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Cold temps signal soup time, which means it’s finally time to put some of my locally grown butternut squash to work in my favorite butternut squash soup. It’s delicious, colorful, fairly teeming with vitamins and almost certainly low cal, although I don’t have a nutritional analysis.

The only part I’m not crazy about is peeling the squash, which is a pain. You can use a vegetable peeler, but it’s quicker (and easier on your wrists) to halve the squash lengthwise, scoop out the seeds and cut the halves into wedges. Then, lay the wedges on their sides and slice off the skin with a sharp knife. A bother, but worth the trouble.

Butternut vegetable soup
Makes 6-8 servings

• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 5 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 teaspoons dried oregano
• 1 teaspoon dried basil
• 1 jalapeno, minced
• 2 bell peppers, diced, preferably 1 green and 1 red
• 1 large butternut squash, peeled and cubed
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon ground coriander (see notes)
• 1 (15-ounce) can dark red kidney beans, drained and rinsed
• 2 (15-ounce) cans diced tomatoes, including their juice
• 4 cups water

1. Heat oil in soup pot over medium heat. Add onions; cook 2 minutes. Add garlic, oregano, basil, jalapeno, bell peppers and squash; cook and stir about 2 minutes more, until onions are soft.
2. Add salt, cumin, coriander, beans, tomatoes and water. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer, partially covered, 30 minutes, or until peppers and squash are tender.

Based on a recipe from Beyond the Moon by Ginny Callan.

Notes: Be sure to protect your hands (and face!) when handling the chopped jalapeno. If possible, get whole coriander seed (available in bulk at the Community Mercantile) and grind it yourself; a mortar and pestle will do. It makes a huge difference in the flavor.

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Just in case you hadn’t noticed, I went with the tomato for my favicon. If you use Firefox or Safari, you’ll see it in your browser’s address line and, if you add it to your bookmarks, in your bookmarks list. It’ll show up eventually if you don’t see it now in the address line, although you might have to delete and re-add it to your bookmarks for it to show up there. If you use Internet Explorer, you probably won’t see it at all. Pity.

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Today was the day: I opened the okra that I pickled recently.

The results? Mixed, I’d say.

The plus side: The okra had a nice, crisp texture and quite good flavor, except for…

The minus side: Wow, were they salty. Must have made some computation error when revising a recipe down to a single half-pint quantity. Also, some of the okra trailed shimmering okra slime threads when transferred from jar to plate, although there wasn’t a slimy sensation in the mouth. (I’ve never seen that happen with other people’s pickled okra. I wonder what caused that.)

Now, this is just my opinion. To the best of my knowledge no one in the family dared sample them today, the big chickens. I guess I’ll have to eat them all myself, and I really won’t mind. I might try rinsing one off, though, to see if it reduces the salt punch without cutting the other flavors.

Lesson relearned: Trying new things is fun. Although these would not rate as the best pickled anything, they’re good enough that I’ll eat them and that I may one day try pickling a whole batch of something so that the quantities turn out right.

Hmm. What shall I try next?

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Picked up my last bag of the season from Rolling Prairie Farmer’s Alliance this week. As usual, the produce is (are?) things of beauty.

Seems as though the peppers were late in coming this year (which would be understandable considering our late spring freeze and rain) , but they’ve been plentiful at the end.

The final bag’s contents:

• mesclun
• sweet potatoes
• green peppers
• anaheim peppers
• greens (I forget what kind these are, something new to me, resembling, I think, collards)
• honey, which I forgot to add to the photo

I had a choice on several items. I could have, for instance, taken butternut squash instead of the sweet potatoes, or green tomatoes in lieu of some one item (I forget which), and there were several greens to choose from.

Actually, I should say this was the last bag for me. The farmers did offer an end-of-the-season extension, but it started too soon for me, and I don’t consume this kind of fare at quite the pace I can eat tomatoes, beans and other height-of-the-summer stuff.

Maybe that’s part of nature’s plan, the food that needs to last longer comes as the garden quits producing. I’ll work on the sweet potatoes for a while, and find something to do with the greens (not my favorite item). I suppose I’ll chop and freeze most of the peppers. (If someone has a favorite thing to do with peppers, let me know.)

It’s been an interesting season, and another of those that makes me particularly appreciative of people willing to grow my local food. We’re used to erratic weather around here, but this one was especially painful with record or near-record warmth then cold in the spring, heavy rains, an especially dry late summer, an early near-freeze followed by unusual warmth. It’s amazing anything wanted to grow and a testament to the mettle of our Kansas farmers that we had something to eat.

As coaches and farmers say, there’s always next year. We’ll hope nature will be a little kinder then.

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