Howdy folks!
I've been travelling in Germany with my partner Stephanie to explore some of the aspects of permaculture and organic farming, and thought that I'd write a blog to record a few of our experiences so far. I also thought I'd include a recipe for pumpkin soup that we had during our stay, as a tasty treat that you can make this autumn when you scoop your pumpkins out ready for the spooky proceedings!
First, a bit about where we are at the moment. We've spent a week on a small organic farmstead in the village of Sehnde near Hanover with the illustrious Anna who runs the place. She gives us our tasks for the day, such as weeding the herb garden or picking plums, apples, tomatoes or whatever is required, and we carry them out to the best of our ability, which is usually adequate enough. When we arrived, a red squirrel crossed our path, and then hopped over a hedge, so we thought that this must be an auspicious sign of things to come. We've managed to brave the brambles to pick blackberries to be used in some delicious cakes and jams, clear away the unwanted weeds, but still leave some in a natural area for wildlife to grow, and keep the whole place as tidy as possible to get around it with ease. While we've been working outside, we've managed to see all manner of attractive creatures, from dragonflies flitting by to red shield bugs on the compost heap and bats darting past in the twilight. The experience so far has been hard work, but a great sense of achievement afterwards when you can see what you've done, and taste it too!
This leads neatly on to the next part - time to make some totally yumptious pumpkin soup!
What you need is:
A pumpkin (should be fairly obvious, that one)
A couple of onions
A few potatoes for thickening
Salt
Pepper
A bit of cream (optional, if you like cream)
Some butter or oil to coat the bottom of the saucepan
A saucepan
A blender
First, scoop the seeds out of your pumpkin, clear them away and then scoop out the fleshy parts of the pumpkin to make the soup with. Keep the outside of the pumpkin to make into a scary lantern, ghosts, goblins and ghouls being particularly scared of root vegetables, as they are, unless it's a Hokkaido pumpkin, in which case you can even eat the skin too - freaky stuff! Next, chop all your bits up, dicing the onions, potatoes and pumpkin mulch into small pieces, and then pop it all in the pan with a bit of butter or oil on the bottom, whatever your preference, and some water to fill it out, then cook slowly for about 20 minutes. When it's done, add a dash of salt and pepper for some texture. You can also use a few spoonfuls of cream to give it a sweeter kick. After this has all been concocted like some salacious witch's broth, mix it together with a blender, not in itself a particularly witchy kitchen utensil, and then serve to whichever (no pun intended) frightful phantasms are haunting your kitchen at that particular moment. Feel free to add curry powder to give it that extra spicy zing as well, garnish with parsley, or whatever damn condiment you like, it's your soup, after all. Smashing!
I'd better go now before I turn into Delia. Stay glutton-free!
Tom Laimer-Read, Norwich Greenpeace group member
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