First time

Presently, I'm sitting in the lovely outdoor weather of Abilene, Kansas soaking up some rays and trying to make my very first Farmers' Market sales. I don't have any vegetables to sell yet, but I have some amazing 100% Whole Grain Cookies for sale! I think they're pretty fabulous. My sign says 100% Wholesome. They have a whole lot of wholesome goodness and love in them too.

The past couple of weeks have been a little crazy in my world. So to start catching up in the blogging world I'll tell you about my first time preserving turnips. I picked quite a few from the garden. My turnips seem to become pretty spicy if they get any size on them. The heat around here has also caused them to get a little more spicy as they are fresh. I decided to blanch and freeze them and amazingly most of the spiciness went away after blanching. We'll see how they serve up a little later in my stews.

Turnip chunks and greens!

I also managed to make a first time new veggie burger recently. This burger is a combo of lentils, beets, greens and some other goodness I can't remember. 

Magical Turnip Soup

• Turnip - I used about 8 medium to small
• Onion - 1 medium
• Carrot - 1 large
• Sweet potato - 1 small
• Delicata squash - 1/2 cup smashed- this can be left out, I used up some that I had thawed in the fridge
• Chicken stock - roughly 4 cups
• White apple wine - 1/2 cup- once again, apple wine not necessary, just what I found in the fridge
• Curry powder - 1 heaping teaspoon
• Mustard seed - generous sprinkle
• Black pepper - 1/2 teaspoon
• Salt - to taste

I chopped the turnip, onion, carrot, and sweet potato and sauteed for about 5 minutes. Then I added the spices for another couple of minutes. Added the squash mash that I had hanging out in the fridge along with the wine and stock. Bring to a boil and then simmer for 30 minutes or so covered. Here you can either eat it chunky style or go ahead and blend for a pureed soup. I prefer the pureed version so all the flavors are mingled. This also allowed me to feed it to my father without him freaking out too much about eating turnips and sweet potatoes. I added a dollop of plain yogurt while serving for a delightful magical soup!

This soup is magical because not only is it virtually fat free and full of healthful vegetables, but it contains curry. Curry, according to this not-so-scientific article, helps as an anti-aging agent, fights Alzheimer's, cancer protection, and arthritis treatment. Sounds pretty magical to me!