1. I took a photo of the finished soup, but it was at that very moment that the SD card in my phone decided that it hated me and turned itself into a worthless sliver of plastic. Luckily I had this adorable photo to fall back on. Right? This is better than a bowl of orange soup.

2. I’m really bad with measurements and am always adding a dash of this or that, but I got the basics down for this recipe. If you feel adjustments are necessary, or want to try it with different spices, feel free.

Oh, wait, three notes:

3. I used a pie pumpkin, but there are many people who say that field pumpkins are just fine for cooking. You may need to drain off extra moisture.

Fresh Pumpkin Soup

• 1 medium pumpkin (yielding about 3 cups of cooked pumpkin)
• 2 tbsp butter
• 1/2 of a yellow onion, chopped (try shallots for a different taste, about 1/2 cup)
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp freshly ground pepper
• 3 cups vegetable or chicken broth

Preheat oven to 350. Slice the pumpkin in half, discard the stem, and place cut-side down in a baking dish or a sheet pan lined with foil. Cover with foil and bake for up to 1 1/2 hours (mine finished in about an hour and 15 minutes). Scoop out cooked pumpkin and let cool, then mash with a potato masher. (If you have chickens, give them the cooked rinds with the little bits of pumpkin you didn’t scrape out.)

In a heavy bottom pan, melt butter, then add onions, cooking over low heat until the onions are translucent and starting to caramelize just a bit. Add the mashed pumpkin and salt, sugar, nutmeg and pepper, stir, and let simmer for a few minutes. Add broth and simmer on low heat for about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally until the flavors have come together and the soup is hot.

At this point, you can serve it as-is, or you can use a stick blender to puree the soup. You can also puree the soup in small batches in a regular blender or food processor. Makes about six cups.

Optional additions include stirring in a bit of half & half or cream, topping with crisped sage leaves (cook sage leaves in a little butter until crispy), or topping with toasted pumpkin seeds. I put a dollop of crema on mine and sprinkled on some dried parsley.

Pumpkin soup lends itself so well to different flavors. Try variations with curry, peanut butter, or coconut milk & chili… or a combination of these!

Enjoy the flavors of fall!

If you follow the link below – which goes to a Kickstarter fund raising page – you can see a nice little trailer for the film, plus some footage of the filmmakers talking about the project.

If you can’t see the widget above, try this link.

Made this fantastic cobbler the other day… blackberries came from the back yard, local milk, butter and flour. The only thing not local is the sugar! The recipe is from The Pioneer Woman and is a bit different than what I think of as cobbler (I’m picturing the kind with the crumbly crust/topping), but it really tasted great. Couldn’t be easier to prepare, either. The self-rising flour can be replaced with 1 cup of local all-purpose flour sifted together with 1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder, plus 1/8 teaspoons salt.

I ignored the bit about whipped topping from a can and went with vanilla ice cream, of course!

wheeee, demolition

Oh.

Gamely, I made one batch of cherry jam with some cherries we’d picked from Detering Orchards. I think it came out quite well in the end, but without some handy counter space, it was more of a chore than I wanted to deal with for the rest of the summer however long this renovation takes.

traditionally processed cherry jam

Sad, but lazy, I decided to think more in the short-term and turned to freezer jam & refrigerated pickles.

Freezer jam is a simple process of washing/peeling/chopping your fruit and combining it with sugar and sometimes lemon juice, boiling the pectin for one minute, mixing it all together and filling your clean freezer jars. A food processor is great to have for fruit that needs chopping, like peaches. For berries, though, a potato masher works perfectly. I mash up a cup at a time, and most recipes only call for 3 cups or so. I leave the seeds in my berries, but you can strain some of your mixture through a mesh to get rid of some of the seeds if you prefer.

There are different types of pectin out there, so check the ingredient lists and instructions carefully for your preferences. There is one type of liquid pectin, and I think also one of the instant varieties, that contains preservatives, so I opt not to buy those. (I use sugar, so there’s no need for additional preservatives.) There is also a “no sugar needed” type, and I think most of them work with sugar substitutes.

