Blog

About | Map | Blog | Images | Files | Participants

Local Food Challenge

Blog > Warm Weather Memories from Steph

Warm Weather Memories from Steph	March 23, 2006
I woke up this morning, looked outside and found winter teasing me again. Two days ago I woke up to 30 degree weather (in March, at 5am in Northern Minnesota, it's something to get excited about!) I went to a mini Pow Wow where we danced for the beautiful weather, then went home jumped on my motorcycle and went for a ride. Today doesn't look all that promising for good weather and outside activities. So, what else do you do but eat? For breakfast I broke out some raspberries and cream. The delicious juice running down my throat brought back memories of the wonderful warm summer day full of the mouth watering aroma of ripening raspberries. It was the usual harvest of one in the bucket, two in the mouth. We laughed, told stories and painted our knees, hands and lips red. For lunch I decided a nice warm tomato soup sounded good. Making tomato soup from frozen tomatoes is easier than opening a can of store bought soup. The skin of the tomato falls off in one piece. You throw the meat of the tomato (compost the skins) in a pan with some onion, garlic, a few sprigs of parsley and one thin slice of habanera pepper. Let it simmer for approximately 15 minutes and then enjoy. I like to throw the soup in a blender for a smoother soup. If you like a creamier taste, just add milk. As I sipped the soup, memories of planting my tomatoes rushed back to me. My tomato planting ended up being a bit on the late side, it was the end of June. The transplants that I had were not the prettiest looking plants, their root systems growing every which way from the bottom of their pots, the leaves and stems looking a bit stressed and gangly looking from outgrowing their containers. To top it off, I slipped and broke one of the stems while I was putting the plant in the ground. Like any good mother, I put a band-aid on my tomato plant to make it all better. My family and friends laughed at me, telling me that I was wasting my time. "Those sorry looking plants will never grow, and who ever heard of putting a band-aid on a plant?" I would smile and say, "I see them differently. Just wait and see." In September we harvested about 40 lbs of fruit from each of the tomato plants. Five months later, I sit here feeling nourished and warm remembering the lessons that were offered to me that day. For dinner I used the left over chicken from yesterday to make a wild rice hot dish. I threw the chicken, the broth and some dehydrated wild plants into the crock pot before I left for work. It took me about five minutes to throw it all together. It is nice knowing that dinner will be waiting for me when I walk in the door. My plans are to play with my grandson until he puts me to sleep:) Today turned out to be a good day. Leave it to food!
posted by geldert