Soups On

Growing season is coming to an end. Fields are becoming bare with only the stubble of places where corn, wheat, and barley grew. The leaves of the soybean plants are turning yellow. Harvest time has announced the beginning of autumn. Soon the frost will place a crystal carpet over the grass and the leaves of the trees will explode into bright colors before falling to the ground.

The final assault on the vegetables that still remain in the garden has begun. Tomato plants have become bedraggled with a few ripe red tomatoes and green unripe ones dangle like Christmas ornaments. Peppers still are ripening before frost kills the plant. Carrots and beets stay buried, and are waiting to be dug from their summer beds. Heads of cabbage are being gathered, shaved, and brined to cure in crocks for sauerkraut.

The cool weather brings out the same desire in humans that the squirrels, mice, and chipmunks feel to store food for the winter months ahead. The feeling that it is necessary to stockpile food seems especially large this year. Aesop describes this need to plan ahead in the fable that parallels the ant and the grasshopper.

I have been helping a friend and her sister with the canning. We continue to process the bounty of summer’s produce from several gardens. Picking, washing, cutting, and canning the fruits from the several gardens are reaching an end. As we near the tail end of the summer and the garden’s supply becomes less, it’s now time to gather the odds and ends and make large pots of vegetable soup. Some was made to eat now and some to can for later use. That is what we made yesterday. Browning some soup bones and beef roast made a rich broth. The chopped cabbage simmered in the broth and slowly other vegetables are added. Dry beans, green beans, carrots, celery, onions, corn, and finally tomato canned earlier this year were stirred into the pot. It slowly simmered all day. Today the soup will be ladled into jars and pressure sealed. It is a long arduous process, but the homemade flavor on a cold, blustery winter’s day will chase away the chills when paired with a grilled cheese sandwich.