A Simple Diet - Soup and Bread

Since receiving a weekly box of fruit and veggies from Eatwell Farm, our diet has changed dramatically.  We are eating seasonally, locally and more simply.

Many of our lunches on a winter's day consist of soup, bread, cheese and perhaps a salad.  Today, I made a large pot of what we call 'Grammie Soup'.  It's basically an Italian minestra (not to be confused with minestrone).  This week's box from Eatwell contained spinach, mustard greens, leeks, collard greens and kale, all good soup ingredients.  I added some broth leftover from our great haggis experiment as a base along with some mild Italian sausage, celery, onion, carrots and spaghetti broken into noodle size lengths.  A flavorful soup was the result.  We will be enjoying the soup with some homemade sourdough bread or a slice of rye topped with melted Jarlsburg cheese.

In the morning I had set up a soaker and wild yeast starter for 100% whole wheat sandwich bread from Peter Reinhart's Whole Grain Breads book.  After the soaker and starter sat at room temperature for about 6 hours, I finished building the bread dough using some freshly milled flour from my store of hard red winter wheatberries along with a cup and a half or so of Sonora wheat flour milled by Eatwell Farm.  The combination produced a fragrant loaf of whole wheat bread that rose well to fill the bread pan and has a light texture and crumb.  We love this bread in the morning, toasted and then topped with homemade preserves or orange marmalade (Seville oranges also thanks to Eatwell Farm).  A soft-boiled pastured egg from Eatwell rounds out the breakfast along with a cup of tea.

Simple foods but oh so nourishing because they are made with local ingredients at home in our own kitchen.  It also means we know what's in our food and from whence it comes. We appreciate the work that Nigel Walker and his farmers have put into growing the crops and caring for the chickens.

Thank you, Eatwell Farm.