This Week’s Menu

 
 

WHAT’S GROWING IN MY GARDEN THIS MONTH

We’ve been gone a lot this summer. Thanks to my handy husband and the installation of timers that water just the right amount each day, our gardens have been doing well and beginning to show signs of crazy days ahead when everything ripens at the same time! Not knowing how this summer would go, we planted what we thought would have the best chance of producing good amounts of food for winter soups. Most of which we plant every year, but this year we planted more of the tomatoes and peppers and less everyday foods like lettuce, spinach and greens. We have numerous rows of tomatoes that include heirloom Brandywine’s (pink, yellow and red), Romas, Early Girls, Striped Zebras, Pink Tie Dyes, cherry tomatoes, Black Krim and probably a couple more I can’t think of at the moment. As I always say, tomatoes are our garden gold and we make the most of them by making salsas, tomato jams, sauces for pasta, pizza and chili and we preserve a boat load for soups like Roasted Tomato Basil, Latin Inspired Tomato with Wild Rice, Minestrone with fresh organic basil pesto, Ginger Coconut Tomato to mention a few. We also have several rows of peppers such as poblanos, Serranos, Shishitos, hatch peppers, red and green bells, and jalapeños, lots of kale, chard, red and purple cabbage, zucchini, pole beans, yellow summer squash, butternut, acorn and delicata squash, rows of basil, parsley, tarragon, thyme, chives, mint and Thai basil. We’re on our third planting of broccoli and plan one more planting in the next week. We love broccoli and especially love Broccoli Cheddar Chive Soup in the fall and winter. It’s the absolute best for those first weeks of back-to-school meals or a side to a good crusty sour dough loaf!

Our cucumbers are coming now. We’ve battled the squirrels again this year and finally come up with a netting that covers the trellises and keeps them from eating all the baby cucumbers. I’m bound and determined to have pickles this year. So back off squirrels!

Other foods that we expect to harvest in the weeks to come are pears ~ our old tree produces so many! We always make a ginger pear jam with fresh turmeric and preserve hundreds of pears for our winter Roasted Butternut & Grilled Pear Soup (so good!), figs for jams, fall raspberries for cocktail shrubs and more jam, potatoes (blue, red and gold) and last but not least tomatillos that we use in our Chicken Pozole’, Smoked Ham and Green Chili Chowder and our Cuban Black Bean Soup with Chili RoastPulled Pork.
 
Feeling a craving coming on? Soup season is not that far away …

It’s kind of crazy around here mid-August through mid-October, as we try to keep up with the harvesting. But we love knowing where our food comes from, so all the work is worth every minute. There’s no better feeling than to have this food on hand when life throws you a curve ball and cooking seems impossible some days. Plus it enables the other people in this house to make a meal once in a while and gives us goods to joyfully share with our Soupers. 🙂

We’ll be back with more updates in the weeks to come. In the meantime, hit the rivers for fall floats, go to the farmer’s markets whenever you can, enjoy the best of the northwest weather and have fun! The fires are crazy right now, so please stay safe while enjoying it all. Cheers to August!!

 
 
Portland Metro Area Farmers Market for 2026:

 

NEED a SOUP GROUP?

If you do not see our menu in your inbox or you would like to join a Soup Group and receive our menu, please reach out to Josie at jrankinmarketing@comcast.net. When our menus arrive, please take a minute to read through the descriptions. Our team takes great pride in crafting each soup from scratch. Please take a moment to explore the descriptions of how we blend fresh herbs, nutrient-dense superfoods and proteins to craft deeply flavorful, delicious soups. And please don’t overlook our sipping broths ~ sip all summer long! This time of year we all need a little extra boost and these bone broth beverages will provide just what you need! Again, if you don’t see our menu in your inbox, please reach out to Josie at jrankinmarketing@comcast.net.

 

ENJOY A MEAL WITH SOMEONE THAT MAKES YOU SMILE.

EAT SOUP!  SIP BROTH!!

GROW FOOD!!

If you’re able, please do what you can for someone in need. Thank you.

 

Soups & Entrées

Please check your email inbox for pop-up menus. If you are not in a Soup Group and would like to receive our pop-up menus, please email Josie at jrankinmarketing@comcast.net. We will get you a group so you can get soups!

Sipping Broths

Our sipping broths are simmered for 36-48 hours with organic vegetables and aromatics. Studies show that the benefits of slow cooking bones are extensive and proven to offer a gamut of benefits that contribute to gut repair, boosting immune function, arthritis, osteoporosis, digestion, reducing high cholesterol, eliminating acid reflux, detoxification, reduction of inflammation, strengthening nails and hair, improving skin appearance and so much more. And while most people report a great boost in energy that could easily replace your daily java, additional benefits lie in the glycine extracted. Glycine is an inhibitory neurotransmitter, which means the broths can greatly help with relaxation and actually help improve sleep.