The Three Sisters Feed Me Well

Another beautiful morning with a light rain. I spent a good hour feeding and watering chickens and cattle this morning and I loved being out in the soft, light rain. The animals are all content and happy, they love this mild weather.

I'm enjoying eating from the "three sisters" this fall- that is the Native American food stuff trinity of corn, beans and squash.  If you visit the Ft. Ancient Museum in southwest Ohio you will see a demonstration garden growing the "three sisters" in the manner practiced by the Native Americans who lived in and around Ft. Ancient. They grew tall stalks of corn in a little tepee like circle, grew the beans so they climbed up the stalks of the corn and planted the sticky squash vines at the base of the corn to keep the wild critters away. It's very effective.  I am going to try this method in my garden next year. Each year I have to rotate my tomatoes and beans to different locations in the garden to keep disease and critters away and next year I planned to plant a lot more corn. I already have a place designated for corn, so I can just add the squash and beans to the corn and that should work very well! Then I can harvest all the three sisters at once!

Here's one of my favorite soup recipes. I use butternut squash because its a mild squash and makes a good base for other flavors. I save acorn squash for roasting with butter and thyme or butter and brown sugar as it is a more flavorful squash and makes a good side dish.

 Butternut Squash Soup 

1 butternut squash

1/2 cup finely chopped yellow onion

1 tablespoon cooking oil

1 tablespoon butter

1 glove garlic, minced

3 cups chicken stock or broth or more depending on the size of the squash

1/4 teaspoon salt

pinch of ground black or white pepper

1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

dusting of nutmeg, freshly ground

Cut the squash in half length wise, scrape out the seeds and place cut side down in a baking dish with a cup or two of water. Bake at 375 degrees for 45 minutes to an hour or until the flesh of the squash is tender. Let the squash cool, then scoop out the soft squash flesh.

In the meantime, chop the onion and saute it in the oil and butter in a large saucepan until it is softened and transparent. Add the garlic and saute a minute, then add the three cups of stock, the squash flesh,  the salt, pepper and ginger. Bring the mixture to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for 10 minutes. Remove the soup from the stove and with an immersion blender, blend the soup until it is smooth. Taste to correct seasoning. Grate the nutmeg into the soup and serve. I like to serve it with cheddar cheese crackers.

The ginger gives the soup a spicy kick. You can add a little pumpkin pie spice to make it more a sweet spice flavor.  You can also eliminate the ginger and season the soup with thyme and parsley. Either way this makes a thick, creamy soup that is very healthy and tasty at the same time.