Fall Chores

I finished digging the potatoes today. Overall I'd say we ended up with 25 to 30 pounds. Not bad for our first year and considering how dry it was. I used some of them today in what I like to call my harvest vegetable chicken soup.

I cooked a chicken earlier in the week and tossed the leftover carcass in the stock pot with onion, garlic, carrot and a couple of bay leaves plus salt and pepper. I let is simmer for a couple of hours.

Meanwhile, I drove down to Goucher's Farm Market outside of Kingston, and picked up a sweet potato, squash, onions, celery, garlic and carrots. When I was home again I cut up all the veggies, including a few potatoes and put them in a roasting pan. 

Just for future reference, an axe works really well when it comes to chopping up squash.

I poured olive oil over all the veggies and sprinkled them with ginger and curry powder. I left them to roast slowly in the oven for a couple of hours. Once done I strained the bones cooked veggies out of my stock. Added the roasted vegetables (except for the celery which I felt was too stringy) and then used my handy immersion blender to mix up the soup. I tossed in the separated chicken.
Now Rob and I have a seasonal, hearty soup for supper which will be delicious.

Rob spent the weekend working on the woods road connecting the big field to the new property. He's just about through. Meanwhile I trimmed the grass and weeds all along the fence line. We also collected wild apples for the horse and cow.

We certainly got a lot done this beautiful fall weekend, but the to-do list is still long. We have to fix the floor in the woodshed, bring the wood up from the field where it has been drying, cut kindling, fix up the chicken coop and install a couple of windows in it and in general clean up the yard.

Rob wants me to get a coat of paint on the end of the house and he plans to build a new cover for the septic tank. I think we've got enough to keep us out of trouble for a few weekends.

I did take time to take Joe for ride. It was perfect weather for just meandering around the fields and through the woods.