Soup!

The place where I work now is right next door to one of the drop sites for Full Circle Farms CSA (Community Supported Agriculture). Each Thursday, they leave all those boxes full of fresh organic produce for people to pick up. If by Monday there are still boxes there, we have been given permission to take them. Apparently the people at the office have been rotating each week, and last week was MY WEEK! I got to take the box home!

I got lots of really good stuff: a bunch of cherries, three nectarines, three plums, three pluots, two nice sized zucchini, 6 small turnips, a bunch of celery, a bunch of swiss chard, a small bundle of shallots, a small bundle of carrots, three nice sized potatoes, and a small bundle of parsley – and all of it organic! The only thing I had to throw away was the swiss chard – it had gotten to … squishy? Not quite moldy, but certainly not usable.

So, I just made a batch of really good soup! Started with a split-pea base, added a can of corn and a can of organic tomatoes, chopped up some fresh organic zucchini, carrots, shallots, celery, and turnips, threw in a few sprigs of fresh organic parsley, ground some black pepper in there, and added some lemon & orange peel and some allspice. I also added a handful of freeze-dried onions (because I only had 4 small shallots) and two heaping spoonfuls of chopped garlic. As a final touch, I put in a package of basmati rice - because apparently I felt it needed some more fiber. But really, I just like basmati rice.

I have enough soup to feed an army now for a week! Think I'll share with my new roommate, when she gets here.