My husband (known as Pop to his grandsons) is a book person. Always has been. Always will be. He has been reading books to his grandsons (as he did with his daughters) since they were very very young. He has a wonderful reading voice and even as infants they responded to him.
Our oldest grandson is five years old. Pop and he have been sharing longer (chapter books) more interesting stories. They’ve read many Enid Blyton books about the Famous Five and now they are reading Tove Jansson’s Moomin stories. The Moomins are a fairytale family of Finnish “trolls” who have adventures with their friends and neighbors in Moomin Valley. Everyone in our family now knows about Moomins.
My daughter, Moomin Reader’s mother, recently purchased the Moomin Cookbook. She and her sons have made pancakes, cocoa, and, most recently, Vegetable Patch Summer Soup. They went to the Collingswood Farmers’ Market and easily purchased all of the vegetables needed.
Ingredients:
2-3 carrots
4-6 potatoes
2/3 cup of sugar snap peas (in shells) or 1/4 cup fresh peas (not in shells)
1 small head of cauliflower cut into florets
2 Spring onions (optional)
1 turnip (optional)
2 cups water
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups whole milk
1 Tablespoon plain flour
1 Tablespoon butter
finely chopped chives, parsley, and dill
Directions:
- Rinse and roughly chop the vegetables.
- Measure the water into a saucepan. Bring it to a boil and add salt, carrots, peas, onion, and turnip (if using). Allow this to simmer for 3-4 minutes then add the potatoes and cauliflower florets. Simmer on low heat for 10 minutes or until the vegetables are almost soft.
- Cook the flour into the melted butter until it is a paste. Whisk the flour mixture into the milk and add this mixture to the soup.
- Simmer gently for a further 10 minutes. Make sure the soup does NOT BOIL
- Finely chop the fresh chives, parsley, and dill. Sprinkle the chopped herbs over the finished soup either in the saucepan or once it has been served into bowls.
The soup was a big hit. The children were a little skeptical about the fresh herbs…but they ate it quite happily…like their Moomin friends would!
Moominmama making soup!
Cauliflower and fresh dill from Muth Family Organic Farm|
Peas from Springdale Farm.
Viereck Farm sells sugar snap peas
Carrots from the AT Buzby CSA share
Potatoes from Savoie Organic Farm
Spring onion from Formisano Farm and Muth Family Organic Farm
Fresh herbs from Flaim Farm and/or Formisano Farm
yellow room upstairs 