All year round food supply

If one is serious about providing one's own food, then one really has to work at it.  There is no point in growing a surplus of food in the easy times, during the summer, and then having to resort to the supermarket because the garden is  finished for the season once the days get shorter.  Food production must be planned so that there is something growing all year round.  Even though it is mid-winter now, we have still many vegetables ready to eat from the garden.  In the last two days we have harvested swede, beetroot, carrots, cauliflower, spinach and leeks.  We still have pumpkins left on the verandah and a large quantity of frozen vegetables.  If we ventured into the wettest part of our farm we would also be able to dig potatoes and Jerusalem artichokes.  Our onions were a flop last season so we are buying them but we intend to do better in the next season.  The garlic we planted on the shortest day 2013 was magnificent.  The elephant garlic (not really a garlic but related to the leek family) was as large as a man's fist.  We have planted our 2014 crop and still have plenty left.  We also have a (very) large quantity of frozen zucchini.  It is supposed to snow tonight so I have made soup this evening to take to work tomorrow for our lunches.

Zucchini and garlic soup (PdB)

1 T oil
1 chopped onion
4 - 10 cloves of garlic
1 kg of zucchini (or about 4 large ones)
a quarter of a cup of fresh herbs
1/2 t dried oregano
1 L stock (vegetable stock if you want to make a vegetarian version)

Depending on what else I am doing at the same time, I either gently sweat the onions and the garlic in the oil on the stove top, add the roughly chopped zucchini, the stock, most of the fresh herbs and the oregano and simmer for 45 minutes.  If I am busy I heat the oven to 180 deg C and mix the oil into the vegetables in a roasting dish and cook for 20 - 25 minutes until the zucchini is soft.  I then add the herbs (reserve a few) and the vegetables to the hot stock and simmer for a few minutes.

In either case, then blend with a hand blender or transfer to a blender and whiz.

Serve with croutons and a pinch of finely chopped fresh herbs or a few shreds of lemon rind.