Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Recipes from the Garden: Radish Top Soup

Radishes are one of the easiest things to grow in a garden, and we've had tremendous success with ours. Here's a picture of our first crop--pulled a little early because I was so excited. Isn't it a cute lil' radish? I let the other batches get bigger, and we enjoyed radishes all through the fall.

But what to do with a radish, other than slice it atop a salad? I found this delicious recipe for Radish Top Soup from one of my favorite sites, Allrecipes.com. This soup, submitted by Laura Nason, is peppery and smooth, and even our non-soup eater requested seconds. We found ourselves using the tops more often than the radishes themselves! Enjoy.

Radish Top Soup
Original Recipe Yield 6 servings
Ingredients

2 tablespoons butter
1 large onion, diced
2 medium potatoes, sliced
4 cups raw radish greens
4 cups chicken broth
1/3 cup heavy cream
5 radishes, sliced

Directions
1. Melt butter in a large saucepan over medium heat. Stir in the onion, and saute until tender. Mix in the potatoes and radish greens, coating them with the butter.
Pour in chicken broth. Bring the mixture to a boil. Reduce heat, and simmer 30 minutes.
2. Allow the soup mixture to cool slightly, and transfer to a blender. Blend until smooth.
3. Return the mixture to the saucepan. Mix in the heavy cream. Cook and stir until well blended. Serve with radish slices.

Nutritional Information
Amount Per Serving Calories: 156 | Total Fat: 8.9g | Cholesterol: 28mg

Monday, November 7, 2011

Here We Grow Again...


Colleen and Russ have built a second garden bed, and our friends in Arlington have donated enough blocks for us to build two more beds! I met with Katey Rudd this week, and plan to attend a Community Garden Leadership Training in December.



Colleen and Russ will work on building the compost beds this week--most likely Thursday morning. If you're interested in helping out, holler at me and I'll give you details. You can post on this blog, or find me (Britta Coleman) on Facebook.




Please keep the garden in prayer as we work on plans to develop our vision. Look for upcoming ministry moments at Alliance United Methodist Church for meeting updates. We hope to have a church-wide/community-wide information meeting in January. With a potluck, perhaps?



If you happen to walk by the garden, pause and take a look at what's growing. Our cauliflower and broccoli continue to dominate, and Dan's sunflower is looking perky. The pepper plant is going bananas (?), and we've got new seedlings of beets and carrots making their way into this world. Amazing! I have a special helper, Toly Damon, who's been watering the plants with me and we came back to the house and shared a radish plucked fresh from the garden. A lovely experience.



Didn't Colleen and Russ do a lovely job? I hope to have the guidelines for building a bed posted soon, in case any other gardeners want to jump start and build a winter bed. For the rest of the garden, we'll plan on a build out this spring.

Stay tuned for more information...