The jam keeps in the freezer for a year, and in the fridge for about three weeks. The whole thing is so easy, I encourage everyone to do this and enjoy the summer’s fruits all year!

a few of my beautiful, frosty jams

So far I’ve made raspberry, boysenberry, peach, and blackberry. I missed out on blueberries and strawberries. Luckily, jam is good for trading, so I gave my friend a boysenberry in trade for one of her traditionally preserved strawberry jams! The peach jam is my favorite so far… amazing flavor. I picked the peaches at Grandpa’s Fresh Market in Albany.

Happy freezing!

Sometime next month, you’ll be able to start harvesting your backyard trees, if you’ve got them. If you’d like to check out some bigger operations, visit the Hazelnut Hill shop in Corvallis (at milepost 95 between the towns of Corvallis & Monroe on Hwy 99 West), or observe through the windows at the Pacific Hazelnut Candy Factory (about an hour and 20 minutes northeast of Albany).

Want some recipes? The Hazelnut Council has some that… that… um… where was I? Sorry, I got distracted by the cinnamon… rolls…

“The honey trade is anything but simple, however, namely because the U.S. is so dependent on foreign honey – 60-70% of our honey is imported, much of it from China. Making matters worse, in 2002, 2003, and 2007, U.S. Customs seized multiple Chinese honey shipments that were tainted with antibiotics banned in the U.S., including chloramphenicol, a chemical that has been linked to serious blood disorders.”

Both the blog post and the series over at the Seattle P.I. – Honey Laundering – are worth the time to read. The information about labeling (it’s the usual news… labels don’t mean jack) is an especially good reminder that we shouldn’t necessarily be paying more for something labeled “organic” or “pure”.

The good news is… local honey! Small farms, small batches. No offense, little squeezy bear, that just sounds better to me.

I know of three in the mid-valley, though I’m sure there are others.Please leave a comment if you are, or know of, a local honey producer.

Queen Bee Apiaries

Honey Tree Apiaries

Olsen Honey Farms — no website that I can find, but you’ll see these guys around with a white trailer. Lately they have been at the Albany Farmers Market.

You know… I really shouldn’t write these types of posts before I have breakfast. *growl*

As I look at prices for local, pastured pork, I am finding this to be a really excellent deal (even with the driving I’ll need to do to pick up the meat!). Each pig will be no less than 200 pounds live weight, which could yield anywhere between 100 – 140 lbs of cuts, according to this handy chart.

We wanted to keep one pig ourselves, but didn’t think we could handle two, so I worked with two other friends who are going to each take half of the other pig.

Bernadine, of Fairy Godmother’s Garden, was a pleasure to work with while I decided if we would take part in this and rounded up some friends. When we last exchanged e-mails last Thursday, she let me know that there were three shares remaining.

(And if anyone thinks they might sign up for this, let me know and I can probably pick yours up for you too, since I’ll already be heading out there! Remember, you wouldn’t receive the pork until April, 2011.)

P.S. I kind of struggled with an image for this post. Cute little piglet? No, I am still a pretty big wimp about meeting my meals even though I love meat. I know, I know. I’m working on it.

That was dinner last night, along with some bread, brie, and an Oregon Pino Gris from Oak Knoll Winery… and at this very  moment I am regretting encouraging my husband to take the last little bit of the cod to work for lunch. Drat!

At Harry and Annette’s, you’ll find wonderful fresh and smoked fish, live crabs, smoked salmon pâté, and more. On our very first visit, Harry invited us into the back to see the smoker, clearly proud of his work and the fish that they offer in the shop — with good reason!

We also discovered that as of this last weekend, the shop is offering selections from the Willamette Cheese Company, Sweet Briar Farms pork, and some beef from Oregon Natural Meats.

Harry and Annette’s is located in the Water Street Market in downtown Corvallis at 151 NW Monroe Ave. Enjoy!

What else. Oh, it’s good on turkey & in the dressing at Thanksgiving, of course. And then I just kind of forget it’s out there. Like “sage = fall” in my mind or something.

But my sage plant is lovely and healthy and I really want to use what I’ve got growing in the garden! I was happy, then, to see this post from from Chocolate & Zucchini yesterday on 45 things to do with fresh sage, many of which would make the basis for a wonderful summer dinner.

How about you, readers? Anyone have some additional ideas for fresh sage?