(AF) Wonderful Fall Soup!

Oh, the wonderful bounties of Fall! As you know, I have been putting up pears for weeks, now, most of them going into Pear Butter. I still have a couple of bushels left and, although I am extremely thankful for them, I am soooo ready to get to the end of them.

And now that I have quite a few jars of Pear Butter made up and put back, you might find it funny to know that I am now using a few of them as .... money! I always thought the barter system was an excellent idea, and as our economy goes further and further down the tubes, I do believe that the barter system is a monetary system that is coming back with great strength.

Last weekend at the flea market I got a nice, large tote bag and a heavily pocketed duffel bag in trade for a jar of Pear Butter. And then the really good part... I traded a big jar of pear butter for a bushel of fresh picked mixed greens! (turnip and mustard)  Oh, they were wonderful! They were so fresh and practically flawless. So this week, I have been putting up pears and greens (no, not in the same jars, ha, ha)  After I put up several big bags of greens in the freezer, I held out a mess to cook up for now.  And in between putting greens up in the freezer and cooking some for me, I had to make a run into town for a couple of errands. When I stopped at my mom's I remembered that last week, David had seen some young Lamb's Quarters (wild spinach) at her house, and I was so hoping they hadn't been mowed down yet.... It was all still there, yea!!

I decided that I had to add some to my pot of greens and pulled up a good handful of them (pictured above). Usually this time of year they are big and going to seed, but there had been a trailer parked there that had been recently moved and when the sun hit the bare dirt underneath, the little Lamb's Quarters started popping up. What a treat! Well, by today when I started to cook my pot of greens, I decided I wanted to do something a little bit different. I had seen a recipe the other day for a nice soup, made with potatoes, turnip and mustard greens. The more I thought about it, the better it sounded so I decided that now was the time since I had all the fresh ingredients at hand. No, I didn't look the recipe back up. I usually make my soups by dumping this and that in.

I cooked the turnip and mustard greens first, until they were about half done. Then I added in the cleaned and de-stemmed Lamb's quarters (they don't take near so long to cook). At this point I had to add some water (filtered, of course) because the lamb's quarters don't cook down much. On top of all of this I added several peeled and chunked up potatoes and a small to medium, cut up onion. I put the lid on and let it all slow cook until the potatoes were beginning to soften.

While all that was cooking I fried a few slices of bacon. When the potatoes were nearly tender, I added the bacon, grease and all, to the contents of the cooking pot. I sprinkled in some unrefined salt, a little pepper, a couple dashes of Cayenne pepper, gave it a stir, put the lid back on and let it cook some more. When it looked like it was all done, I had to take a bowl out to eat for lunch and test. Yep, it was good!

Now, to make it into creamy soup. With my immersion (stick) blender I pureed it all thoroughly, adding just a bit more water (but it still needs to be a little too thick at this point.) Then, after it looked pretty smooth, I blended in a few pours of whole milk, added a little more salt to taste, and gently heated it back through (Do not boil at this point. It will scorch and get all lumpy, just heat it through, making sure to stir often)
And there you have it! Cream of Fall Harvest Soup (Not really sure what to call it. I'm open to suggestions.) It is delicious!!!  Tonight, I ate it with crackers. But tomorrow, I think I will have to make some cornbread to go with it. And yes, Dave, I will put some up in the freezer to save and share with you.  

CAUTION: If you have cats and dogs and feel inclined to share this with them, please remember that they can't eat onions as it can kill them. When it is all blended up like this we forget the onions are in there. And cats, especially, adore stuff like this with the combo of milk and fresh greens.