barley. Season to taste with extra soy sauce. Serve hot.

Week 15 Share, September 15

This week's share contains eggplant, tomatoes or peppers, carrots, onions, choices of lettuce, spinach, arugula, mizuna, or tat soi, green beans, and easter egg radishes or daikon radishes. There's more carrots than usual in this week's share, so check out the yummy carrot soup recipe if you need a recipe to put them all to use. We hope you've been enjoying the greens: their quality will continue to improve as the temperatures get cooler. We love the wide selection of greens that comes in the spring and the fall. Some crumbled up cheeses, a few nuts, and a nice salad dressing are all you need to enjoy a truly fantastic salad. (Don't forget, daikon radishes are great in a stir fry, grated over salad, or in kimchi. Tat soi is a fabulous, tender, sweet salad green, or a great soup addition.)

Recipes:

Moosewood Carrot Soup Recipe (by Mollie Katzen)
This soup is a wonderful, hearty, cool weather soup, very popular at pot lucks, and a great way to freeze summer sunshine for the winter.

2 pounds peeled or scrubbed, chopped carrots
4 cups stock or water
1 1/2 teaspoon salt
3-4 tablespoons butter
1 cup chopped onion
1-2 small cloves crushed garlic
1/3 cup chopped cashews or almonds

Choose one:
1 cup milk
1 cup yogurt or buttermilk plus a little honey
1/2 pint heavy cream
3/4 cup sour cream

Seasoning choices:
-2 pinches of nutmeg, 1/2 teaspoon dried mint, dash of cinnamon
-1 teaspoon each of thyme, marjoram and basil
-1 teaspoon grated ginger

Place carrots, liquid and salt into a medium sized soup pot and bring to a boil. Cover and simmer it for 12-15 minutes. Let it cool to room temp. Saute the onion, garlic and nuts in the butter until the onions are clear. You can sprinkle in a little salt to help draw the moisture out of the onions. Towards the end of cooking, stir in the seasoning combo of your choice. Puree everything together in a blender until smooth. Whisk in one of the dairy products. (It's recommended to leave this step out until you are just about to eat the soup.) Garnish with toasted nuts.

Kara's Hungry Lentil Smash
(This recipe was discovered with inspiration from the "Feeding the Whole Family" cookbook, Ryan's dad's garden, and hunger.)

1 cup lentils
1 giant carrot
1 large onion
1-2 peppers
1 TBS honey
2 TBS soy sauce
2-3 TBS dijon mustart
3 garlic cloves, crushed
olive oil

Put 1 cup dry lentils in a pot with 2-3 cups water, cover and cook. Meanwhile, chop onion, carrot, and peppers, toss with olive oil and honey and broil until tender. Throw cooked lentils, roasted veggies, and remaining ingredients in the blender and puree! (Add lemon juice, water, or more soy sauce to thin to desired consistency.) Chill and serve with cheese and crackers!