Swiss Chard, Potato & Garlic Soup

Swiss Chard is a hard Veggie to sell. A lot of people run over to our booth thinking it's Rhubarb. They always ask me what can they do with it. Swiss Chard is a super food in my opinion, It's so full of nutrients!
So I thought I would try this soup out and share it since its So good! And super easy to make. It's not really soup weather outside but I had a bunch of leftover Swiss Chard from Market and I had to find something to make out of it.

1 bunch Swiss chard
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoons butter
3 cloves garlic, finely minced ( I added more to taste Since I love garlic)
4 cups chicken broth
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1 1/2 pound red potatoes, peeled and diced in 1/2 inch pieces
Salt and freshly milled black pepper to taste
1/4 - 1/2 cup Emmenthaler cheese, grated (Optional)

  





Clean Swiss chard. Remove leaves from heavy stems, keeping stems on side. Chop stems into 1/2 inch thick slices. Chop leaves into julienne. Keep separate. Set aside

Put oil butter and garlic in large soup pot. Let cook 5 minutes over low heat. Do not burn. This step is to allow garlic to release its juices.

Pour in broth and thyme. Put in potatoes and thick stems of the chard, raising heat to medium high. Bring to a boil. When boiling, lower heat to medium and cook until potatoes are beginning to soften, about 1 minutes. Stir in Swiss chard leaves and cook another 10 minutes or until potatoes are tender. Add pepper and salt to taste.

Serve with grated cheese on the side

 

               This is what's for dinner tonight..Yummy!

It's a growing

We finally had a variety of things to sell this Saturday at market. Turnips, Swiss Chard,Kohlrabi,Lettuces,And beets.

We were happy the beets were finally ready to harvest. This year we grew three different kinds of Beets,Golden,traditional red, and a pink striped variety.I don't remember the specific names of them at the moment.We like the color it adds to the table and the different flavors.
This is the first time we are able to sell beets. Last years crop got overrun with weeds and they didn't grow much. We made sure to keep the beets as weed free as we could this time, and we've had a great turn out! We ended up selling mostly everything except for some Swiss Chard and some turnips. The Swiss chard will be processed today for the freezer.

I just love beets! They have such pretty rich coloring

Turnips and Swiss Chard

The cost of free ranging

I love having our chickens being completely free ranged. We have them on a 2 acre pasture surrounded by woods. They love to scratch around underneath the tree's for bugs and worms. I even seen them catch mice (Gross) They are truly very happy chickens.

Lately we have been noticing a major decline in our egg production. We went from gathering around 40 eggs a day and within a month drop down to around 20! What was going on we wondered! Maybe it was the feed. So we switched to a higher protein feed and started feeding them black oil sunflower seeds. Still nothing.

No signs of anything wrong, No dead chickens...nothing.
Finally brad noticed one morning when going to open the coop up for the day, A bird hanging out of the crack in the coop door, Something tried dragging out one of the hens. It was dead and stuck. We looked around the coop and found scratch marks going up the sides of the coop! Something had climbed up into the rafters and had been getting our hens.
We figured it must have been a coon? And had been killing at least a hen a night. We were so shocked! We had no signs of anything being killed at all!

So brad spent an hour putting wire along the rafters of the coop in the front and back. It was another learning experience,They will find a way in!!

The bad thing about this pasture is our dogs cannot roam in it because the fencing is this pasture needs completely redone. However we did get one pasture finished and the dogs are finally out roaming the property. Hopefully their distant barks will keep critters away!

Alex

This is our new little handsome guy "Alex". He came with the name Seamus pronounced (sheymus) We bought him from a breeder in Alexis Illinois so I thought the name Alex would fit him nicely.
Alex is a Mini Nubian, which is a cross between a Nigerian dwarf buck and a standard sized Nubian doe. Producing the look of a Nubian in a smaller size. Great for smaller farms or someone looking for a dairy goat with a high butterfat content in a smaller easier to handle size.

Alex and the girls are still getting used to each other and everyone seems to be getting along great! I cannot wait for cute lil floppy eared babies! Alex is only 3 months old so It might be a a month or 2 before he takes interest in them, Or we shall see when the girls come back into heat again.

Josie says thanks for the new friend! Elle never seems to want to be in my pictures lol she is camera shy I guess :0)