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Making Fall Harvest Soup – A Delicious Way To Clean Up Your Garden!

When it comes to making great soup, it’s hard to beat the amazing flavor of a fall harvest soup. Especially one that is created straight from your garden!

It is simply beyond delicious. And to boot, one of the easiest soups you will ever make.

But perhaps best of all, creating a big batch of fall harvest soup is the perfect way to clear your garden in the fall.

fall harvest soup
We make all of our harvest soups in a big kettle pot over our fire pit. There is just something so wondrous about a simmering pot of soup over an open fire.

And along with it, turn all of those not-so-pretty late season vegetables that remain into something to enjoy the whole year around.

Fall Harvest Soup – The Perfect Way To Clean Up The Garden

When we say harvest soup is easy to make, we mean easy!

In fact, depending on what is left in your garden, you hardly need any additional spices or seasonings to create it.

Nearly all of the flavor comes directly from the goodness packed inside of the late season vegetables that remain in the garden.

fall harvest soup
Late season vegetables are the perfect ingredient for soup!

End of the season vegetables may not look pretty, but they are packed with massive flavor. And that flavor comes out perfectly when slowly cooked down all-day long.

So What Is The Recipe For Fall Harvest Soup

People often ask us for the recipe for our fall harvest soups. And unfortunately, it is the one time we can’t give them one.

We create all types of fall harvest soups. From meatless chili to traditional beef and chicken chili. We also love to put on big pots of beef vegetable and un-stuffed pepper soup as well.

fall harvest soup
A pot of chili is readied for the fire.

And of course, there is always the simple pleasure of plain ol’ vegetable soup. It is the last soup we make every year from the garden.

The recipe? Pull out every carrot, onion, tomato, pepper, green bean and other vegetable left and chop them up. We then juice a few tomatoes, add in a bit of water, and let it all simmer down for 8 hours or more on low heat.

More often than not, we don’t add in a single spice or seasoning. And the taste? It is absolutely to die for!

open fire cooking bar
Our cooking bar over the fire pit. It was a simple and inexpensive solution for finding a way to hang our soup pots. See : How To Create A DIY Cooking Bar For A Fire Pit

All of the flavors packed in the late season vegetables simply meld together into perfection.

That is the beauty of a fall harvest soup. It can be anything and everything. And any type of soup you can imagine.

Making Soup To Save

As we cleared out the garden before leaving on our trip this year, it seemed like we were cooking down a new batch almost every day. (See : The Trip So Far – Week 1!)

We make all of our big fall soups over our fire pit in an old black iron kettle pot.

fresh vegetables from the garden
Cabbage, tomatoes, corn, green beans, peppers and peas go into the pot for one of our final batches.

But they can just as easily be made in a large kettle on a stove, or even a big pot on an outdoor turkey fryer.

The real key is simply allow enough cooking time for the vegetables and whatever other ingredients you add to slowly cook away. For us, 8 to 10 hours seems to create the perfect soup.

Soup Blocks – The Ultimate Instant Winter Freezer Meal

So what do we do with all of this soup? Well, we obviously enjoy as much as we can fresh with every batch. But with the rest, we make soup blocks.

freezer soup bricks
Our “soup bricks” in the freezer. They are great for a quick meal.

As each batch is complete, we pour it into small freezer boxes. We let it cool, then place into the freezer to completely freeze. We pull them out in a day or two, pop them out of the box, and seal with our food saver. Product Link : Food Saver Kit

The blocks stack easily in the freezer, and are perfect for pulling out anytime you want a quick meal. And yes, we even brought some on the road with us for the year :).

Here’s to making your own amazing Fall Harvest soup! Happy Gardening – Jim and Mary.

As always, feel free to email us at thefarm@owgarden.com with comments or questions.

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